When the NBA announced the findings and penalties from the investigation into the Clippers’ alleged salary cap circumvention for star forward Kawhi Leonard, the summary report prepared by Wachtell Lipton had a clear statement toward the end of the 36-page report.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank and President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker were the three individuals most responsible for the Clippers’ rule-breaking.
Ballmer’s punishment: a one-year suspension from all league and team activities, in addition to his franchise being fined $30 million for “knowingly seeking to help” Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities, approving a business deal that he knew was a “precondition for Aspiration” to enter an endorsement deal with Leonard and for failing “to create conditions under which his organization abided by the NBA’s circumvention rules.”
Frank’s punishment: a six-month suspension for his involvement with the “impermissible endorsement arrangements” and approving Leonard’s and his family’s “impermissible expenses.”
And Zucker’s punishment: a one-year suspension for being “primarily and directly culpable for the impermissible endorsement arrangements” and for “providing false and misleading statements to investigators.”
The nature of Zucker’s suspension — twice as long as Frank’s — and the frequency in which she was in the report put her at the center of the Clippers’ scandal in which the investigation concluded the Clippers violated the league’s rules by “initiating off-court income opportunities” for Leonard with four different companies that did business with the team.
Zucker’s name was mentioned in the summary report more times (57) than Ballmer’s (32) and Frank’s (22) combined.
The report stated Zucker was the most involved from the Clippers’ side in facilitating the endorsement deals for Leonard with Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance.
“Ms. Zucker was the point person on all four deals between these companies and the Clippers, and directly initiated, facilitated, and induced each of Mr. Leonard’s endorsement agreements with those companies,” the report stated. “Ms. Zucker acted on Mr. [Dennis] Robertson’s demands to help Mr. Leonard achieve lucrative endorsement opportunities, and when interviewed, she made misleading and false statements to investigators about her and the Clippers’ role in doing so.”
Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO, and Frank, a former NBA head/assistant coach who’s been a Clippers executive for a decade, have been household names within Clippers fandom.
But who is Zucker?
Before joining the Clippers in 2014, Zucker was a longtime auto racing executive, having previously served as the president of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana for nine years (2005-14).
She was previously Daytona International Speedway’s vice president of business and development and a former Triple-A baseball assistant general manager.
Zucker joined the Clippers in November 2014 as Ballmer’s first major hire after he purchased the franchise earlier that year.
“I am extremely happy to add a leader like Gillian to our team,” Ballmer said in a 2014 statement. “Her clear and creative business vision, innovative approach to marketing and experience working in the Los Angeles sports market make her the perfect fit to lead the Clippers during this transcendent time.”
Less than a year later, the Clippers were fined $250,000 for violating the league’s cap circumvention rules when the franchise tried facilitating an endorsement deal between DeAndre Jordan — a top free agent they were hoping to re-sign — and an incoming team sponsor.
The Athletic reported Zucker came up with the idea at the time.
And nearly a decade later, Zucker’s name was in the spotlight for her role in the franchise’s latest scandal, which according to the report, included Zucker writing phony introductory emails to show that the companies requested to meet with Leonard (the report states the Clippers started the deals to increase Leonard’s off-court earnings), suggesting that Daktronics’ “spend back” deal with the Clippers could be satisfied with an endorsement deal with Leonard and lying about her and the franchise’s involvement in Leonard’s endorsement deals.
