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LAS VEGAS There might finally be a resolution in sight for the LA Clippers, Kawhi Leonard and the NBAs investigation into whether the team circumvented the cap through the stars $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he is hopeful the league will provide a resolution by the end of the summer.
Advertisement Silver said Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the law firm the league hired to conduct the investigation, has finished that portion of the process and is sifting through the information it has gathered and making its conclusions.
The league hired Wachtell Lipton in September, and the investigation is in its 11th month.
The investigation has grown in scope since it began, according to multiple sources who spoke to The Athletic on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely.
Wachtell Lipton has also looked into whether the Clippers improperly covered expenses for Leonard but were not reimbursed for them and has examined whether Leonard had a previously unreported endorsement deal with another company, those sources said.
The NBA must still present its conclusions to the Clippers, and the collective bargaining agreement spells out that the league must present its findings to an arbitrator who will rule on any punishment the league might want to impose, if the NBA decides one is warranted.
Still, Silver is confident everything will be wrapped up by the start of the 2026-27 season.
Yes, I would say this can be wrapped up and needs to be wrapped up before next season, he said at a news conference Tuesday night on the concourse of the Thomas & Mack Center.
The Toronto Raptors are waiting for the league to announce its findings as well.
They agreed to trade for Leonard in June, but that put that deal on ice until the NBA makes a ruling.
The teams agreed to the deal June 30, but the Clippers said in a statement they have since been informed (by the NBA) that the trade can only be finalized if the Raptors ownership group assumes the risk of penalties related to Kawhis contract that could theoretically result from the ongoing investigation.
The Raptors said in a statement they remain eager to make the trade.
Advertisement The Clippers have consistently denied they circumvented the cap, and team owner Steve Ballmer has said he was the victim of fraud by Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg.
If the NBA finds there was a violation of the CBA, it can fine the Clippers millions of dollars, strip them of first-round picks, penalize Ballmer and even void Leonards contract.
That gave the Raptors a measure of risk if they acquired Leonard before the results were made known.
Silver, however, contested that the NBA did not notify the teams soon enough of that.
The league did not pause the trade, he said.
The parties to the trade made a decision not to go forward given that the investigation remained open, and any possible impact on Kawhi or his contract was yet to be known.
And so, they chose not to live with that uncertainty, but that was well known before the trade was proposed.
I dont think there was any reason for people to believe that the status of Kawhi Leonard would change merely because he was traded.
The investigation needs to run its course.
Silver has received updates on the investigation.
He said the leagues top lawyer gets nearly daily updates on whom Wachtell Lipton has interviewed and what it has found, and Silver is notified regularly.
Trail Blazers future in question? The Portland Trail Blazers remain in a stalemate with local officials to get funding to renovate their arena.
The team is looking for $600 million to finance a renovation to the Moda Center but has faced resistance from some city officials.
Silver was asked whether the team would stay in Portland if the Blazers were able to obtain that money but did not commit to anything.
There is some trepidation in Portland that the Blazers could leave the city they have played in since 1970.
New Blazers owner Tom Dundon has refused to pay for the renovation, and Portlands mayor said last month negotiations were not making the progress he wanted.
Advertisement Silver visited the city in March after the states legislature approved part of the money needed for the arena and met with local politicians.
He met with Dundon and the Blazers ownership group in Las Vegas this week.
What we are most focused on right now, in the league office, is the deal that we discussed when we were in Portland in March.
I was hoping more progress would have been made by now on that agreement.
It seems to have gone off track in various ways ..
but were working with both sides to ensure that the Trail Blazers can have a long-term future in Portland.
But there are several open issues that still need to be resolved.
Expansion updates The NBA continues to explore expansion in Las Vegas and Seattle, but Silver continues to say the league could add anywhere from zero to two teams.
Still, he seemed optimistic a team could end up in Sin City.
A number of suitors have shown interest in bringing an expansion franchise to the city.
Las Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley has publicly expressed his desire to do so, as have groups that include Magic Johnson, Jerry Colangelo and Bob Iger.
The NBA is looking for $7 billion to $10 billion in an expansion fee for the franchise and might get a number of bidders.
I really appreciate what were seeing so far, and so its very encouraging, Silver said.
No votes have been taken yet.
Weve got a ways to go still in terms of those discussions with interested parties, but Im optimistic about the future here.
Only one potential bidder has popped up so far for a team in Seattle Samantha Holloway, the owner of the NHLs Seattle Kraken.
Holloway has taken steps to pursue a franchise and has added Melinda French Gates as a minority investor in the hockey team.
Silver said most of the interested groups have not gone public with their intent.
He also said he believes the NBA is on track to finalize the expansion process by the end of the calendar year.
Advertisement Broadcast booth upgrades on the horizon? The NBA anticipates launching a centralized local team broadcast for the 2027-28 season, Silver said, as it navigates a rocky local broadcast situation.
Main Street Sports Group, which broadcast games locally for 13 NBA teams, stopped operations at the end of this season.
That has left teams looking to a combination of over-the-air and streaming options to get on screens this upcoming season.
Silver said the NBA will piecemeal a solution for the 2026-27 season and launch a local League Pass the next year, as it has long planned to do.
It will look to sell the collective local rights for a number of teams.
Well cobble together a series of solutions for this season, but I feel good that well have something on a national basis for the following year, Silver said.
NBA Europe bids coming in Silver said the NBA has received multiple bids in each European city in which it hopes to have a franchise when it begins its NBA Europe league.
He said the league will weigh them but has not made any binding decisions yet.
The NBA plans to finalize the bids over the next few weeks and then make announcements.
The league is set to launch in October 2027.
Recently, The Athletic reported the NBA hired former Chicago Bulls president Arturas Karnisovas as a consultant for the league.