Clippers state that NBA inquiry is not influencing the team’s choices.
As the LA Clippers await the outcome of the NBA’s inquiry into Kawhi Leonard and a California firm with which he had an endorsement agreement, the organization asserts that the impending ruling has not influenced “anything that we do.”
This includes a couple of somewhat unexpected trades last week that resulted in James Harden moving to Cleveland and Ivica Zubac heading to Indiana.
“We haven’t gained any new information beyond what we had in September,” Lawrence Frank, president of basketball operations, remarked regarding the investigation on Monday. “We are aware it’s ongoing, and at some point, a decision will be reached. We firmly believe the same thing we communicated back in September, that we are on the right side of this. It truly does not affect our daily operations.”
Last September, journalist Pablo Torre reported that the Clippers breached the NBA’s salary cap regulations through a $28 million endorsement deal involving Leonard and a now-defunct California-based sustainability services firm known as Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC. Leonard has refuted any allegations of misconduct, stating he did not receive the full amount owed from the company, and the Clippers have also categorically denied any rule violations.
This season has been unusual for the Clippers, who started with a record of 6-21 but have recently climbed the standings, winning 19 of their last 25 games leading up to Tuesday night’s matchup against Houston. During this winning streak, the Clippers opted to trade Harden and Zubac—an action Frank noted was not initially planned until Cleveland expressed interest in Harden and Indiana made a “Godfather-type offer” for Zubac.
In return for Harden, the Clippers acquired Darius Garland along with two first-round draft picks, and they received fourth-year wing Bennedict Mathurin for Zubac.
Zubac, who joined the Clippers after coming from the Los Angeles Lakers, developed with the team, achieving career highs last season and establishing himself as one of the league’s premier defensive big men as the longest-tenured active player on the roster.
The night before Zubac’s trade, Frank informed him that a team “was getting very, very aggressive” in their pursuit. Simultaneously, Frank expressed a hope that they would not meet the Clippers’ criteria for completing the trade.
Ultimately, the Pacers did meet that threshold. Zubac reached out to inquire if he could still visit the Clippers’ practice facility. His final visit turned into a six-to-eight-hour farewell, with teammates, coaches, staff, and business operations personnel bidding him goodbye.
“There were a lot of tears,” Frank stated on Monday. “It’s difficult because we all recognize what Zu means to us.”
Adding a personal touch was the fact that Zubac’s wife had recently given birth to their first child.
“None of us felt right. He’s a special guy,” Frank remarked, highlighting Zubac’s ability to communicate honestly with his teammates during challenging times and accept accountability when others shifted blame.
Meanwhile, Harden and the Clippers had discussed the team’s outlook for the next few years. At 36, Harden had played significant minutes while leading the team during periods when Leonard was sidelined. Trading him for Garland—who is a decade younger than Harden—was a strategy for the Clippers to “win now and still get younger,” according to Frank.
Frank mentioned that Leonard was “hurt and disappointed” by the trades of Harden and Zubac, especially as the team seemed to be finding its rhythm midway through the season, but he added that Leonard has been “a great partner” throughout this process.
“He understands that to maintain sustainability, tough decisions must be made,” Frank stated.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
