NBA Commissioner Addresses Clippers, Kawhi Leonard Allegations

NBA commissioner Adam Silver suggested Wednesday that a league investigation would need to uncover substantial evidence linking the Los Angeles Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer to deals worth up to $48 million between Kawhi Leonard and former team sponsor Aspiration in order for Silver to penalize the Clippers.

“The burden is on the league if we’re going to discipline a team, an owner, a player or any constituent members of the league,” Silver said during his annual news conference at the conclusion of the NBA’s board of governors meetings in midtown Manhattan.

“I think as with any process that requires a fundamental sense of fairness, the burden should be on the party that is, in essence, bringing those charges.”

NBA Might Not Punish Clippers Without Substantial Evidence

Silver also told reporters after the meeting that he would be “reluctant to act” without concrete proof. He said the league needs to look “at the totality of the evidence” rather than just “mere appearance.”

“Just by the way those words read, I think as a matter of fundamental fairness, I would be reluctant to act if there was sort of a mere appearance of impropriety. … I think that the goal of a full investigation is to find out if there really was impropriety,” Silver added.

“Also, in a public-facing sport, the public at times reaches conclusions that later turn out to be completely false. I’d want anybody else in the situation Mr. Ballmer is in now, or Kawhi Leonard for that matter, to be treated the same way I would want to be treated if people were making allegations against me.”

Kawhi Leonard, Clippers Allegedly Circumvented Salary Cap

The NBA has already launched its investigation into whether Ballmer and the Clippers violated league rules since Leonard accepted a $28 million endorsement for a “no-show job” from Aspiration, a now-bankrupt tree-planting company in which Ballmer had invested.

The allegations surfaced last week when an unnamed employee who reportedly worked for Aspiration told podcaster Pablo Torre that the payment to Leonard “was to circumvent the salary cap.”

According to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, although there will be a thorough investigation of the matter by New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, “there is no set deadline to find a conclusion.”

Silver reiterated Wednesday that he has “very broad powers in these situations,” and it is unclear whether the Clippers must now prove their innocence, or if the burden of proof is instead on the NBA to find wrongdoing.