Clippers punishment far exceeds most salary cap, cheating scandals in other sports

The NBA hammered the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday afternoon, stripping the team of five first-round draft picks while fining owner Steve Ballmer $30 million and suspending him following an investigation into whether or not they were paying superstar Kawhi Leonard improperly under the league's salary cap. 

The investigation had been one of the biggest stories in the NBA this summer, and even held up Leonard's trade to the Toronto Raptors. Now that it is complete and the punishment has been handed down, it is a staggering penalty that could send the Clippers organization into the dark ages given the loss of draft picks.

It is an extremely heavy-handed punishment, and it needed to be from the NBA given the league's salary cap. 

Now that we have seen how heavy that punishment is, let's compare it to some other punishments across other sports for improper transactions, salary-cap manipulation or other scandals.

The Minnesota Timberwolves received a Joe Smith punishment

This is probably the closest punishment handed out by any sports league, and it also came from the NBA.

The Timberwolves also lost five first-round picks, as well as receiving a $3.5 million fine, for reaching an illegal, secret agreement with Smith in 1999 that promised him a long-term contract after Smith had played three seasons in Minnesota. 

The Timberwolves ended up taking the case to arbitration, but it was ruled that then-NBA Commissioner David Stern did not overstep his bounds in handing out the punishment. The NBA later gave Minnesota two of its first-round picks back.

No NFL team has ever lost more than one first-round pick in punishment

The NFL has stripped teams of draft picks for a variety of scandals, but it has never taken away more than one first-round pick in a single punishment. The New England Patriots, however, have lost one first-round pick on more than one occasion.

The Patriots were stripped of first-round picks in 2008 (Spygate) and 2015 (Deflategate). The Patriots also received small fines (relatively speaking) of $250,000 and $1 million for the Spygate and Deflategate scandals, respectively. 

Quarterback Tom Brady also received a four-game suspension for his role in the Deflategate scandal. The Miami Dolphins lost their 2023 first-round pick due to tampering violations by owner Stephen Ross over several seasons, including his attempts to lure Brady to the Dolphins while he was still under contract with another team. Ross was also suspended for a year and fined $1.5 million. 

MLB took away multiple draft picks from the Houston Astros for the sign-stealing scandal

The Houston Astros lost their first- and second-round picks in both 2020 and 2021 for the sign-stealing scandal that helped them become a powerhouse in the American League. It's a little different than some of the other scandals here because it was an on-the-field cheating scandal, but also the type of thing a lot of other teams were already involved in. They were just more brazen about it and happened to be the team that was caught. 

NHL initially took away first-round picks, but later returned them

The NHL has always stripped teams of first-round picks, with the most notable example being the Ilya Kovalchuk situation with the New Jersey Devils. The NHL stripped the Devils of a first-round pick and fined the organization for signing Kovalchuk to a 17-year contract that it said circumvented the salary cap. 

The NHL, however, eventually allowed the Devils to keep all of their first-round picks. It was a similar situation when the league stripped the Ottawa Senators of a first-round pick for not disclosing a no-trade clause that Evgenii Dadonov had in his contract when they moved him to the Vegas Golden Knights in 2021. 

But instead of taking away the draft pick, the NHL made Ottawa pick 32nd overall (the last pick) in the 2026 first round and did not allow it to trade the pick.