NEW YORK — The NBA will not rush to any judgment in its investigation of whether a business relationship between veteran forward Kawhi Leonard and a California company was legitimate or merely a way for the Los Angeles Clippers to circumvent salary cap rules, league commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday.

Silver spoke after an NBA Board of Governors meeting in New York — one that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer attended — and said the league will wait to see the report from the outside firm it has hired to run its investigation before taking action.

“We’re constantly learning in the league office, and again, I’m reserving judgment because I don’t know the facts here,” Silver said. “I don’t know what Kawhi was paid. I don’t know what he did or didn’t do. We’ll leave all that for the investigation.”

The NBA opened its investigation last week into whether a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and sustainability services company Aspiration Fund Adviser, LLC — one that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year — broke league rules, following a report by journalist Pablo Torre.

The Clippers have strongly denied that any rules were broken and said they welcomed the league’s investigation.

“I think as a matter of fundamental fairness, I would be reluctant to act if there was a mere appearance of impropriety,” Silver said. “I think the goal of a full investigation is to find if there really was impropriety. … I would want anybody else in the situation that 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.”

Ballmer made a $50 million investment in Aspiration, and the company and the team announced a $300 million partnership in September 2021. That was about a month after Leonard, a two-time NBA Finals MVP signed a four-year, $176 million extension with the Clippers.

The team ended its relationship with Aspiration after two years, saying the contract was in default. Aspiration’s co-founder, Joseph Sanberg, agreed to plead guilty last month after facing federal charges of wire fraud. Prosecutors said he defrauded investors and lenders out of $248 million, adding that “Aspiration’s financial statements were inaccurate and reflected much higher revenue than the company in fact received.”

“I’m a big believer in due process and fairness and you need to now let the investigation run its course,” Silver said, adding that he has “very broad powers” when determining penalties if wrongdoing was found.

The league — which previously looked into claims that Leonard’s representatives asked for certain things that would be considered cap circumventions when he was a free agent several years ago — can issue stiff penalties if cap rules are found to have been broken by a team, including a fine of up to $7.5 million, the voiding of contracts and the forfeiture of future draft picks.

Statistical shakeup

NBA players can now fire up those end-of-quarter desperation shots from deep without their field-goal percentages being adversely affected.

The league has approved a change in the way statistics on those shots are recorded, which could spur players to take more heaves from very, very deep with hopes of a miracle make.

The rule change was tried out at official NBA Summer League competition in Las Vegas during July, as well as the smaller leagues that month in California and Utah

For stat-keeping purposes, the NBA will tell teams that any shot taken within the final three seconds of the first three quarters and is launched from at least 36 feet away on any play that starts in the backcourt will count as a team shot attempt — but not an individual one.

Many players have avoided taking the miracle 50-footer or deeper shot at the end of quarters to protect their personal shooting percentages. The league hopes the heave rule will fix that.

According to SportRadar, players last season made about 4% of shots taken in the final three seconds of the first three quarters of a game with the 36-foot minimum distance. Based on its tracking data, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry made four shots under those criteria last season and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic made three.

All-Star decision

Silver said he hopes to have the details on the upcoming 2025-26 season’s NBA All-Star Game —one that will have a U.S. versus the world format — finalized by the start of the regular season.

The AP and other outlets reported on Sept. 3 that the league is closing in on finalizing another new format for this season’s midseason exhibition, one where three eight-man teams — two from the U.S. and one composed of international players — would square off in a round-robin tournament.

Having 16 All-Stars from the U.S. and eight from other countries would be in line with the current breakdown of where NBA players are from; the league is about two-thirds American players, one-third international players.

“People have great memories of All-Star Games. It’s part of the fabric of this league, the excitement that comes from it and the engagement from our players,” Silver said. “So we want to fix it.”

The league has been heading in this direction for several months, especially after last season’s mini-tournament for NBA All-Star weekend — untimed games to 40 points, with four teams of eight players each — was a flop.

Silver has wanted a more competitive format for years. Nobody has been willing to play much in the way of defense in recent seasons — a 211-186 score in 2024 was the last straw there — so the league tried the tournament plan this past season.

Expansion discussion

Talks on how to proceed with a new NBA-backed league in Europe, in partnership with FIBA, are continuing, Silver said.

“I think our basketball people now are very engaged in how the competition will work,” Silver said. “Our lawyers are thinking hard on how we can take … a sort of cap-based system and revenue-sharing system with players and how we could apply that in a European framework.”

Silver also said the league’s governors got an update on domestic expansion plans. The NBA said in July that it was beginning the process of formally exploring adding to its current 30-team league, though there is no timetable for when that will happen.

Las Vegas and Seattle have long been believed to be major candidates for NBA expansion if the league formally decides to move forward.

NBA Cup change

The NBA Cup, which has had a neutral-site setup in Las Vegas for the semifinals and final of its in-season tournament — and will again this season — will be changing in 2026-27.

The league has decided that semifinals will be played at the home arena of the higher-seeded team in each conference starting that season. The title game, which doesn’t count on either team’s record,will be the only game played at a neutral site.

Challenge adjusted

The Board of Governors approved a change to coach’s challenges, starting this season.

During reviews following a challenge of an out-of-bounds violation, the replay center official — not the crew chief — “will determine whether a proximate foul should have been called,” the league said.

The NBA says the change will expedite review times.

Last season was the first when referees could determine whether a proximate foul should have been called on certain plays. The change was unanimously recommended by the competition committee and league office.