If the NBA doles out a punishment for the Clippers over Pablo Torre's Kawhi Leonard report, expect it to be a strict one.
In the wake of Torre's bombshell report, the NBA is doing their due diligence on the matter and currently investigating the case, Shams Charania reported Wednesday. SI's Chris Mannix noted that the punishment for the Clippers and Leonard could be quite severe, as several execs around the league have told him.
NBA officials are furious about these allegations, a source familiar with the league office told SI.
Added a Western Conference general manager, “Bad for them. Very bad. The NBA will be pissed about this. If it’s true, the punishment will be worse than what happened in Minnesota with Joe Smith.”
Torre claimed on his podcast that the Clippers helped facilitate an endorsement deal between Leonard and a fraudulent environmental start-up called Aspiration that "circumvented the NBA salary cap." Per Torre's reporting, Aspiration—which was financially backed by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer—signed Leonard to a four-year, $28 million deal in 2022 for a "no-show job" that allowed Leonard to pocket that money ($7 million a year) outside of the league's salary cap restrictions.
It's exactly as bad as it sounds, and the NBA is understandably not happy about Torre pulling back the curtain and revealing his incriminating findings. Expect more details from the league's investigation into the Clippers to come out soon.
More NBA on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as NBA Furious With Clippers Over Kawhi Leonard Allegations.
