Sports · Tuesday, 15 September 2026

01 Briefing what happened

Kawhi Leonard's trade to Toronto, agreed in June, went through on Monday. He gave up a $7.45m bonus to help it happen.

The Clippers sent Kawhi Leonard back to Toronto 76 days after agreeing the deal, once the NBA had punished them for paying him outside the salary cap; Europe won golf's Solheim Cup back, and Marc Marquez drew level at the top of MotoGP.

$7.45m

trade bonus Leonard gave up so the deal could go through

a 15% bonus written into his contract [4]

first-round draft picks the NBA took from the Clippers

the years 2029 to 2033; Toronto now sends them two [3]

76 days

from agreeing the trade to completing it

agreed on 30 June, signed off on 14 September [1][4]

67.7%

of his team's games Leonard played over the past four seasons

he also played only 4 of a possible 11 games in the 2023 and 2024 play-offs [5]

The lead story — what happened

The Los Angeles Clippers gave the final sign-off on Monday, and Kawhi Leonard's trade to the Toronto Raptors went through. [2][4]
The two clubs first agreed the deal on 30 June. [1] Toronto put it on hold on 9 July, to wait for the NBA's punishment of Leonard. [8][7]
The NBA, America's top basketball league, found the Clippers had paid Leonard through companies that sponsored the club. [1] That was a way around the salary cap, the limit on what a team may spend on its players. [1]
The punishment came earlier this month: owner Steve Ballmer suspended for a year, a $30m fine, and five first-round draft picks taken away. [2] Leonard paid a $700,000 penalty, was not suspended and kept his contract. [2]
On Sunday night Ballmer said the club accepted the punishment, and apologised to its fans, its staff and the other owners. [1][3]
Toronto sends forward Brandon Ingram, guard Gradey Dick, first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 with no conditions attached, a swap of picks in 2027 and two second-round picks. [3][5]
Those picks partly refill a club that lost five of its own first-round picks, from 2029 to 2033, in the punishment. [3]
Leonard signed papers giving up his trade bonus, 15% and worth $7.45m, to help the trade go through. [4] A trade bonus is money a contract promises a player if he is traded.
With Leonard on its payroll, Toronto now sits right against the first apron. [4] That is a spending line in the NBA's rules; a team above it loses some ways to trade for and sign players.
The Clippers needed 13 more days after the ruling. [4] They had to replace suspended executives and name a stand-in for the owner, which the league must approve. [7]
Leonard is 35 and is owed $50m for the 2026-27 season, the last year of his contract. [3] He is expected to sign a longer deal with Toronto. [2][3]
He scored a career-high 27.9 points a game last season. [2] Over the past four seasons he played 67.7% of his team's games. [5]
Toronto has done this before. In 2018 it traded for Leonard in his last season before he could leave, and he led the club to its only title in 2019. [5][2]

Who is involved

Kawhi Leonard

35-year-old forward, twice the most valuable player of an NBA Finals; traded back to Toronto and gave up a $7.45m bonus
The Los Angeles Clippers

NBA club punished for paying Leonard around the salary cap; signed off the trade on Monday
Steve Ballmer

the Clippers' owner, suspended for a year; said on Sunday the club accepts the punishment
The Toronto Raptors

NBA club that won its only title with Leonard in 2019; paused the trade in July until the ruling
Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick

the two Toronto players sent to Los Angeles in exchange

How it unfolded

2019 Leonard leads Toronto to its only title, then signs with the Clippers [2][1]
30 June the Clippers and Raptors agree the trade [1]
9 July Toronto pauses it to wait for the NBA's ruling [8]
Early September the NBA fines the Clippers $30m, suspends Ballmer and takes five first-round picks [2]
Sun 13 Sept Ballmer says the club accepts the punishment [1]
Mon 14 Sept the Clippers sign off and the trade goes through [4]

Where this points

Watch for a longer contract for Leonard, which the AP says is expected. [2] The Raptors hold media day on 28 September and open training camp the next day in Quebec City. [9]

What is pushing on the whole day

The bar and the word are our reading of how hard each one is pushing today. The arrow is where it is heading. The evidence is in the stories below.

Few games left to catch up High↑

Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin are level on 274 points in MotoGP, the world motorbike championship, with eight rounds left. [22] The New York Yankees are four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in their baseball division with 12 games left. [32] Golf's Solheim Cup was level at 8-8 with 12 matches to play on its last day. [11]

Leagues and regulators going after clubs Building↑

The NBA took five first-round picks from the Clippers and suspended their owner for a year. [2] Mexico's competition regulator opened an investigation into the country's football federation on Monday. [38] Chelsea is serving a nine-month ban on signing youth players. [39]

Big matches moving to new places Building↑

South Africa and New Zealand played a rugby match in Baltimore, in the United States, in front of 68,173 people. [18] The Solheim Cup was the first major golf event held in the Netherlands, apart from its own national opens. [15] The US hosts rugby's men's World Cup in 2031 and its women's World Cup in 2033. [18]

Stars coming back from injury Steady→

Patrick Mahomes played his first game since tearing two knee ligaments in December. [24] Marquez missed part of the season injured and has won back 203 points in seven race weekends. [22] The Los Angeles Dodgers reached the play-offs with Shohei Ohtani on the injured list. [31]

The rest of the day

14 more stories on this beat.

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

02
Europe wins golf's Solheim Cup back

Europe beat the United States 15-13 on Sunday in the Solheim Cup, the biggest team event in women's golf, played at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands. [11][13] The teams were level 8-8 before the 12 one-on-one matches on the last day. [11] Europe won six of the first eight. [10] Lottie Woad, one of Europe's four first-time players, holed the putt that took her team to the 14.5 points it needed. [11] The United States had won the cup in 2024 [12], and has not won in Europe since 2015. [11]

Why it matters — Three of Europe's four first-time players won their matches on Sunday. [14] Outside its own national opens, it was the first big golf event ever held in the Netherlands. [15]
03
South Africa beat New Zealand in Baltimore

South Africa beat New Zealand 43-28 in rugby union on Saturday in Baltimore, in the United States, and won their four-match series 3-1. [16][17] New Zealand won the first match in Johannesburg; South Africa won the next three. [16] The crowd of 68,173 at the home of the Baltimore Ravens, an American football club, was a record for rugby in North America. [18] The two national unions split the profits of the match 50-50. [20]

Why it matters — The US hosts rugby's World Cup in 2031, and a Maryland sports official described World Rugby, the sport's governing body, as friendly and willing to listen, unlike FIFA. [18][19] Host cities of this summer's football World Cup had complained that FIFA kept almost all the income while they paid for transport and security. [19]
04
Marquez draws level at the top of MotoGP

Marc Marquez won the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday and moved to the top of MotoGP, the world championship for motorbike racing. [21][22] He and Jorge Martin both have 274 points after 14 races, and Marquez leads because he has won more races, five to one. [22] In May he was 102 points behind Marco Bezzecchi. [21] Bezzecchi started first on Sunday and crashed out. [22]

Why it matters — Marquez took 37 points in one weekend by winning both the short Saturday race and the main race. [21][23] Eight rounds remain, and Marquez said there are a lot of races to go; the next is in Austria on 18-20 September. [22]
05
Mahomes returns and Kansas City win

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Denver Broncos 31-10 on Monday night in the NFL, American football's top league. [24] Quarterback Patrick Mahomes played his first game since tearing two knee ligaments on 14 December. [24] Running back Kenneth Walker III, signed in March on a three-year, $43m contract, gained 191 yards with the ball and scored twice. [24][26] Kansas City went 6-11 last season and missed the play-offs for the first time since 2014. [26]

Why it matters — The game completed the NFL's opening week and tied its all-time scoring record for a first week: 791 points, the same as in 2012. [25] Teams needed 42 points on Monday to break the record and got 41. [25]
06
Denver tried to bring Drew Brees back

The Denver Broncos tried to bring retired quarterback Drew Brees back before last season's AFC Championship game, according to a report carried by Reuters. [27] Denver's starter Bo Nix had broken his ankle the week before, and his backup lost 10-7 to New England. [27] Brees spent 15 years with Denver's coach Sean Payton at the New Orleans Saints. [27] Brees had already said on a podcast that a team had contacted him. [27]

Why it matters — Returning to a team would normally restart a player's five-year wait to enter the Hall of Fame, American football's museum of its greatest players, which Brees entered this summer. [27] Philip Rivers dropped out of the running for this year's class that way, after returning with the Indianapolis Colts. [27]
07
Allen's late drive wins in Houston

Josh Allen led the Buffalo Bills on a 96-yard touchdown drive late on Sunday to beat the Houston Texans 36-31. [28] His 34-yard pass to Joshua Palmer came with about a minute and a half left. [28][30] Houston then drove close to Buffalo's line, and Greg Rousseau forced a fumble to end it. [28] It was Allen's first win in Houston, and the first game for Buffalo's new head coach, Joe Brady. [30][28]

Why it matters — Houston's defence allowed the second-fewest points in the league last season, and Buffalo scored on eight of its 11 drives against it. [29] The Sporting News notes Buffalo is built to win now, so even a first-year coach will get little patience. [28]
08
The Dodgers reach the play-offs 14 years running

The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-1 on Monday and secured a place in baseball's play-offs for the 14th season in a row. [31] That equals the Atlanta Braves' run from 1991 to 2005. [31] The Dodgers have won the World Series, baseball's championship, in each of the last two years. [31] Pitcher Tarik Skubal threw seven innings without allowing a run. [31]

Why it matters — They are without Shohei Ohtani, a two-time most valuable player, who is injured, and Freddie Freeman has a sore knee. [31] That makes a first-round bye, a rest while other teams play the opening round, worth more to them this year. [31]
09
Two baseball divisions come down to head-to-head games

The New York Yankees clinched a play-off place on Monday when the Toronto Blue Jays lost. [32] Going into Monday they trailed the Tampa Bay Rays by four games for their division, with a 9.6% chance of winning it by FanGraphs' estimate. [32][34] The two meet four times in New York from 22 September, and the Yankees must win all four to own the tie-breaker. [33] In the Central division the Chicago White Sox led the Cleveland Guardians by three games a week ago, and by Monday the gap was half a game. [33]

Why it matters — A division title means skipping the first round and resting tired relief pitchers. [32] The White Sox and Guardians started a series against each other on Monday. [33] A game against the team you are chasing is the only kind where your win is also their loss.
10
Two small-market clubs clinch first

The Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers were the first two baseball teams to clinch play-off places, both on Friday night. [35] Junior Caminero, 23, won Tampa Bay's game with a home run on the last pitch. [35] Forty minutes later Milwaukee finished beating Cincinnati 20-0. [35] The Brewers' 93-57 record is the best in the major leagues. [33]

Why it matters — The Athletic notes both come from some of baseball's smallest markets, cities with fewer people to sell tickets and television to than New York or Los Angeles. [35] The Yankees and the Dodgers joined them on Monday. [31]
11
Fremantle survive to reach a preliminary final

Fremantle beat Geelong by 14 points in an Australian Football League semi-final on Friday in Perth, in front of 59,725 people. [36] Fremantle led 38-7, fell behind in the third quarter, then won 120-106. [36] Fremantle finished top of the table but lost its first final, so a second defeat would have ended its season. [37][36] Brisbane, champions for the last two years, beat Adelaide heavily in the other semi-final. [37]

Why it matters — Fremantle now play Sydney at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday for a place in the Grand Final. [37] Sydney got there by beating Brisbane by 53 points, after the club had dropped five players over what ESPN calls the Pullman Hotel saga. [37]
12
Mexico investigates its closed football league

Mexico's National Antitrust Commission, the body that polices monopolies, opened an investigation on Monday into the country's professional football. [38] It centres on promotion and relegation, the system that moves the best second-division clubs up and the worst top clubs down. [38] Mexico's football federation suspended it in 2019 and agreed to restore it by 2026, but no plans to do so exist. [38] Second-division clubs and players have protested for weeks, and several appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. [38]

Why it matters — If the commission finds wrongdoing, the Mexican Football Federation could be fined up to 10% of its yearly income. [38] The federation says clubs can still go up, but its rules include stadium sizes that some top-division clubs do not meet. [38]
13
England's richest clubs now sign each other's teenagers

Premier League clubs have broken an old unwritten agreement not to sign young players from each other's academies, the youth teams they run, The Athletic reports. [39] Manchester City paid 12.5m pounds for Leicester's 17-year-old Jeremy Monga. [39] Southampton is expected to take a 14-year-old's move to Manchester City to a tribunal, asking for about 1m pounds instead of the roughly 400,000 pounds due under the rules. [39] Chelsea is serving a nine-month ban on signing youth players. [39]

Why it matters — Since 2021, after Brexit, English clubs cannot sign 16- and 17-year-olds from the European Union, which shrank their market for under-18s by 95%. [39] Selling a home-grown player also counts as pure profit under the Premier League's spending rules, so clubs gain by buying young and cheap. [39]
14
An NFL owner kept a rapper off his stadium's stage

Robert Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots, said on Monday he had blocked the rapper Macklemore from opening two Ed Sheeran concerts at Gillette Stadium on 25 and 26 September. [40] Kraft pointed to things said from the stage at two New Jersey shows and what he called a history of antisemitic rhetoric. [40] At those shows Macklemore had said Free Palestine, and told Jewish fans his criticism of Israel was not aimed at them. [40] Macklemore said he would leave the tour's remaining 10 shows. [40]

Why it matters — Macklemore said Sheeran told him Kraft had persuaded other stadium owners to refuse the tour if he stayed on it. [40] If that account is right, one owner's decision reached every stadium left on the tour. [40]
15
Legionnaires' bacteria found at Yankee Stadium

New York City health officials found the bacteria that cause Legionnaires' disease, a form of pneumonia, in a cooling tower at Yankee Stadium. [41] It was one of 10 cooling towers in the Bronx that tested positive during an outbreak of 10 cases, including one death. [41] Tests to find out whether the bacteria were alive can take up to two weeks. [41] The Yankees said the tower was drained and cleaned on Sunday. [41]

Why it matters — The team said none of the cases has been linked to the stadium, and the city has not asked it to postpone games. [41] The Yankees play four home games against Tampa Bay from 22 September. [33]

02 Lesson why it matters

How big a lead is depends on how many points are still left

A gap on the table means little until you count the points still to play, including the games against the team you are chasing.

The twist

Marc Marquez was 102 points behind in May. He then won back 203 points in seven race weekends, because far more than 102 points were still left to race for.

How it works

A league table shows the gap between two teams today
Every game still to play can add points to either side
Add up the points still on offer
If they are more than the gap, the leader is not safe yet
A game against the team you are chasing is the only one where your win is also their loss

The same force, elsewhere today

Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

Marquez draws level at the top of MotoGP

He and Martin are level on 274 points, and one weekend can be worth 37, so eight rounds hold far more points than any gap on the table.
Two baseball divisions come down to head-to-head games

The Yankees trail the Rays by four with 12 left, and four of those 12 are against the Rays, where each Yankees win is also a Rays loss.
Europe wins golf's Solheim Cup back

Two days of matches left the teams level 8-8, and the 12 points still on offer on Sunday decided everything.
Fremantle survive to reach a preliminary final

Fremantle led 38-7 and still fell behind, because most of the match was still to be played.

Where you've seen this

Election nights

a candidate ahead in the early count is safe only once the votes still to count are fewer than the lead

School marks

a strong first test matters less when most of the marks come from the final exam

Board games

a big lead in points is shaky if the last round is worth more than the lead

The catch

Counting the points left tells you whether a lead is safe, not who will win: the team behind still has to win the games that remain.

And the whole of it

Anyone following a race, from a school league to an election count, sees the gap on the table first. The result sits in games that have not been played yet, and no single team, rider or fan controls all of them.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

The NBA found the Clippers had paid Kawhi Leonard through the club's sponsors to get around the salary cap. On Monday the club sent him to Toronto for two players and a set of draft picks, after losing five of its own first-round picks and its owner for a year. [1][2][3]

Who gains

The Toronto Raptors — They get back the player who won them their only title, while giving up control of just three of their seven future first-round picks. [5][2]
The Los Angeles Clippers — Two first-round picks from Toronto partly replace the five the NBA took from them. [3]
The South African and New Zealand rugby unions — They split the profits of a record North American rugby crowd of 68,173 between them, 50-50. [18][20]
Mexico's second-division clubs — A competition regulator is now investigating the rule change that stopped them being promoted. [38]
Premier League clubs that sell home-grown teenagers — A sale counts as pure profit under the league's spending rules, which makes young players worth buying and selling. [39]

Who pays

The Los Angeles Clippers — They have no first-round pick in 2028 and owe pick swaps to Oklahoma City and Philadelphia, on top of the five picks taken away. [5]
Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick — They move to a club that has 17 players under contract and must shed at least two before the season. [6]
Smaller clubs such as Southampton — They lose 14-year-olds to richer clubs for compensation set by a formula, around 400,000 pounds in one case, and can only ask a tribunal for more. [39]
People in the Melrose and Morrisania areas of the Bronx — They are living through a Legionnaires' outbreak with 10 cases and one death, and its source has not been found. [41]
Macklemore — He is off the last 10 shows of Ed Sheeran's tour after Kraft blocked him from Gillette Stadium. [40]

What nobody knows yet

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

01

How much money reached Leonard outside his contract.

Reuters describes a $28m no-show job arranged through one sponsor, Aspiration. [1] The Athletic says the investigators' report found Leonard earned $18m through avenues that broke the rules. [8]
02

Whether Leonard signs a longer contract with Toronto, and for how much.

The AP and CBS Sports both say an extension is expected, but nothing has been announced and his current deal ends after this season. [2][3]
03

The exact picks in the trade.

The Athletic described the June deal as two pick swaps and one second-round pick. [8] The version reported on Monday has one swap and two second-round picks. [1][3]
04

Whether the Clippers still challenge any of the punishment.

CBS Sports reported last week that the club had to decide whether to sue the NBA. [7] On Sunday Ballmer said the club accepted the punishment, and no source says whether that ends every option. [1]
05

Whether the bacteria in Yankee Stadium's cooling tower were alive, and where the Bronx outbreak started.

The city's culture tests can take up to two weeks, and health officials have not named a source for the 10 cases. [41]
06

What Mexico's competition regulator will find, and when.

The commission says opening the case does not decide guilt, and it gave no timetable. [38]
07

Whether other stadium owners really joined Robert Kraft against Macklemore.

The only account is Macklemore's report of what Ed Sheeran told him, and Kraft's statement speaks only for Gillette Stadium. [40]
08

How close Drew Brees came to playing for Denver.

The report says the Broncos courted him, and Brees has said a team reached out, but neither says whether he agreed. [27]

04 Hope carry this

Patrick Mahomes tore two ligaments in his left knee on 14 December. Nine months later he was back at Arrowhead Stadium, and Kansas City beat Denver 31-10.

Also true today

Alison Lee was four holes down in her singles match at the Solheim Cup and won it, the biggest comeback in a singles match in the event's history.
Three of Europe's four first-time Solheim Cup players won their singles matches on Sunday, including 21-year-old Nastasia Nadaud.
A crowd of 68,173 watched South Africa play New Zealand in Baltimore, the biggest crowd for a rugby match in North America.