{"id":806576,"date":"2026-08-08T07:54:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/806576\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:54:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:54:21","slug":"stephen-a-smith-calls-for-harsh-nba-punishment-including-year-long-ban-for-kawhi-leonard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/806576\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith calls for harsh NBA punishment including ‘year-long ban’ for Kawhi Leonard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Pablo Torre reported on yet another potential salary cap circumvention move by Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers. Stephen A. Smith thinks that if it\u2019s real, the NBA should be ruthless.<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard was supposed to be back with the Toronto Raptors by now. The only thing that\u2019s stopped him is the ongoing NBA investigation into his time with the Los Angeles Clippers. <\/p>\n

Pablo Torre reported in 2025 that Leonard and the franchise had tried to circumvent the league\u2019s salary cap. The claim is that they did so by getting him bogus sponsorship money through Aspiration. <\/p>\n

Torre added to that this week, with a report suggesting that this same thing had also happened with another team sponsor, Daktronics. It\u2019s no surprise that the NBA world is starting to lose its patience. <\/p>\n

\"KawhiPhoto by Tanner Pearson\/Clarkson Creative\/Getty ImagesStephen A. Smith lists four punishments for Kawhi, Clippers if NBA finds them guilty<\/p>\n

While the entire scandal has stayed in the headlines, a resolution to the league\u2019s investigation is not expected until 2027. But if it does result in a guilty verdict, Stephen A. Smith has suggested what needs to happen.<\/p>\n

Smith isn\u2019t exactly known for having moderate opinions, and he\u2019s come out all guns blazing on this topic. The ESPN talking head is of the opinion that any punishments should be severe. <\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith believes the NBA should NUKE Kawhi Leonard & the Clippers if the allegations are true:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Void Kawhi\u2019s contract
\u2022 Ban Kawhi from playing next season
\u2022 Strip draft picks from the Clippers
\u2022 Ban Steve Ballmer from attending games<\/p>\n

h\/t @TheNBABase<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 NBARetweet (@RTNBA) August 7, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n

View Tweet<\/p>\n

\u201cBottom line is this,\u201d Stephen A. said. \u201cIf this is true, if you\u2019re the NBA, you vaporise the contract of Kawhi Leonard. And in the same breath, not only do you do that, you suspend him. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou suspend him and don\u2019t allow him to play for at least a year. You confiscate draft picks from the Clippers, but you also suspend Steve Ballmer from attending the games.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE STEPHEN A. SMITH STORIES<\/p>\n

Build your 2010s NBA Mount Rushmore now! \ud83c\udfd4\ufe0f\ud83c\udfc0 <\/p>\n

We’ve made our picks, but maybe you disagree? Let us know why \ud83d\udc47<\/p>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n

Smith went on to claim that the league will be forced to take measures like this because of how harsh other punishments have been in recent times. <\/p>\n

While it is unlikely that the NBPA will let a year-long ban on Kawhi playing ever happen, it will be hard to defend the star should the allegations be proven true. The situation is continuing to grow murkier. <\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n

Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Pablo Torre reported on yet another potential salary cap circumvention move by Kawhi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,529,135,6,681,2603,680,476,3820],"class_list":["post-806576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-raptors","tag-basketball","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-nba","tag-raptors","tag-stephen-a-smith","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-torontoraptors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117058815165898396","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}