Sports · Friday, 4 September 2026

01 Briefing what happened

A podcast started the investigation. Five years on, the NBA used every punishment it had.

Sports 1 min 48 sources

The NBA fined the Los Angeles Clippers $30m, took five draft picks and suspended their owner for hiding money paid to Kawhi Leonard. Every penalty was the largest the rulebook allows, and it was a podcast, not the league, that turned the scheme up.

$7.5m x 4

the biggest fine allowed for one cap breach, charged four times over

counting the four sponsor deals as four separate breaches was the only way past the ceiling [2]

5 of 5

future first-round draft picks taken from the Clippers, out of five they still owned outright

their 2027 and 2028 picks were already traded away, so there was nothing more to take [1]

$700,000

repaid by Kawhi Leonard, who received tens of millions off the books

the league and the players' union agreed the sum, which closed the case without an arbitrator [1][3]

5 years

between the first hidden payment and the league finding out about it

the payments ran from 2020, and the inquiry began in 2025 after a podcast published its own report [1][3]

The lead story — what happened

The NBA fined the Los Angeles Clippers $30m, took five future draft picks and suspended the club's owner for a year. [2][4]
A salary cap limits what a club may pay its players. Paying a player extra through a sponsor's endorsement deal gets around it, and the NBA bans that. [2]
Investigators say the Clippers steered four companies into paying their star forward Kawhi Leonard for endorsements he barely worked on, between 2020 and 2022. [1][2]
In one case the club is accused of routing money out of a scoreboard supplier's contract for its new arena into a deal for Leonard, and setting the terms itself. [2]
About $18m reached Leonard off the books around the season the Clippers reached the conference finals, the only time in the club's history. [1]
The club was required to tell the league the moment Leonard's agent asked for illegal side benefits in 2019. It did not. [1]
The league did not turn the scheme up itself. A podcast report by the journalist Pablo Torre spurred the investigation a year ago. [1][3][4]
Every penalty was set at the maximum the rulebook allows. The largest fine for one breach is $7.5m, so the league counted four breaches and charged it four times. [2]
Five first-round draft picks were taken, for 2029 to 2033, which was every pick the club still owned outright. A year is the longest an owner can be suspended. [1]
Leonard paid the league $700,000 and keeps his $51m contract for this season. The last big case of this kind, in 2000, cost that player an $86m contract, because his side deal was written down. [1][3]
The Clippers reject the findings, call the inquiry a witch hunt and say they will use every legal remedy. There is no appeal inside the league. [4]
The two clubs the Clippers knocked out in 2021 get nothing. The league's agreement with its players has no line that pays anything back to a beaten team. [1]

Who is involved

Adam Silver

the commissioner of the NBA, North America's biggest basketball league; he chose the penalties from a fixed list [1]
Steve Ballmer

the former Microsoft chief executive who owns the Clippers; suspended for a year, the longest allowed [1][2]
Kawhi Leonard

the Clippers' star forward, twice a most valuable player; he repaid $700,000 and kept his contract [1][3]
Dennis Robertson

Leonard's agent at the time, and his uncle; banned from NBA business for five years [1]
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz

the New York law firm the league hired; it wrote the 35-page report the penalties rest on [1]

What is pushing on this

Pressure from the other 29 owners High→

they lost games to a club paying its player $18m off the books [1]

What the rulebook allows High→

every available penalty was already at its ceiling [1][2]

The Clippers' fight Building↑

the club rejects the findings and says it will go outside the league [4]

The league's own eyesight Easing→

a payment from a sponsor to a player is invisible to it unless the club reports it [1]

How it unfolded

2019 Leonard's agent asks the Clippers for side benefits; the club is required to tell the league and does not [1]
2020-2022 four companies sign endorsement deals with Leonard, with money traced back to the club [1][2]
2025 a podcast publishes its own investigation; the league opens one of its own [1][3]
Wednesday a $30m fine, five draft picks and three suspensions, all at the maximum [2][4]
Next the Clippers look for a court, because the league has no appeal for a club [4]

Where this points

Watch whether the Clippers actually file in court: the league and the players' union have signed the penalties off as final, so any challenge has to start outside basketball altogether. [4]

The rest of the day

39 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

02
Court clears ex-professionals to play college football

A judge in Louisiana granted an injunction on Thursday letting two former Ole Miss players who had spent August in NFL training camps join LSU instead. [5] They are among 42 athletes suing the NCAA, which runs US college sport, for a fifth season. [5][6]

Why it matters — College eligibility is now settled in courtrooms one athlete at a time, and the SEC says it will obey the order while fighting it. [6]
03
The SEC names its price for a 24-team playoff

Greg Sankey, who runs the SEC, told the other US college football commissioners his conference needs a shared scheduling standard before it will back a 24-team playoff. [7] The Big Ten, the only other conference with a veto, says it is comfortable with the standard: ten games a season against major opponents. [8]

Why it matters — The thing being asked for is not in the playoff at all. It changes what every conference has to schedule.
04
Playoff rules change for a fourth year

This is the fourth season running in which no two College Football Playoff formats have matched. [9] Under this year's rules last season's field would have been different, and would have left out Miami, who reached the final. [9]

Why it matters — A selection rule only works if teams can plan against it, and this one has not stood still long enough.
05
An insurer hedged a coach's bonus on a betting market

An insurance company spent $662,050 on 837,500 contracts on the prediction market Kalshi in 72 seconds, taking a position that pays $3m if LSU win the national title. [10] That is the exact sum LSU owes its coach Lane Kiffin in playoff bonuses. [10]

Why it matters — A market built for gamblers is now being used as insurance by the people who owe the prize money.
06
The NBA nears its own betting-market deals

The NBA has circulated a proposal to prediction-market firms and has deal terms on the table, with announcements expected before the season starts. [11] Kalshi, Polymarket, Novig, Fanatics and a Robinhood joint venture are all in the talks. [11]

Why it matters — Every big US league is picking a partner in a business that courts have not finished defining.
07
Everton's owners look for investors

The Friedkin Group, which owns Everton, is expected to open a process that could sell a minority stake in the Premier League club. [12] It follows a window in which Everton sold about 100m pounds of players and signed one, leaving 18 senior outfield players. [12]

Why it matters — Supporters' groups say the cost of the summer shows in the squad, not the accounts.
08
Kretinsky takes 46% of West Ham

Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech businessman who owns Britain's Royal Mail, agreed a deal to hold 46% of West Ham and become its largest shareholder. [13] It ends Amanda Staveley's attempt to buy Vanessa Gold's stake, because the existing directors held first refusal. [13]

Why it matters — A clause about who gets asked first, not a price, decided who owns the club.
09
Hugh Jackman in talks over Norwich

The actor Hugh Jackman said he is talking now about buying a stake in Norwich City, an English second-tier club, having turned down the same chance in 2010. [14]

Why it matters — Wrexham's three straight promotions under Ryan Reynolds turned celebrity ownership into something other people copy.
10
Colleges leave private-equity money untouched

Private equity firms have put a credit line of up to $30m in front of every school in the Big 12 conference, and so far not one university has drawn on it. [15]

Why it matters — Schools short of cash are still weighing what an outside owner would eventually want back.
11
Arsenal's record sale goes to Saudi Arabia

Al-Hilal signed Arsenal's Gabriel Martinelli for $81m, all guaranteed, with Arsenal keeping a share of any future sale. [16] It beats Arsenal's old record sale, 35m pounds for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain nine years ago. [16]

Why it matters — The Saudi club wrote in a clause that works as a release price for European buyers, so the move may not be the end of it.
12
Liverpool spend 250m pounds

Liverpool spent about 250m pounds, including 123m on Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain and 34.5m on Victor Munoz from Osasuna. [17] They signed no full-back and no midfielder, which supporters had asked for. [17]

Why it matters — The squad now depends on three players coming back from long injuries.
13
Manchester United end the window a left-back short

Manchester United start the season with Luke Shaw as their only senior specialist left-back, after a late attempt to borrow Rayan Ait-Nouri from Manchester City fell through. [18] The club is waiting for Newcastle's Lewis Hall next summer instead. [18]

Why it matters — Choosing to wait a year is a spending decision as much as a signing is.
14
The Premier League swaps its spending rule

Profit and sustainability rules are gone. Clubs may now spend up to 85% of their revenue on players and head coaches, a limit called the squad cost ratio. [19] Fourteen clubs voted for it, the bare minimum needed, and six voted against. [19]

Why it matters — Several club executives told The Athletic that tying spending to revenue widens the gap between rich and poor clubs rather than closing it. [19]
15
NWSL players fight a boot rule

The NWSL, the top US women's football league, now makes boot makers other than Nike pay the league to have their logo seen on the field, believed to be at least $100,000 plus $5,000 for each player they sponsor. [20] Kansas City's Michelle Cooper has been disciplined for wearing New Balance boots, which have no such deal. [20]

Why it matters — Small brands designing boots for women's feet cannot pay the entry fee, so their work stays off the pitch. [20]
16
Athletes Unlimited pauses two sports

Athletes Unlimited has stopped running its basketball and volleyball leagues to put its money into softball, where Major League Baseball invested an eight-figure sum last year. [21] Its chief executive said MLB did not ask for the change. [21]

Why it matters — Growth in women's sport is not spread evenly; it concentrates wherever a big backer has already arrived.
17
Unrivaled takes games on the road

Unrivaled, the three-a-side women's basketball league, will play regular-season games at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on 22 January, and plans four times as many away venues as last season. [22]

Why it matters — A league that played its whole first season in one Florida town is testing whether the crowds travel.
18
Women's pro baseball after one month

The Women's Professional Baseball League opened to a sellout of more than 4,000 in Springfield, Illinois, and attendance has fallen sharply since. [23] The four-team league started play on 1 August. [24]

Why it matters — An opening night sells itself; the second month is the number that tells you whether a league exists.
19
New women's leagues keep launching

Money is going into new professional softball, baseball, volleyball and basketball leagues in the United States, and television audiences are following it. [24] More leagues has also meant more jobs coaching women's teams. [24]

Why it matters — The bottleneck in women's sport was never the number of players willing to play.
20
One fund is buying women's football

Monarch Collective, a $250m fund set up in 2023 that invests only in women's sport, now holds stakes in four football clubs on two continents plus a WNBA team. [25] Its co-founder helped start Angel City, which sold 16,000 season tickets before playing a game. [25]

Why it matters — Its bet is that the audience was already there and the surrounding business was not.
21
Manchester United promise their women's team money

Eva Olid, Manchester United's new women's head coach, says the owners told her they want to invest, in what the club describes as a sustainable model built on younger players. [26] Her predecessor left last month after asking publicly for more. [26]

Why it matters — Jim Ratcliffe, who holds 29% of the club and runs its football side, has been criticised before for saying his focus was the men's team. [26]
22
Targeting punishment is softened

In US college football a first targeting foul, called for a dangerous hit to the head or neck, no longer carries a suspension into the following game. [27] Pass interference enforcement and unsportsmanlike conduct rules also changed this season. [27]

Why it matters — The penalty was severe enough that officials had grown reluctant to call it, which is the opposite of what it was for.
23
The college football calendar moves

An NCAA committee has approved pushing Week 1 earlier, along with a shorter transfer portal window and changes to off-season activity rules. [28] This is the last season the current Week 0 exemptions will work, which is how eight games are being played five days early. [29]

Why it matters — Games abroad and the Hawaii exception exist only because of a date in the rulebook, and the date is moving.
24
Australia asks for three-point dunks

Australia's NBL has asked the sport's rule-makers to let it trial giving three points for a dunk and four for a shot from the halfway line. [30] Basketball Australia has passed the request to FIBA, the world governing body. [30]

Why it matters — The leagues with least to lose are where a sport's rules get tested.
25
Manchester United broke a kit rule

Manchester United played their opening match with the Premier League badge on one sleeve and nothing on the other, which the league's handbook does not allow. [31] Their sleeve sponsor's deal had ended, and the rule says the league badge must fill the empty sleeve. [31]

Why it matters — The league's handbook carries 29 separate rules on kit and player identification. [31]
26
India's cricket board promises rest

India's board says its next fixture programme will build in proper rest, after Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana and Washington Sundar all broke down. [32] An official noted the squad had played two months of the IPL before the tour. [32]

Why it matters — The calendar is set years ahead by the people who sell the matches, and the bodies playing them are not consulted.
27
A Detroit executive defends signing injured players

Brad Holmes, who builds the Detroit Lions' roster, was asked why so many of his signings have injury histories and said any player can break down at any time. [33] He said the job is to have a replacement ready. [33]

Why it matters — If a market marks players down for past injuries, buying them is a discount, provided you can carry the risk.
28
Las Vegas votes public money for stadium upgrades

The Las Vegas Stadium Authority approved $75m of public money towards a $158m upgrade to Allegiant Stadium, where the Las Vegas Raiders play. [34]

Why it matters — The public share of a stadium does not stop at the opening; upgrades come back for more.
29
A $225m locker room at USC

USC opened a $225m football building with more than 100 reclining chairs, an in-house barbershop and hot and cold therapy pools. [35] The team had been dressing in the basement of a shared sports centre and crossing a road to practise. [35]

Why it matters — Now that US college players can be paid, buildings are one of the few things a school can still offer that a rival cannot match instantly.
30
The NFL negotiates an Olympic release

The NFL and its players' union are working out the terms on which players could play flag football at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. [36] Club owners approved the idea last year, subject to agreement on pitch surfaces, medical care and the schedule. [36]

Why it matters — An employer letting its staff go and play for someone else needs every risk written down first.
31
The NFL plays its first game in Australia

The San Francisco 49ers meet the Los Angeles Rams at the Melbourne Cricket Ground next week, the first of nine NFL games abroad this season, with a first game in France to follow. [37] Owners approved going to ten last year, and reporting says they would like sixteen. [37]

Why it matters — Each added away game has to be bargained with the players' union, because it is their travel.
32
An HBCU conference sells its media rights

The CIAA, a conference of historically Black colleges, signed a media rights deal with Urban Edge Network that covers football and some basketball. [38] The network pays for the rights and also shares advertising revenue back with the conference and its member schools. [38]

Why it matters — Sharing the advertising, rather than paying a flat fee, is unusual, and it is what a smaller conference can bargain for.
33
The Big Ten TV deal at halfway

Eight of last season's ten highest-rated US college football games involved Big Ten teams, and Indiana's championship win drew 30.1 million viewers. [39] That was, at the time, the highest-rated non-NFL sporting event since the deciding game of the 2016 World Series. [39]

Why it matters — The conference's television money was agreed before those numbers existed, which is why the next negotiation matters more than this one.
34
A player sues over a betting ban

Roy Alexander, a former Texas Tech receiver, is suing the NCAA over his suspension for betting. [40] He admits betting from 2023 to 2025, mostly under $12 a time and never on his own teams, and argues the punishment does not fit. [40]

Why it matters — The rule treats all betting the same, and the courts are being asked whether it should.
35
A quarterback's gambling case on film

Brendan Sorsby, who bet at least $90,000 while a college player including on his own team, speaks publicly for the first time in a documentary out on Friday. [41] He won an injunction restoring his eligibility, then left the team anyway after the Big 12 threatened to bar Texas Tech from its championship game. [41][42]

Why it matters — He won the legal argument and still could not play, because the punishment moved to the club around him.
36
Manager turnover breaks the models

Guardian analysis found 22 of the past 50 Premier League managers to leave their job lasted under a year, and 110 matches this season will feature two coaches appointed in 2026. [43]

Why it matters — Predicting a match on how the two clubs have played each other assumes the same people are in charge.
37
Two NBA clubs find new screens

The Cleveland Cavaliers announced a new television deal after 36 years of regional sports channels ended with the last one shutting down. [44] The Orlando Magic moved to the streaming service DAZN at $19.99 a month, with some games still free over the air on local stations. [45]

Why it matters — The regional sports channel that used to carry a club is disappearing, and the replacement is usually something the fan pays for separately.
38
Investors buy sport to escape AI

Venture capital firms are putting money into sports teams, landmark property and children's toys, looking for businesses that artificial intelligence cannot replace. [46]

Why it matters — A club's value now rests partly on being the kind of thing a machine cannot do.
39
The sale a court approved, not the league

Mark Walter bought the Los Angeles Dodgers for $2.15bn in 2012 through a bankruptcy court, not the usual league vetting. [47] Two people briefed on ownership matters told The Athletic his bid would probably have been rejected by Major League Baseball's normal process. [47]

Why it matters — A league's power to choose its owners only works while it controls the process, and a court took that away.
40
Denver's first women's team fills a stadium

Denver Summit, Colorado's first professional women's football team, played its opening home match this season in front of 63,000 people at Mile Stadium. [48] Its captain, Janine Sonis, grew up in the city. [48]

Why it matters — The team is in its debut season, and the crowd arrived before any results did.

02 Lesson why it matters

When almost nobody gets caught, the one who does pays for everyone

A rule nobody can check catches almost no one, so the rare case it does catch has to be punished as if it were all of them.

The twist

When a rule catches almost nobody, the person it does catch has to be punished as if they were everybody, because that one penalty is carrying all the deterrence.

How it works

A league bans paying a player outside the salary cap
But it cannot see money moving from a sponsor to a player
So the rule asks the club to report it when an agent asks
The only party who can raise the alarm gains from silence
Years pass, and an outsider finds it instead
So the one case that surfaces is punished at every maximum at once

Where you've seen this

Tax

a few audits, and enormous penalties on the ones that land

Train tickets

one inspector a month, and a penalty fare many times the ticket

Drug testing

a small share of athletes tested, and a four-year ban for the ones caught

School exams

cheating is rarely spotted, and expulsion is the answer when it is

The catch

A punishment sized for a whole class lands on one name, and much of it is paid later by people who were not there: the Clippers lose picks from 2029 to 2033, when today's executives will be gone.

And the whole of it

Everyone here was reading the same list. Adam Silver picked from penalties written years before this happened. The Clippers weighed the same list when they decided the risk was worth it. Rival executives who knew said nothing, because telling the league meant opening their own arrangements to it. And the two teams knocked out in 2021 are not on the list at all. Most of us live under a schedule of consequences somebody wrote before our case existed, checked rarely, and enforced hard on whoever happens to be found.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

The NBA's cap rule depends on clubs reporting themselves, so it catches almost nothing, and maximum penalties are what a league reaches for when it knows that.

Why it works on us — The size of the punishment does the work the detection cannot, and a very large number reads as proof that the system was watching all along.

Who gains

The other 29 NBA clubs — A rival is short five drafts of first-round talent, and its owner and two executives are out for months. [1][2]
Kawhi Leonard — He repaid $700,000 out of tens of millions and kept his $51m contract, because nothing on paper tied the endorsements to his signing. [1][3]
The Toronto Raptors — The trade for Leonard that the investigation held up is still expected to go through. [3][4]
Nike — The NWSL now makes every other boot brand pay the league before its logo may be seen on the field, and Nike is the league's own sponsor. [20]
DAZN and the streaming services — Clubs whose regional television channels shut down are moving to subscriptions the fan pays for on top. [44][45]

Who pays

Whoever is playing for the Clippers in 2029 — The forfeited picks run from 2029 to 2033, so the cost lands on a squad that has not been built and executives who have not been hired. [1][2]
The Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz — They lost to the Clippers in 2021 while about $18m was reaching Leonard off the books, and the league's agreement has no way to repay a beaten team. [1]
Small boot makers — The NWSL's entry fee is believed to start at $100,000, which brands designing for women's feet cannot pay, so their boots stay off the pitch. [20]
Brendan Sorsby — He won a court order restoring his eligibility and stepped away from Texas Tech anyway, after the Big 12 threatened to bar the school from its championship game. [41][42]
Everton's squad — The club sold about 100m pounds of players and signed one, and starts the season with 18 senior outfield players. [12]

What nobody knows yet

Open questions from across today’s stories — ours included.

01

Whether the Clippers can challenge the penalties anywhere.

The league and the players' union signed an agreement calling them final and binding, and reporting says there is nothing in the NBA's rules allowing a club to appeal, so any case would have to start in a court. [4]
02

How much money reached Kawhi Leonard in total.

The report describes four endorsement deals across 2020 to 2022 and one figure of about $18m around 2021. No total has been published. [1][2]
03

Whether Steve Ballmer directed any of it.

The report says he knowingly helped Leonard find off-court income but cites no evidence implicating him directly. It calls Gillian Zucker's account clearly false and his inaccurate at best. [1][2]
04

What the SEC will do if LSU play the athletes a court cleared.

The conference says it will comply with the order while fighting it, other member schools have discussed forfeiting games, and Georgia's attorney general urged suspension or expulsion. [6]
05

Whether a 24-team college football playoff can be agreed in time.

The playoff must tell its broadcaster ESPN of any format change by 1 December, and the SEC's scheduling conditions are still being worked through. [7][8]
06

Who bought $662,050 of contracts on LSU winning the title.

The prediction market Kalshi confirmed the trades but did not name the insurance company behind them, and LSU did not answer questions about it. [10]
07

What the CIAA is paid for its media rights.

The network's chief revenue officer declined to give figures, saying only that a significant share of advertising revenue goes back to the conference and its schools. [38]
08

What control the new money at Everton and West Ham buys.

The Friedkin Group's process has no published price or terms, and Daniel Kretinsky's 46% of West Ham is short of a majority. [12][13]

04 Hope carry this

Colorado had no professional women's football team until this year. Its first one played its opening home match in front of 63,000 people.