Billionaire owner Steve Ballmer has apologized for his role in an effort by the Los Angeles Clippers to circumvent the NBA's salary cap by funneling money to star player Kawhi Leonard through endorsement opportunities. "This has been a very difficult time for everybody associated with the Clippers, and for that, I have sincere regrets,"…
Page S2From§Eachthe noon edition — 14 September 2026
Ballmer apologizes, Clippers accept $30 million fine confirming the league's own cap-circumvention scheme.
Hot Mic Moment
This reporter has sat through enough league investigations to recognize the architecture when he sees it — sham deals, shell arrangements, money moved sideways to dodge a rule everyone agreed to follow. The NBA at least writes the rule down and enforces it against its own. The Federal Election Commission does not require that same disclosure from a 501(c)(4); since Citizens United v. FEC in 2010, political money moves through nonprofits with no donor named, no salary cap, no fine. Somebody send this reporter to the political desk.
Gushis side
Steve Ballmer stood before the assembled press this week and did the one thing no owner enjoys doing more than losing money: he apologized. The Clippers, this reporter is prepared to state with confidence, accepted a $20 million fine for paying Kawhi Leonard too much, too cleverly.
This reporter finds it fitting that a franchise capable of dodging a salary cap could not, in the end, dodge the arithmetic — the league's own investigation, and its own fine, closing the loop the Clippers opened when they went looking for Kawhi Leonard's signature back in the day.
Kawhi Leonard himself, the recipient of these "off-court income opportunities," as the league so delicately termed them, escaped with a fine this reporter clocks at roughly $2 million — a rounding error for a man of his earning power.
What strikes this reporter most is the tidiness of it all: the league investigates itself, finds itself guilty, fines itself, and the guilty party says sorry — a closed loop, gals, that would make any accountant proud.
Trudyher side
Twenty's a nice round number, sugar, but the receipts say thirty. The Hill has Ballmer apologizing as the Clippers accept a $30 million salary cap circumvention fine, filed September 14th.
The loop closes with real numbers: five first-round picks gone, 2029 through 2033, plus a one-year suspension for Ballmer — all confirmed by the league's investigation and reported the same week by ESPN and the Post.
Leonard's fine is $700,000, not two million — the New York Post ran the number the same week. Go lie down a minute, hon, before you invent a third figure.
It's not "gals," it's the whole sport, and the loop you're describing has a name — self-regulation — and it's exactly how the league wanted this to end: Ballmer keeps the team, Leonard keeps the money, the fine's a rounding error against either man's net worth.
That's not a hot mic, that's a civics lesson, and you're not wrong — the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling opened the door for unlimited independent spending through groups that don't disclose their donors.
“The league caught its own team gaming the pay rules to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard, then fined itself thirty million and called it a day. Leonard's own cut of that fine is seven hundred grand, pocket change against endorsement deals the league itself called a sham. Ballmer keeps the team, Leonard keeps the money, and everybody else's ticket price covers the difference.”
“Look, this is the system working exactly as designed — the league investigated itself, found the violation, and levied the maximum penalty on the books, that's accountability. Sure, thirty million sounds like a lot until you remember Ballmer's net worth, but — did I say that? That's not the point I'm supposed to make. The point is the Clippers accepted responsibility, full stop, and that's more than you get from most organizations.”
The receipts
· Bill Simmons in disbelief of Clippers, Steve Ballmer hitting ‘new rock bottom’ from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· In basketball, the NBA announces the results of its investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers' signing of star player Kawhi Leonard in 2022. The league determines that the Clippers violated the leag from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Inside the ‘ruse’ of the Clippers’, Kawhi Leonard business deals from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· In basketball, the NBA announces that the Los Angeles Clippers had violated the league salary cap by signing Kawhi Leonard in 2022 via a series of external dealings. Penalties include fines of US$30 m from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.