Los Angeles Clippers Deny NBA’s Findings, Planning “Vigorous” Fight To Prove Innocence

Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn ImagesThe Los Angeles Clippers just received a massive blow today following the NBA’s ruling on the cap circumvention investigation. After a year-long search for the truth, the league has reached a conclusion, and the Clippers have been marked as guilty. Rather than a light punishment as some suspected (including the Clippers themselves), Adam Silver came down hard, stripping five first-round picks from the team to go along with a $30 million fine. Team owner Steve Ballmer (along with other team executives) also received a personal ban for his role in the illegal payout scheme.

>For their part, the Clippers have been denying guilt from the start, and they never expected to be facing such massive penalties. In their first statement since the ruling, they announced they’d be challenging the NBA’s findings, citing a major difference between what they were privately told and what has officially transpired today.

class="p1">“We vehemently reject the NBA’s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence,” wrote the Clippers in a statement. “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. For the past year, we cooperated fully and in good faith, and we will now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence. We intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward to an ethical and impartial arbitration process.”

>Ballmer always claimed that he and the Clippers were victims of fraud, and nothing more, but the mounting evidence says otherwise. Clippers owners and executives were tied to several secret, exclusive endorsement deals with Kawhi, which paid him millions outside the cap with no strings attached. For the NBA commissioner, it was a clear violation of the rules, and he believes the punishment fits the severity of the crime.

>“I am deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers’ institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct,” wrote NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.”

>The Clippers clearly are not pleased with the results of this investigation, but their options for opposing the ruling are limited. Without help from the NBPA (which apparently already approved the findings), there’s not really much the team can do to fight or challenge the penalties.

>“According to a source with knowledge, there is no appeal/arbitration process for the Clippers to pursue with the NBA,” reported Dan Woike. “It’s not a right teams have. The NBPA could’ve pursued arbitration, but it accepted findings and punishments. They’d need relief elsewhere.”

>In the end, the Clippers are learning the hard way what lines not to cross. As much as they wanted Kawhi, the circumstances of his arrival will haunt them for many years to come. Unless they pull off some miracle and convince the NBA to lighten the punishment, the Clippers are facing a potential setback of several years and will now serve as the example of what happens when catering to athletes goes too far.