NBA needed a smoking gun on Kawhi Leonard
Page S2From§Eachthe early bird edition — 15 September 2026
NBA clears Kawhi Leonard of suspension in salary-cap scheme still under federal investigation
Hot Mic Moment
This reporter has had it up to his hairline with a league office adjudicating a case a federal probe hasn't finished — the NBA's fines, the picks, the suspension, all of it landed before the government's investigation into the identical transaction reached any conclusion. That is not vindication; that is a league grading its own homework before a federal probe of the same deal has concluded. Somebody get me the political desk — self-regulation ahead of an unresolved federal investigation is the arrangement, and this reporter would like it named as such on the record.
Gushis side
This reporter is prepared to declare Kawhi Leonard exonerated. Shams Charania, reporting today, details precisely why the National Basketball Association lifted Leonard's suspension — the same suspension the league handed down, this reporter recalls distinctly, when the cap-circumvention findings landed. Vindication, total and complete.
The dollar figures alone settle it. The Clippers absorbed a franchise-record $700 million fine for the cap violation — real money, this reporter notes, even for an ownership group worth billions.
This reporter has reviewed the summary report prepared by Wachtell Lipton, the compliance firm the league brought in after Leonard signed with the Clippers back in 2019, and the document is unambiguous about who sat at the center of the arrangement.
The report names three executives at the center of it: Ballmer, President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank, and the Clippers' President of Business — a clear statement toward the end of the 36-page summary report prepared by Wachtell Lipton, this reporter is told.
As for the Clippers-Raptors trade that sent Leonard west, the Post's own headline — "Where the Clippers-Raptors, Kawhi Leonard trade stands amidst federal investigation" — tells this reporter everything: past tense, settled, filed.
Trudyher side
Gus, sugar, you've got your Clippers mixed up. The league's own September 1st findings hand the one-year suspension to owner Steve Ballmer — Leonard's penalty was a $700,000 fine, full stop. Man's never been suspended a day over this.
Try $30 million on the franchise, sugar — the $700,000 belongs to Leonard. And the number that actually stings is the one you skipped: no first-round picks for the Clippers in 2029 through 2033, five straight drafts, straight from the league's own September findings.
2022, Gus. The league's own investigation — the one you just quoted fines from — says Leonard signed with the Clippers in 2022. Wachtell Lipton wrote the report; it didn't rewrite the calendar.
That report's the reason the trade question everybody's asking hasn't gone away — those three names carry the compliance file the government inherited.
Sugar, "stands" is present tense, and "amidst" means right now. The Post ran that headline September 11th because the trade's status is still an open question — the federal investigation hasn't closed. Time for your nap, Gus.
Nobody's grading homework, Gus, but you stumbled onto the actual point. The NBA closed its case September 1st with the fines and Ballmer's suspension; the federal investigation into that same 2022 deal remained open as of the Post's September 11th report — the league moved on before the government did.
“The league fined the team, benched the owner a year, and called the case closed — meanwhile the federal government's still going through the same paperwork on the same deal. That's not a coincidence, that's a league finishing its own review fast so it can call the story over before anyone else does. Leonard walks, the picks are gone till 2033, and the people who actually decide if a crime happened are still working the file.”
“Look, the league conducted a rigorous, independent review — Wachtell Lipton, top firm, thirty-six pages, that's due diligence, that's the system working. Did the federal government also open an investigation into the exact same 2022 deal? Sure, but that's routine, unrelated, nothing to see — wait, why would they look at something the league already cleared? Did I say "cleared"? I meant "reviewed." Forget I said any of that.”
The receipts
· 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
· 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
· Where the Clippers-Raptors, Kawhi Leonard trade stands amidst federal investigation from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· Who’s Clippers executive at center of Kawhi Leonard scandal? from the morgue, 8 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.