OverDrive - Murray on Clippers and Leonard's punishments, the cap circumvention and the fines for the team

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

NBA Writer for The Athletic Law Murray joined OverDrive to discuss the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard's punishments in the cap circumvention investigations, losing five first-round picks and a fine of $30 million, the significance for the Clippers, Steve Ballmer's position in the investigation, the ripple effect for the Raptors and more.

There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellair direct.com. Let's bring in Law Murray, NBA writer for The Athletic Base at LA. Law, how's it going today? Man, I'm glad I had a very quiet afternoon, you know what I'm saying? You weren't gearing up for this. Is that what you're telling us?

You didn't expect this one to come down on September 2nd, random Wednesday afternoon at, what was it, like, four, 20, 22? Man, I was telling people, Friday news dump was going to be this Friday. I cleared my schedule for this Friday. But I also put a story up this morning, and I had a post for social media. I was like, you know, it's September, and my boss hit me a year ago on this day to let me know that I might, want to get up at 2 o'clock in the morning Pacific to watch

this podcast that the athletic had just acquired the licensing rights to, okay? That was a year ago today. So, I haven't been in this state of, I wonder if today is going to be today for quite some time, and today wind up being the day. That is how I'm feeling since you

asked. So what do you make of the punishments now that we know? 30 million dollar fine to the Clippers, five first round picks and a suspension to Steve Ballmer and a couple other executives. What do you make of that punishment for the Clippers? Honestly, it is the kind of punishment that immediately makes you recall what happened to the Minnesota Timberwolves just over a quarter century ago. like the harshest punishments were for the executives.

And now we kind of just wait and see when the dust settles and people emerge to facilitate the business that needs to be facilitated to get this season started. And that is the trade of Kauai going back to Toronto, Brandon Ingram coming to the L.A. Kliber, Gary Dick, coming to the L.A. Clipper. Gary Dick coming to the LA Clippers. Those first round picks, I wonder what changes. But when you look at what happened with Kauai, I feel like the National Basketball Players Association, they were adamant that a contract won't be voided.

They were adamant that nothing should happen to Kauai that compromises Kauai. And when you look and see, that is really what went down. Like, you won't see. three executives for at least half a year, two for a year, one being Steve Bomber, they took the brunt of this. The embarrassment is all on the Clippers. But for Coah Leonard, $700,000, maybe the Toronto Raptors, not suggesting they circumvent the cap, but he's got a contract and extension due. I think they might take care of that. That's a good point, Law. Hey, La, I wanted to ask you, you know, the last we heard from the Clippers,

and the thing we heard from the Clippers throughout this saga of salary cap circumvention accusations was they didn't do anything wrong and all of these accusations were provably false. We haven't seen a statement from them since these penalties were doled out by the NBA. What's your sense of the situation, though? Are these penalties something they're going to sit with and potentially appeal? or do you see them just, you know, taking it on the chin from Adam Silver gracefully and moving on with their lives? Well, it doesn't sound like, well, previously it didn't sound like the clipperies were interested in accepting anything related to a punishment.

They said for the entire time that they were innocent, that they would be, that the facts would show that. They did nothing wrong specifically as an organization. I feel like they didn't defend Kauai as much, and I didn't see Uncle Dennis around the entire year after seeing Dennis around quite a bit prior to last season. Again, I'm a Clippers beat rider. I've been on the road with them, I've been at home with them, I've been on camp with them.

Things were different last year, right? I wonder, though, how that will go because, I mean, I can see there being some pushback or something, see if you can get a first round pickback, see if you can reduce some suspensions. But I feel like this is going to stick. And I think the biggest thing is there is that story that was kind of floated by another outlet a few weeks ago. and the story suggested that the Clippers would be in the clear. I don't know what that looks like today because that obviously is not the case. So I wonder what the fallout will look like, but overall, I'm looking at some pretty detailed punishments here,

and I don't see how the Clippers brain trust gets out of it. So, like, what do you think was negotiating? because there was the report that a couple of weeks ago the NBA was negotiating with Balmer and his lawyers about, you know, what the final punishment would be. I guess this is what we are to assume is what is the agreed upon punishment from both sides? Is that what you believe? Or, like, is, you know, there's something, something else that possibly could have went AWOL here? man I look at it right now as this is this is the kind of punishment where you just got to have this you just kind of have to take it I mean and I really just feel like you're dealing with the you're dealing with the lead and you're dealing with the public and when you're presented these findings I just feel like what more can you can you do if you're to clippers except for to accept this.

We're going to learn over there. I mean, we're just getting this report this afternoon. And I imagine we'll learn more about next steps, the fallout to the fallout, if you will. But I don't get the sense that the Klipper's organization was going to be in a spot where they could really, really fight this. You know, we're at the point where this is what we see. this is what's out.

And so you can go through arbitration, but I didn't really see much in this report. I didn't see anything in the punishment to suggest that arbitration is going to be something that is on the table here. So, La, when you look at the Kauai era... And if I may, if I may, I just got a statement from the clippers

saying that they reject these they reject this punishment and they will fight. Okay. Okay. So this wasn't the negotiated settlement after all, I guess, is what that means. That's exactly what that means. They are, yeah, they came out firing.

Wow. That's what we got. So does that put the trade influx then? I guess that would put, if they're going, they're going to try and settle. Is it, well, is that two separate entities? The Kauai is he his own entity to fight it, along with the clifax? Clippers? Like, how does that work? Do you know? Well, Kauai is a clipper

until this trade happens. Like, he's a raptor in terms of where he's at in his heart. Oh, let me tell you, though, this is, this, this is,

this is complicated because we're going through so much right now as far as, like, who is saying what and what sustainability does it have. I mean, so when it comes to Kauai, like, Kauai just wants this to be done, right?

But Kauai also just got the easiest circumstances out of everybody. Figure out $700,000 outgoing. Like, this is for everybody else involved. This is like, you know, how do you deal with this? Well, it sounds like you're going to be dealing with it for a while longer, law because I'm reading the statement that you just talked about and basically the statement says what the league told us privately differs from what it announced today publicly and they have not held themselves close to the standard commissioner silver set at the start of this investigation

to ensure its fairness and accuracy. So law, I think there's going to be a lot more salary cap circumvention gate in your future. Keep your Saturday clear after all. Keep your Friday. Friday clear after all. Friday. I don't know. what you'll do north of the border. We call it Friday news dump. Yeah. We got it a day early.

That does not mean there will not be future proffney news dumps. We couldn't have a trade Friday. Who knows? Anyway, yeah, I'm going to have a very busy night, so I appreciate you talking about it. Absolutely. Thank you for joining us on short notice to react to the news. La, appreciate it, and we'll do it again soon. All right.

Thank you. La Murray, NBA writer for The Athletic. The music you love. I heart radio. Your favorite radio stations. Everywhere you go. The podcasts, everyone's talking about. All in one place.

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