Commissar Adam Silver said during a press conference on Tuesday after a meeting of the Board of Governors that the fines imposed on Clippers and Kawhi Leonard with respect to bypassing the salary cap are “final” and will not be changed, Brian Lewis of the New York Post tweets
“Discipline is final… I don’t think it would be appropriate to take you back and forth with the Players Association,” Silver said. “I met directly with Kawhi recently. I think we all agree it’s time to move forward.”
The Clippers had five future first-round picks revoked and were fined $30 million. In addition, the owner Steve Ballmer, president of business operations Jillian Zucker and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank were suspended and the team’s organization and personnel were essentially placed on probation for the next five years. Leonard, whose trade to the Raptors was completed was fined $700,000 on Monday, but not suspended.
A seemingly mild punishment for Leonardo was criticized in many circles. Ballmer announced on Sunday he will accept his one-year suspension and will not pursue legal action regarding the league’s punishment.
Lewis, Silver believes the franchise will still be able to produce a competitive product despite the fines tweets
“I don’t think we’ve done permanent damage to this franchise in any way,” he said. “There’s no doubt it’s a setback for the team. … The ultimate goal of this type of sanction is to make sure other teams don’t engage in this type of behavior in the future.”
However, Silver also said he sympathizes with the team’s fans, Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press writes.
“I think in some ways that’s the hardest part of dealing with these disputes,” Silver said. “While there should be competitive consequences, in our view, if those rules are broken, we still want to be a 30-team league, and we recognize that in some ways, unfortunately, we’re also punishing the fans of that team.”
The Clippers did not send a representative to the two-day BOG meetings. That’s because they’re still in the process of appointing a governor for the upcoming season if Ballmer is suspended, The Athletic’s Mike Vornukov tweets.
“This person also needs to be checked” Silver added.
The Clippers are still the subject of a A Justice Department investigation as a result of their association with Leonard.
