NBA-гийн мөрдөн шалгах ажиллагаагаар Кавай Леонардын бизнесийн менежер асан Деннис Робертсон цалингийн хязгаарлалтын дүрмийг зөрчсөн нь тогтоогдсон тул түүнийг лигийн бүх багтай харилцах эрхийг таван жилээр түдгэлзүүлжээ.
Лос Анжелес Клипперс баг нь ирээдүйн таван жилийн драфтын нэгдүгээр тойргийн эрхээ алдаж, 30 сая ам.долларын торгууль төлөхөөр болсон бөгөөд багийн эзэн Стив Балмер, ерөнхийлөгч Лоуренс Франк, бизнесийн үйл ажиллагаа хариуцсан ерөнхийлөгч Гиллиан Зукер нар тодорхой хугацаагаар түдгэлзүүлэгдлээ. Мөрдөн байцаалтын дүгнэлтэд дурдсанаар, Робертсон 2019 оноос хойш багийн удирдлагуудад Кавай Леонардын төлөө нэмэлт төлбөр, санхүүгийн боломж олгохыг шаардсаар ирсэн байна.
Тус баг Робертсоны хууль бус хүсэлтийг хүлээн авч, зохицуулалт хийхэд оролцсон нь тогтоогдсон бөгөөд үүнд 2020 оны зургадугаар сард гурван компанитай бизнесийн холбоо тогтоож, 18 сая ам.долларын төлбөр олгосон зэрэг асуудлууд багтаж байна. Түүнчлэн 2021 онд байгуулсан 48 сая ам.долларын үнийн дүн бүхий ивээн тэтгэгчийн гэрээ болон Кавай Леонардын хувийн зардлыг баг төлсөн нь NBA-гийн цалингийн хязгаарлалтын дүрмийг зөрчсөн гэж үзжээ.
Кавай Леонард шинэ агентаараа дамжуулан гаргасан мэдэгдэлдээ өөрийн ойр дотны хүмүүсийн гаргасан алдааны хариуцлагыг бүрэн хүлээж байгаагаа илэрхийлсэн байна. Харин Лос Анжелес Клипперс лигийн зүгээс тавьсан буруутгалыг эрс үгүйсгэж, бүхий л боломжит аргаар эсэргүүцэхээ мэдэгдлээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
The ink on the contract was dry. The brazen requests for wild, off-court payments, jets, even pieces of team ownership, had all been rebuffed.
But within the first few months of star forward Kawhi Leonard’s first deal with the LA Clippers, Dennis Robertson — aka Uncle Dennis — refused to be told “no.” He was known to have asked the Clippers and other potential suitors, like the Lakers and Raptors, for exorbitant, improper extra benefits for himself and his nephew during the latter’s free agency in 2019, to the point of triggering a league investigation. By the time Leonard was being fitted for his No. 2 Clippers jersey, Robertson wanted an extra $10 million per year in income for his nephew and demanded assistance from the Clippers in getting it, which violates the NBA’s salary-cap rules.
Because of that dogged insistence from Robertson, who was Leonard’s business manager until this summer, and the Clippers’ alleged willingness to make sure Leonard got paid, the NBA said Tuesday that Robertson was banned from engaging with any team — on behalf of any player, coach or other employee — for five years.
The league also said Leonard, with Robertson acting on his behalf, violated the circumvention rules by pressuring the Clippers to assist him in obtaining off-court income opportunities, successfully obtaining those opportunities and failing to reimburse the Clippers for personal expenses.
The Clippers, who were penalized by the loss of five future first-round draft picks, a $30 million fine and suspensions of varying lengths for team owner Steve Ballmer, team president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank and president of business operations Gillian Zucker, were accused of failing to report Robertson’s illegal requests and for facilitating them.
In a statement released through his new agent Harrison Gaines, who was not accused of wrongdoing, Leonard said, “I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle” and that he had “no knowledge of any intent on anyone’s part to circumvent the salary cap.”
The Clippers vigorously denied the NBA’s charges and swore to challenge them by any means available to them. Robertson could not immediately be reached for comment.
As part of the stunning, 36-page summary of a nearly year-long investigation by white shoe law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz — hired by the NBA to investigate allegations of cap circumvention by the Clippers on Leonard’s behalf — Robertson is accused of pressing top team officials for the extra payments for years, from the start of Leonard’s first contract in 2019 until after he signed his extension in 2021.
The Kawhi Saga: What the NBA’s investigation into the Clippers revealed
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Investigators said Robertson made those demands to Frank, Zucker and Ballmer, the team’s owner.
In April of 2020, with the NBA and much of civilization on planet Earth limited by COVID-19, Robertson, according to notes kept by Frank and obtained by the law firm, allegedly complained to Ballmer and to Frank that Zucker “was making introductions” for “bulls— deals,” and that “I [Mr. Robertson] cant [sic] wait on [Ms. Zucker] — I have to get paid.”
League rules prohibit team officials from making introductions for players to business partners for separate financial arrangements between the player and the outside company.
According to the Wachtell report of its findings, Ballmer told Robertson that “he and Clippers’ personnel were all ‘collective workers to try to help [Mr. Leonard] achieve his financial goals,’ and Ms. Zucker assured Mr. Robertson that Mr. Ballmer would ‘follow through on his promise.’”
The Wachtell report also said Robertson wanted a plan from the Clippers for introductions to five or six companies within the next three to six months and wanted Zucker to communicate more frequently with him on her plans to help Leonard get paid by outside companies.
Zucker delivered. In six days in June of 2020, with the world still largely shut down during the pandemic and just two months after Robertson’s demand for a plan, she made a series of email introductions for Robertson to executives at three companies currently negotiating business deals with the Clippers. They were Boingo, a wireless company, scoreboard maker Daktronics, and Lockton, an insurance broker looking to insure the Clippers’ new arena. On the same day she sent one of the emails, Robertson and Leonard created “KL2 LBS LLC,” a limited liability company in which Robertson and Leonard were the only two members.
The three firms eventually paid KLD $18 million over the next year, even though none of their partnerships with Leonard were announced, nor was Leonard required to do almost any work for any of the firms, the league’s investigators said.
Then, in 2021, after Leonard signed a contract extension to remain with the Clippers, Robertson and Zucker worked to cultivate an endorsement deal for Leonard and Aspiration, a now-bankrupt environmental firm that was a major Clippers team sponsor. That deal, worth $48 million, was hatched through repeated interactions between Robertson, Zucker and Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg. When the seemingly separate arrangement between the Clippers and Aspiration began to crumble in 2022, Sanberg told company and Clippers officials he would tell “Dennis and Kawhi” their deal was off because the Clippers were not paying Aspiration separately.
When Aspiration began to fall on hard times and payments to Leonard were missed, Robertson turned up the heat on the environmental firm and the Clippers so Leonard would be paid, according to previous reporting by The Athletic and other media outlets. Leonard did receive a few payments from Aspiration, but not until Clippers minority owner Dennis J. Wong and Ballmer infused more cash into Aspiration’s coffers.
Investigators also said the Clippers paid out an undisclosed sum to cover improper expenses for Leonard and Robertson, citing “hundreds of instances in which the team paid for personal air and ground travel, accommodations, gifts, and tickets without then properly deducting the amounts of these expenditures from Mr. Leonard’s pay (as it was required to do by CBA rules).”
Frank signed off on those payments for Leonard and Robertson, investigators said.
