The Los Angeles Clippers were hit with massive penalties after the NBA concluded its investigation into the team’s alleged salary-cap circumvention.
The Clippers lost five future first-round draft picks, were fined $30 million, and owner Steve Ballmer was banned from team and league activities for a year.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst appeared on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt on Wednesday night to discuss the punishment that was handed down to the Clippers. Windhorst seemed unsurprised by the verdict, given what the report said.
“There was, to use a legal term, a preponderance of evidence in this report,” Windhorst said. “It was very compelling. There may not have been a direct smoking gun, but reading through this, it was incredibly thorough, and frankly, Scott, incredibly damning. I think that if you were on a jury and this evidence could be proven to be accurate, I think you would convict.”
Windhorst added that since the Clippers were repeat offenders, it made sense that commissioner Adam Silver didn’t hold back when assessing penalties against the franchise.
“It says it right in the NBA’s release: they have been guilty of this exact thing before. They were guilty of salary cap circumvention in 2015. They were investigated in 2019 with Kawhi Leonard and were cleared, but were very severely warned about this exact thing. So not only was it severe, but also they were a repeat offender, and you get the proverbial book thrown at you.”
“There may not have been a direct smoking gun, but reading through this it was incredibly thorough and frankly … incredibly damning.”
—@WindhorstESPN joins @notthefakeSVP to break down the NBA’s findings in it’s investigation into the Clippers 🏀 pic.twitter.com/tzj3Tqw2xq
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 3, 2026
Even with what Windhorst calls an “incredibly damning” case against the Clippers, the severity of the punishment is still rather impressive. ESPN’s Michael Wilbon expressed shock that the league went as far as they did against Ballmer, the richest owner in the NBA.
“Steve Ballmer is so essential to the league’s big business initiatives, and by big, I mean domestic and international expansion,” Wilbon said. “That is why largely I didn’t see the richest owner in the NBA, as you know, getting any big hit. It’s not what I thought they would find. It’s that I thought they could find anything and they wouldn’t do anything about it. So it’s a surprise to me, and it’s a big hit.”
The allegations of cap circumvention were first raised by former ESPNer-turned-podcaster Pablo Torre, who reported the story last year on his podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out. The NBA announced its investigation shortly after, and Torre continued to follow up with more reports through this month.
Just two weeks ago, ESPN’s top NBA insiders reported that the league had not found evidence to use against the Clippers during its investigation, casting doubt on Torre’s reporting. After the league announced its punishment on Wednesday, Torre took a victory lap.