While the Los Angeles Clippers continue to await the results of the NBA’s investigation into Kawhi Leonard and a California company with which it had an endorsement deal, the team maintains the impending decision had no impact on “anything we do.”
This includes two somewhat surprising trades last week that sent James Harden in Cleveland and Ivica Zubac in Indiana.
“We haven’t learned anything more than September,” president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said Monday of the investigation. “We know it’s all there, we know at some point a decision will be made. We feel the same way we told you in September, that we’re on the right side. It really has no impact on what we do on a day-to-day basis.”
Last September, a report from journalist Pablo Torre claimed that the Clippers violated NBA salary cap rules through a $28 million endorsement deal between Leonard and a now-bankrupt California-based sustainability services company called Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC. Leonard has denied any wrongdoing, saying he did not receive all the money he was owed from the company, and the Clippers have also strongly denied breaking any rules.
It’s been a strange season for the Clippers, who started the year 6-21 but have recently been climbing the standings, winning 19 of their last 25 games heading into Tuesday night’s game against Houston. Midway through the winning streak, the Clippers decided to move Harden and Zubac — something Frank said wasn’t originally planned until Cleveland called asking for Harden and Indiana sent a “godfather-type offer” for Zubac.
The Clippers received Garland of Darius in exchange for Harden and two first-round picks as well as a fourth-year winger Bénédict Mathurin for Zubac.
Zubac grew up with the Clippers after arriving from Los Angeles Lakers. He set career highs last season and became one of the league’s best defensive players as the team’s longest-tenured active player.
The night before the Zubac trade, Frank told him a team was “getting very, very aggressive” in pursuing him. At the same time, Frank said he was “kind of hoping they wouldn’t reach” the Clippers’ threshold to make the deal.
In the end, the Pacers did it. Zubac called to ask if he could still come to the Clippers practice facility. His final visit turned into a six- to eight-hour love fest, with teammates, coaches, staff and business operations employees saying goodbye.
“There were a lot of tears,” Frank said Monday. “It’s difficult because we all know what Zu means to us.”
To make things more personal, Zubac’s wife had just given birth to their first child.
“None of us felt good. He’s a special guy,” Frank said, citing Zubac’s ability to tell his teammates the truth in difficult times and take responsibility when others pointed fingers.
Harden and the Clippers, meanwhile, had talked about what the next few years would look like for the team. At 36 years old, Harden had logged big minutes carrying the team during periods when Leonard was injured. Trading him for Garland — who is 10 years younger than Harden — was a way for the Clippers to “win now and get even younger,” according to Frank.
Frank said Leonard was “hurt and disappointed” that the Clippers traded Harden and Zubac when they appeared to have righted the ship midway through the season, but added that he had been “a great partner” through it.
“He understands that to be sustainable you have to make some really, really tough decisions,” Frank said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
