Category: Basketball

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and his staff had spent the last 12 months loudly insisting they’d done nothing wrong.

The podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” first raised questions about payments star forward Kawhi Leonard received from Aspiration Partners without doing any endorsement work to benefit the company on Sept. 3, 2025. The NBA responded by starting an investigation.

In its findings — released Sept. 2 — an independent law firm reported “a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations” that benefited Leonard, who received $66 million in cash and equity from four companies through agreements facilitated by Ballmer and team executives at the request of Leonard’s uncle and then-agent. Those deals violated the league salary cap, which limits how much teams can pay players. The cap is $164.961 million for the coming season.

The Clippers released two statements that same day, protesting the finding and the stiffest sanctions in NBA history, including a $30-million fine and the loss of five future first-round draft picks. In addition, Ballmer, 69, was banned from all league activities for the next year.

Read more:Steve Ballmer apologizes to fans, says Clippers will comply with NBA sanctions

After immediately calling the NBA’s investigation “biased” and vowing to “vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us,” the Clippers were silent for 11 days.

On Sunday night, they surrendered.

“I accept responsibility as principal owner,” Ballmer said in a three-paragraph, 172-word statement released by the team. “We are committing to put this chapter behind us. We have communicated to the NBA that we are complying with the penalties assessed by the league, have paid the fine, and are moving forward.”

Mark Francis, an associate teaching professor in sports business at the University of Oregon, said Ballmer’s decision to change course was a smart one — since fighting the penalties would only serve to prolong the scandal in the media, damaging the goodwill Ballmer has built up since buying the team in 2014.

“It’s the right thing to do,” he said. “We’re living in times where people don’t take accountability any more and I was actually impressed that he came out with that.

“Once they acknowledge fault, show some remorse, those kinds of things, then sometimes the penalties will be reduced.”

Read more:Swanson: Clippers avoid a death penalty with Kawhi Leonard trade, but only if they clean house

Daniel Durbin, director of the USC Annenberg Institute of Sports Media and Society, agreed, saying the original pushback “was all lawyer speak” while the decision to accept the penalties was prudent.

“It is a pretty stiff penalty. You’ve got a problem, just pay it off and get rid of it,” Durbin said. “And in a certain respect, Ballmer can pay this and move on. So it may well be for him … it’s not worth it to keep fighting, keep wasting money on that.”

Bloomberg estimates Ballmer’s net worth at $173 billion, making the former Microsoft chief executive the world’s ninth-richest person. He earns $1.2 billion annually from his Microsoft stock dividends alone.

In addition to the loss of draft picks and the fine and suspension levied on Ballmer, the NBA suspended Gillian Zucker, the Clippers president of business operations, for one year without pay and suspended Lawrence Frank, the team’s president of basketball operations, for six months without pay.

Read more:Read the NBA's investigation of the Clippers, Steve Ballmer, Kawhi Leonard

Leonard, a seven-time all-star forward and Southern California native, was traded back to the Toronto Raptors this summer. He agreed to pay a $700,000 fine for his role in the Clippers saga and did not contest the sanctions leveled against him but issued a statement of his own in which he placed the blame squarely on the Clippers.

“I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle and regret the distraction this situation has caused the fans and my family,” the statement read. “I entered into my contract with the Clippers as well as the agreements in question in good faith, fully committed to fulfilling my obligations and with no knowledge of any intent on anyone’s part to circumvent the salary cap.”

The Raptors temporarily froze the Leonard trade after the NBA announced Toronto would inherit any penalties assessed to Leonard following its investigation. With Ballmer accepting the NBA penalties, the trade is now moving forward and the Clippers will receive All-Star forward Brandon Ingram, shooting guard Gradey Dick, two first-round draft picks, a pick swap and two second-round picks, building blocks that could help the franchise move forward amid the penalties.

Ballmer’s capitulation may actually be seen as a positive to some Clippers fans, Durbin suggested.

Read more:Plaschke: NBA drops the hammer on The Cheatin’ Clippers, and they can't shed the stink

“What did he confess to? Trying to kind of work around the rules to make the Clippers a championship team,” he said. “There’s a certain sense in which to Clippers fans the entire brouhaha is proof that he’s trying really hard. So while yes, he did break the rules … saying that you broke some rules to try to make your team a championship team is not in and of itself something that’s going to drive away the fan base.”

“It’s not a good thing,” Durbin added. “It’s an admission that maybe he went too far. … And he was willing to pay to try to make the team better.”

Francis isn’t so sure.

“I think that’s a stretch,” he said. “To violate the payroll system they have, it’s a serious offense. The owners are the ones that have pushed for these cost controls and they have to live up to them.”

Read more:Swanson: Kawhi Leonard is a Hall of Fame scam artist who deserves Clippers fans' boos

The question now becomes can the Clippers actually become better as they deal with the penalties.

L.A.’s No. 2 NBA team, well behind the Lakers in popularity and success, the Clippers have finished higher than fourth in the Pacific Division standings just once since Ballmer’s first season as owner in 2014-15 and have reached the conference finals only once. The team finished 10^th in the division last season, missing the postseason, and it hasn’t advanced beyond the first round of the NBA playoffs since 2021.

But the Lakers are in transition under new ownership and are without LeBron James for the first time since 2018, leaving the Clippers with a narrow window to win over new fans.

“They have to be able to threaten to be a championship team before you can say that they can take advantage of this moment,” Durbin said. “There’s the opportunity theoretically, but it’s really more about how smart they are on the draft picks, how smart they are on building the team.”

Times Sports Editor Iliana Limón Romero and staff writer Mirjam Swanson contributed to this report.

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The summer of 2023 was a pivotal one for the Golden State Warriors. After a volatile season started with Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole during a preseason practice, the team’s title defense ended with a second-round playoff loss. Poole and Wiggins got contract extensions in the wake of the championship, while Green did not, despite holding a player option for 2023-24. The Warriors ended up severing one branch of their two timelines, shipping Poole and 2022 draft picks Ryan Rollins and Patrick Baldwin, Jr. out of town and adding Chris Paul.

Eventually, the team also gave Green a four-year contract worth $100M, but not without some drama in the negotiations. According to Green, he was ready to join Golden State’s rivals and try his hand and whooping that trick in Memphis before the Dubs upped their offer.

Draymond reflects on the negotiations when he almost left the Warriors and went to the Grizzlies

"In negotiations, you wanna have another team, you have to sometimes make it real to the team that, 'hey you got something else'… I called the Warriors and said 'Yo I'm gonna go to… pic.twitter.com/jJkZowrUCR

— The Draymond Green Show (@DraymondShow) September 11, 2026

Was it a negotiating ploy? Green claims he wasn’t bluffing, and that the Grizzlies had offered $10M more than the Warriors’ original offer. He did need to get his old team to participate in a sign-and-trade to get that extra money, and that’s when the Warriors raised their offer, while also reportedly “moving the goalposts” in trade talks with the Grizzlies, according to Green.

It’s not clear what the Grizzlies would have done to make the money work in such a deal, or when the sign-and-trade talks happened. Memphis eventually traded for Marcus Smart and jettisoned Green’s arch-enemy Dillon Brooks and Green came back to the Warriors for almost the exact same money and years as his previous deal.

The fit in Memphis would have made a lot of sense. Green may have antagonized the fans of Memphis over the years, but he could have complemented Jaren Jackson, Jr. well, essentially playing center defensively so Jackson could roam, block shots, and continue not to get any rebounds. Though Draymond has never been specifically suspended for grit or for grinding, he does have the lunch pail/bully ball/regular bullying attitude that the classic Zach Randolph-Mike Conley-Tony Allen-Marc Gasol Grizzlies teams embraced.

Green’s foray into free agency was similar to what happened with Andre Iguodala in the summer of 2017. Iguodala met with the Houston Rockets, another team the Warriors had recently beaten in the playoffs, and eventually got the Warriors to up their offer to three years and $48M before he came back. Two years later, they’d sacrifice a future first-round pick (which eventually became Bub Carrington) to dump Iggy on the Grizzlies, where he never reported and kicked off a weird one-sided feud from Brooks and his teammates.

Iguodala knew exactly what he was doing, however. After he held out for most of the season, the Grizzlies traded Iguodala to the Miami Heat, who tacked on an extra year to Iguodala’s contract for $15M. He went to his sixth straight NBA Finals that fall and came back to the Warriors in 2021 in time to make it seven Finals in eight years (and four rings). Now he has a venture capital firm, after being an early investor in companies like Zoom, Allbirds, and Casper mattresses.

Would Green’s presence have helped the Grizzlies? They fell off a cliff in 2023-24 thanks to a massive suspension for Ja Morant and injuries to almost the entire roster, including Smart, Desmond Bane, and Steven Adams. Maybe Green could have punched Morant every time he talked about waving a gun around?

Ultimately, Green used the same technique in negotiating with the Warriors that he does in guarding much larger centers in the paint: Leverage. The Grizzlies, the Warriors, and the world of podcasting were never the same.

Knicks fans can start making their plans to see the champions. 

Single-game tickets at Madison Square Garden officially went on sale Monday in the first of three waves. 

Monday’s wave was for participants in the Knicks Fan First program who are Chase cardholders.

All other Knicks Fan First members can begin to make purchases Tuesday.

Tickets will open to the general public Wednesday. 

Tickets for home games after last season’s championship run are dynamically priced. 

The Knicks open their season in a highly anticipated showdown with LeBron James and the 76ers at the Garden on Oct. 20, but not before raising their championship banner.

They will feature in 34 nationally televised games — the maximum number allowed.

The Knicks also play in all of the league’s marquee slots, notably hosting the Spurs on Christmas Day. 

For the last 17 years, Stephen Curry has put together a Hall of Fame career that has marked him as one of the greatest shooters to play the game of basketball.

Now fans have the chance to relive it, plus more. But this time, on the IMAX screen.

On Monday, ESPN Films released a trailer for their latest documentary, “Portrait of an Artist,” which is set to be released in IMAX theaters on October 9.

The official trailer for “Portrait of an Artist: Stephen Curry” exclusively in IMAX October 9

“I’ve been around basketball my whole life. But the more I played, the more I started to see it differently. For me, it’s never just been a game. It’s always felt more like an art.” pic.twitter.com/RyYxAQBe5o

— aly ✶ (@jinthirty) September 14, 2026

The trailer began with the sound of a basketball being bounced in an empty gym, followed by an aerial view of the skyline district in San Francisco.

During the shot, Curry’s voice chimed in and said, “I’ve been around basketball my whole life,” Curry says. “But the more I played. The more I started to see it differently.”

“For me, it’s never just been a game. It always like more like an art.”

After Curry is done speaking, the documentary starts to show clips of Curry from when he was a baby, shooting a basketball for the first time, to clips of him during the present era.

A voice appears in the trailer and says, “We all admire artists; they play so effortlessly.”

Another audio clip emerges and says, “Every great artist has that something, that signature where the world kind of stops and says, ‘Yeah that’s them.”

In the later part of the documentary, it highlights some of his lowest of low moments, like injuries he suffered during the early stages of his career.

It also highlights some of his highs, like when he became the first player to shoot 4,000 3-pointers on March 13, 2025.

“There’s a rhythm to it,” Curry says in the trailer.

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Throughout the trailer, there is a blend of clips throughout it that include musicians like Freddie Mercury of the band Queen, with their iconic performance at “Live Aid” at Wembley Stadium in 1985. It also includes a blend of composers and other musicians playing instruments.

The video ends with Curry saying, “This is what I was meant to do,” followed by famed sports commentator Kevin Harlan saying, “Truly the portrait of an artist. Unbelievable.”

Steve Ballmer’s decision to accept the NBA’s punishment may not be complete surrender.

It could be the Clippers’ only plausible path toward reclaiming some of the five first-round picks stripped from them.

After initially threatening to explore legal remedies, Ballmer suddenly reversed course and announced Sunday that the organization had paid its $30 million fine and would comply with the penalties arising from the Kawhi Leonard salary-cap scandal. Ballmer and business president Gillian Zucker received one-year suspensions, while basketball operations president Lawrence Frank was suspended for six months.

CBS Sports raised the possibility that cooperation could eventually persuade commissioner Adam Silver to reduce the draft sanctions. The theory rests on one unusually relevant precedent.

In 2000, the NBA stripped Minnesota of five first-round picks after uncovering secret agreements designed to circumvent the salary cap in its dealings with Joe Smith. The Timberwolves initially lost their selections from 2001 through 2005.

Only three picks ultimately disappeared.

The league restored Minnesota’s 2003 selection after owner Glen Taylor accepted his suspension and Kevin McHale agreed to a leave of absence, allowing both sides to abandon a prolonged dispute.

One year later, commissioner David Stern returned the 2005 pick, citing Minnesota’s conduct after the case and the severity of the other penalties.

That history does not create an official appeals process or obligate Silver to show the Clippers similar mercy. Los Angeles was identified as a repeat offender, and its circumstances could become even less sympathetic if continuing scrutiny uncovers additional misconduct.

Ballmer’s statement also accepted responsibility for the disruption without conceding every finding in the NBA report. That distinction could matter if genuine contrition becomes part of Silver’s calculation.

Even one restored selection would be enormously valuable. The Clippers’ own first-rounders from 2029 through 2033 are gone, leaving the unprotected 2031 and 2033 picks acquired in the Leonard trade as essential rebuilding assets.

Fighting the league offered long odds and risked hardening its position. Compliance offers no guarantee of relief.

For a franchise staring at five empty first-round draft slots, however, precedent has cracked open a door that previously appeared sealed.

Since the NBA officially announced the Clippers’ punishments for circumventing the league’s salary cap rules for star forward Kawhi Leonard, a question came to the forefront of conversations around the league: Who’s going to be running the Clippers’ basketball operations? 

It couldn’t be franchise owner/chairman Steve Ballmer, who was suspended from league and team activities for one year for his role in the scandal. 

It also couldn’t be president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank, the man who’s run the franchise’s basketball operations for nearly a decade and has been suspended for six months.

This week provided clarity. 

The Clippers and Raptors finally pulled the trigger on the long-awaited trade that’ll send Leonard back to Toronto after leaving the Raptors for the Clippers in free agency nearly seven years ago. 

Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round draft picks (2031 and 2033), one first-round draft pick swap (2027) and two second-round picks are coming back to the Clippers for Leonard. 

The details of the trade were agreed to in late June, but put on hold on July 9 amidst the NBA’s investigation of the Clippers-Leonard scandal, with the Raptors stating it was going to wait until the league’s investigation was complete since they would’ve assumed the risk for any potential outcome of the investigation impacting Leonard. 

But the Clippers still needed leadership to complete the deal and make the calls to get it across the finish line. 

That new leadership has emerged in the form of general manager Trent Redden, a longtime Clippers executive who’s moving to the forefront of the Clippers’ front office.

The Clippers have yet to name Redden, or anyone else, their interim leader of basketball operations in light of their punishments. 

But Redden, who led the Clippers’ communication with the Raptors, as first reported by NBA reporter Jake Fischer, appears to be poised to step into that role for the foreseeable future. 

Redden’s route to this opportunity started long before the Clippers’ punishments moved him to the forefront of the franchise’s basketball operations. 

A ​​Sacramento native who graduated from Sheldon High School, Redden played for the SMU Mustangs men’s college basketball team during the 2003-04 season and graduated from SMU magna cum laude in 2006.

He started his career as an NBA front office executive with the Cavaliers as an intern before becoming a basketball operations manager and scout for the franchise in 2007. 

Redden worked his way up through the organizational hierarchy, being promoted to the director of college player personnel, assistant general manager and eventually being the vice president of basketball operations.

He joined the Clippers as an assistant general manager ahead of the 2018–2019 season before being promoted to general manager in 2023, overseeing scouting, strategy, team operations and building operations. 

Mark Hughes, the Clippers senior vice president/assistant general manager, was promoted to his current position at the same time as Redden.

Hughes also moves up the organzational hierarchy in light of the Clippers’ punishments. 

“For the past six years, Trent and Mark have been trusted evaluators, dependable leaders, and for me, close confidantes,” Frank said in a statement in June 2023. “A lot of executives have backgrounds in strategy or evaluation. Trent brings expertise and agility in both. Since he joined us, Trent has scoured the globe in search of amateur and pro talent while serving as an integral advisor on every major decision and acquisition we’ve made. He is a respected leader with strong relationships throughout the league, and we’re excited to see him in his new role.”

And after three years in his current role, and nearly two decades as an NBA executive, it’s Redden’s time to take on even bigger responsibilities.

The second-oldest active player in basketball is no more, as OAKAAK Taj Gibson announced his retirement on Monday afternoon following his release by the New Orleans Pelicans last week. He will join the Chicago Bulls’ coaching staff under Tiago Splitter for 2026-27.

After 17 NBA seasons, Taj Gibson is retiring and returning to the Chicago Bulls as an assistant coach under Tiago Splitter to begin his coaching career. pic.twitter.com/K601XXGZe2

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 14, 2026

Gibson, a Brooklyn native, was selected No. 26 overall by the Bulls in 2009 out of USC. It was with Chicago that he spent the bulk of his career, debuting as an extremely old rookie at the age of 24 and growing into one of the best backup power forwards in the game.

He finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting in 2010, fifth in Sixth Man of the Year voting in 2012, and had the best season of his career in 2013-14, where he played all 82 games and averaged 13 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in a bench role, finishing as an extremely close runner-up to Jamal Crawford for Sixth Man of the Year.

It was in Chicago that he grew close to head coach Tom Thibodeau, a connection that would pay dividends down the road. Thibs coached the Bulls from 2010-15.

Shortly after he was canned, Gibson left Chicago as the Bulls entered a rebuild. He was traded to Oklahoma City in February 2017 with Doug McDermott and a 2018 2nd for Cam Payne, Anthony Morrow, and Joffrey Lauvergne. An interesting fact here: McDermott and the Bulls’ 2018 2nd would be flipped a few months later to the Knicks for Carmelo Anthony, and that 2nd became Mitchell Robinson.

He’d slide in next to Steven Adams as the Thunder’s starting power forward for the rest of the 2016-17 season in the first year of the post-KD era, but left in the offseason when Thibs’ new team in Minnesota came calling with a two-year, $28 million pact.

It was there that Taj emerged as a full-time starter as a grizzled veteran, posting 11.5 points and 6.9 rebounds across 153 games as a Timberwolf, but when Thibs was canned, he was out the door as well.

The most relevant chapter of his career to us came when he inked a two-year, $20 million contract with the Knicks in 2019 as part of the “four PFs” offseason in the aftermath of the KD/Kyrie disaster. David Fizdale and Mike Miller would utilize the 34-year-old as more of a center for the first time in his career, using him as a mentor for Robinson. He’d play just 16.5 minutes a game, but started 56 of the 62 games he played as a shield for a young and erratic Robinson’s foul trouble.

His team option was declined for 2020-21, but we should’ve read the tea leaves as soon as Thibodeau was hired as coach that summer. After the Nova Knick 1.0 prototype (Omari Spellman) fizzled out in the first week of January, Gibson returned to fill out the depth chart behind Robinson and Nerlens Noel.

This year marked the backstretch of Gibson’s career, where his experience and mentality were significantly more valuable than his on-court contributions. He would grow into a solid role off the bench, particularly when Robinson was injured.

With the Knicks surprisingly competitive, we suddenly saw the 35-year-old put into the spotlight when Robinson was ruled out for the season, and both he and Noel were stuck as overmatched bigs against Clint Capela and the Hawks. Of the 20 career playoff starts he had, three of them came in that first round series.

He was re-signed for 2021-22 and played a similar role, this time being forced to step up into a backup role due to Noel’s long-term injury. In a frustrating season for the team, he showed a new, interesting wrinkle to his game: shooting threes.

For the one time pic.twitter.com/MBJygr38rB

— Teg🚨 (@IQfor3) September 14, 2026

It looked like his time in New York was over when he signed with the Wizards in 2022-23, where he played 49 games as a vet for a very young and bad team, but he’d get one more chance to play for his hometown soon enough. When Robinson suffered a seemingly season-ending ankle injury in December 2023, it was Gibson who got a non-guaranteed contract to fill his shoes.

He’d be yo-yo’d around for the rest of the year, being released in mid-January to avoid guaranteeing his contract before inking a pair of 10-day contracts later in the season, but with Robinson’s unlikely return nearing ahead of the playoffs, Gibson played his final game as a Knick on February 14, 2024, going scoreless in nine minutes.

He finished his Knicks career averaging 4.9 points and 4.4 rebounds on 56.7% from the field in 175 games (64 starts) across four seasons. From there, he continued to be the token veteran on bad teams, playing four games in March 2024 for Detroit before signing one-year deals in both Charlotte and Memphis.

He hangs it up after playing 10 games for the Grizzlies down the stretch in 2025-26 before being traded in the Jordan Hawkins deal to the Pels, who subsequently waived him.

Gibson’s spot in Knicks lore is not that of someone who had an iconic moment that will be replayed forever, but as someone who was there as a transitional piece from the bright times to the bad times. Playing for the team he likely dreamed of playing for growing up, he transitioned from a starting caliber forward to an end-of-roster veteran, providing depth and experience.

People forget this, but Gibson is the only player aside from Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson whose Knicks career spanned from David Fizdale to the year 2024. He was there for LolKnicks, the We Here season, and (very briefly) the Brunson revival. Championships are not entirely built by the stars that finished the job, they’re fortified by players who built the foundation.

Maybe Gibson wasn’t a true foundational piece of the rise from irrelevance to competence, but he was a constant throughout it. It’s a great hire for a young Bulls team under an inexperienced head coach in Splitter.

Today is a very emotional day for me.

After 17 seasons in the NBA, I can honestly say I gave this game everything I had.

Basketball gave me the opportunity to live a dream. As a kid from Brooklyn, NY, I was lucky to get a chance to display my talent on the biggest stage. From… pic.twitter.com/tQAgHoUYl6

— Taj Gibson (@TajGibson) September 14, 2026

Taj Gibson is ready for his second NBA act.

The veteran forward retired Monday after 17 seasons, an announcement that was quickly followed by the Bulls revealing he’d joined their coaching staff.

“I can honestly say I gave this game everything I had,” Gibson wrote in a social media post. “I’m grateful for every moment, every teammate, every coach, and every person who believed in me.”

“But this isn’t goodbye to Basketball,” the 41-year-old added. “It’s the beginning of a new chapter.

Now, he’ll join first-year Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter as an assistant on a staff that already includes Wes Unseld Jr., Blake Ahearn, Jamelle McMillan, Rex Kalamian and Jonah Herscu.

Gibson returns to Chicago, the franchise that drafted him in 2009 and with which he spent his first eight NBA seasons. He also had stints with the Knicks, Timberwolves, Wizards, Hornets, Thunder, Grizzlies and Pistons, averaging 8.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.0 blocks over 1,012 career games.

He was waived by New Orleans last week following a trade which sent him and AJ Johnson to the Pelicans for Jordan Hawks, Micah Peavy, a second-round pick and a pick swap.

It was an end to his playing career that he’s at peace with.

“As a kid from Brooklyn, NY, I was lucky to get a chance to display my talent on the biggest stage,” Gibson wrote. “From Fort Greene Projects to USC, to the Chicago Bulls, and every team and city that came after, I’m grateful for every moment, every teammate, every coach, and every person who believed in me.

“After 31 years of basketball, I can walk away with no regrets, knowing I left everything on the floor. God has truly blessed me.”

I’m here once again with a public service announcement to remind everyone not to believe everything they read on the internet. And to question motives behind some of the things you do see.

A couple of weeks ago, I warned about using LLMs and AI to do statistical data mining for you when it comes to basketball. Today, I’m warning you about prediction markets and their ability, and incentive, to manufacture a story out of almost nothing in an effort to get your attention, open your wallet, and put money into their systems.

We’re in the final dead stretch of the NBA offseason. Media days and training camps begin at the end of September, but until then, there simply isn’t much happening. Most transactions are complete. Rosters are largely set. Unless your team has suffered a major injury, which the Suns unfortunately have, there isn’t much real news to work with.

That isn’t going to stop prediction markets from trying to create some. Take what Kalshi NBA posted this weekend about Devin Booker and the supposed likelihood of him teaming up with Steph Curry, Steve Kerr, and the Golden State Warriors.

“I think the Warriors like [Booker] too much, if you ask me. Steve Kerr loves him,” Tim Kawakami recently stated on the Warriors Plus/Minus podcast. “Booker loved playing for Steve…I know the Warriors would be first in line saying, ‘We got three first-round picks we can give you’.”

"I think the Warriors like [Booker] too much, if you ask me. Steve Kerr loves him. Booker loved playing for Steve… I know the Warriors would be first in line saying, 'we got three first round picks we can give you,'" per @timkawakami. pic.twitter.com/hpyWve95CG

— Kalshi NBA (@KalshiNBA) September 13, 2026

To his credit, Kawakami is a respected journalist who covers the Golden State Warriors for The San Francisco Standard and has spent 35 years covering Bay Area sports. I’m sure he has sources within the organization who have told him the Warriors would have interest in Devin Booker. As someone who has a podcast himself, there are plenty of things I state that can be taken as speculative and/or out of context. But in the same breath, why wouldn’t the Warriors be interested? I might not have the same credibility, but I could go on my podcast tomorrow and say the Suns would have interest in Stephen Curry. Because of course they would.

That’s what makes this less about what Kawakami said on a podcast and more about what prediction markets did with it afterward. They took a relatively unsurprising piece of information and repackaged it in a way designed to generate engagement. That’s the part I find more concerning.

We’ve been living in the world of clickbait and engagement farming for nearly 2 decades now. The rise of the internet and the blogosphere fundamentally changed the way news is packaged and consumed, and prediction markets are simply another evolution of that same ecosystem. 

There’s nothing new about shocking headlines. They sold newspapers long before the internet existed. The more eyeballs you attract, the more opportunities you create for advertising revenue, subscriptions, bets, or whatever product you’re trying to sell. And once money becomes attached to attention, the incentives become dangerous. A point of view can be exaggerated. Context can be stripped away. A relatively mundane fact can be repackaged as something far more sensational because sensationalism generates clicks, clicks generate action, and action generates money.

What really catches my attention, and concerns me, is that Kalshi NBA is the one pushing this information. And they aren’t alone. Polymarket picked it up too.

The Warriors are reportedly big fans of Devin Booker and would be 'first in line' with a trade package should he ever be made available. 👀

(via @timkawakami) pic.twitter.com/8N3TstVPoG

— Polymarket Hoops (@PolymarketHoops) September 14, 2026

Both are federally regulated prediction markets where users can buy and sell yes or no contracts on everything from sports outcomes to politics, culture, climate, financial markets, and awards. Who wins the Nobel Peace Prize? What will the price of oil be? What team will Devin Booker play for next?

Yes, you can bet on Devin Booker’s next team.

And that’s where I start questioning the integrity of Kalshi NBA promoting something like this. Right now, their market has Booker staying with the Suns at 96%. The Warriors sit at 2%, with a payout around 31.2 times your wager. 

So Kalshi can amplify a quote suggesting Golden State has interest in Booker, generate attention around that possibility, and then direct people toward a market where they can put money behind the very idea being promoted. That’s the part that bothers me. You’re no longer simply reporting or reacting to news. You have a financial incentive to make the possibility itself feel more legitimate, more urgent, or more likely than it actually is because every person convinced that maybe there’s something there becomes a potential customer.

I don’t have an issue with throwing a few bucks on sports here and there. For plenty of fans, it adds a little juice to a game they otherwise wouldn’t care about. What frustrates me is when prediction markets begin pushing highly unlikely stories while also providing the platform where people can wager on those stories becoming reality. Is a symptom of the potential problems created when the people or entities capable of influencing a market can move it with a single post, statement, or action. Strange times we live in.

Then you combine all of that with the accessibility of gambling and the growing concerns around problem gambling. According to AddictionHelp.com, 5.3% of people in North America gamble at a problem level compared with 1.9% worldwide, and betting through a phone app roughly triples the odds of experiencing problem gambling symptoms compared with other forms of betting. Profit off of pain, a tale as old as time.

When there is already a financial incentive to keep people wagering, manufacturing urgency around speculative information becomes even more troubling. And on the surface, we already know the answer here. There is no meaningful evidence suggesting Devin Booker is about to become a member of the Golden State Warriors.

There’s nothing wrong with exploring what a hypothetical trade might look like. That’s offseason fodder. It passes the time and can create interesting conversations about roster construction, salary flexibility, and the direction of different franchises. Those exercises aren’t really about predicting the future. They’re conversation starters.

The problem comes when a prediction market takes that speculation, amplifies it, and then stands ready to profit when people decide to bet on it. That’s when harmless offseason speculation starts to feel like something else entirely.

That’s the distinction worth remembering. Speculation is supposed to create conversation, not manufacture confidence. When the same entity amplifying the possibility also benefits financially when you believe it, skepticism shouldn’t be optional. Ask who is telling you the story. Ask what they gain from your attention. Ask whether there is actual reporting behind it. Because when someone is selling you the rumor and the bet at the same time, the safest wager is probably keeping your money in your pocket.

Trading Kawhi Leonard did more than remove the Clippers’ best player. It eliminated their last convincing claim to having a franchise centerpiece.

That loss feels especially severe after the NBA punished the Clippers’ salary-cap violations with a $30 million fine, leadership suspensions and the forfeiture of five first-round picks.

While Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and Toronto’s draft compensation provide talent and flexibility, they do not immediately answer the more existential question confronting the organization: Who gives Clippers fans hope that this team is not doomed to wander the wilderness for the foreseeable future?

The face of a franchise does not necessarily have to be its leading scorer. In this moment, the Clippers need somebody who creates stability, supplies an identity and makes the NBA’s punishment feel like a setback instead of the beginning of a lost decade.

The next centerpiece should also represent a feel-good cleansing. After years spent chasing instant credibility through famous names carrying injury baggage or complicated reputations, the Clippers need somebody fans can embrace without reservation—not another tainted star acquired as an expensive shortcut.

The front-runners: Darius Garland and Brandon Ingram

Garland presents the strongest case.

The 26-year-old is a two-time All-Star under contract through 2027-28. After arriving in the James Harden trade, Garland averaged 19.9 points and 6.4 assists while shooting 43.8 percent from 3-point range across 19 games with Los Angeles.

As the point guard, he can supply something the Clippers desperately need: order. Garland will initiate the offense, determine its pace and touch the ball often enough to establish a recognizable identity. His age and contract also fit the near-term window.

The limitations are equally clear. Injuries restricted Garland to 45 games last season, his size creates defensive problems and he has never established himself as the best player on a contender. He may become the Clippers’ stabilizer without becoming their defining star.

Ingram, meanwhile, brings greater immediate scoring credibility. The former All-Star averaged 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists across 77 games last season, and his status as the principal veteran in the Leonard trade package naturally places him near the center of the new roster.

But Ingram is 29 and holds a player option for 2027-28 under his three-year, $120 million contract. He can lead the Clippers in scoring without representing their longer-term destination.

The upside candidates: Keaton Wagler and Gradey Dick

Wagler is the roster’s most compelling source of genuine hope.

The Clippers selected the 19-year-old guard fifth overall after he averaged 17.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists while helping Illinois reach the Final Four. His rise from lightly recruited prospect to one of the 2026 draft’s breakout stars provides the kind of developmental story a wounded fan base can embrace.

Of the four candidates, Wagler best fits the emotional requirements of a fresh beginning. He is also furthest from satisfying the basketball requirements. A promising Summer League cannot establish that a teenager who has never played a regular-season minute is prepared to rescue an NBA franchise.

Dick is an even longer shot. The 22-year-old former lottery pick possesses useful size and shooting ability, but his production fell from 14.4 points per game in 2024-25 to 6.0 last season. At this stage, he is a reclamation project rather than a building block.

The hard truth: Nobody

The Clippers currently have credible players, but nobody who combines proven production, upward trajectory and organizational staying power. Anyone of them could emerge, but none have the track record thus far.

That uncertainty could become its own temptation. Los Angeles could eventually package some combination of its young players, movable veteran contracts and newly acquired draft capital to pursue the next available superstar.

Landing the right one could accelerate the recovery. Reflexively chasing another famous name, however, could crater what should be a a full-scale exorcism of the franchise’s recent past.

The objective should not be to avoid stars. It should be to stop treating star power as a substitute for identity and sustainable growth. Turning every hopeful new piece into another aging, injury-prone or reputationally compromised headliner would merely restart the same cycle beneath a different billboard.

Garland and Ingram can make the Clippers functional. Wagler and Dick can make them interesting. None has yet demonstrated the ability to restore everything Leonard’s exit and the NBA sanctions stripped away.

For now, the Clippers have several faces of their transition. The face of their future still must emerge.

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The NBA trade involving the Los Angeles Clippers and the Toronto Raptors is official, according to ESPN.

Kawhi Leonard is being sent to Toronto, while the Clippers received forward Brandon Ingram, guard Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks (2031, 2033), two second-round picks (2030, 2033), and a 2027 first-round swap in the trade. 

The trade was initially agreed on and reported on June 30, 2026. The teams acknowledged the deal but held off on following through because of the ongoing investigation into the Clippers for salary cap circumvention that involved Leonard.

The NBA announced disciplinary action against the Clippers on Sept. 2, after an external law firm completed enough of its investigation and shared its findings with NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

As a result, the Clippers were given a $30 million fine and have to forfeit five first-round draft picks (2029–2033). Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and two of the team’s top executives were given suspensions.

Clippers-Raptors trade winners

Kawhi Leonard

The two-time Finals MVP is among the biggest winners. He managed to get out of Los Angeles and return to a place he’s familiar with in Toronto. He also received very little in terms of punishment from the NBA, being fined $700,000. The Raptors are expected to offer Leonard a contract extension.

Clippers

The team needs to hit the restart button, considering the loss of picks as a result of the investigation findings. The trade helps ease the burden of not having to go without too many first-round picks in the future.

Clippers-Raptors trade losers

Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick

The pair are among the biggest losers in the deal. They were left in limbo, spending most of the summer wondering what their basketball future would look like for the upcoming season and potentially beyond.

Ingram is expected to have a player option for the 2027-28 season.

Ingram is coming off a season wherein he averaged 21.5 points on 47.7% shooting from the field across 77 games played. Dick played in 76 games in his third season, averaging six points and 1.9 rebounds.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Clippers-Raptors trade winners and losers as Kawhi deal becomes official

After 2 ½ months of waiting, Kawhi Leonard is finally heading back to Toronto.

The Clippers and Raptors agreed to complete the trade sending Leonard to Toronto for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round draft picks (2031 and 2033), one first-round draft pick swap (2027) and two second-round picks.

ESPN first reported the two sides were moving forward with the deal.

The Clippers and Raptors still have to schedule a trade call with the league for the transaction to become official.

The trade falling into place came not even 24 hours after Clippers owner Steve Ballmer issued a statement Sunday evening saying he has “sincere regrets” and apologized to fans in the wake of the NBA punishing his franchise for circumventing the league’s salary cap by “initiating off-court income opportunities” for Leonard with four different companies.

The league dropped staggering punishments on the Clippers, fining the franchise $30 million, suspending Ballmer for one year and stripping the franchise of five first-round draft picks on Sept 2.

President of business operations Gillian Zucker (one year) and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank (six months) were also suspended for their roles in the scandal.

Ballmer didn’t explicitly apologize for the the Clippers’ cap circumvention, stating “there are still disagreements concerning the findings in the report” but that the franchise was complying with the penalties after the franchise initially issued a statement saying it “vehemently reject the NBA’s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence.”

With the main leaders of the Clippers’ front office not permitted to be involved with the franchise, general manager Trent Redden led the Clippers in getting the trade over the finish line.

On June 30, two months before the NBA announced the penalties for the Clippers’ violations of the league’s salary cap rules, the Clippers agreed to trade Leonard to the Raptors for Ingram, Dick and the aforementioned draft picks.

The trade was put on hold on July 9 amidst the NBA’s investigation of the Clippers-Leonard scandal, with the Raptors stating it was going to wait until the league’s investigation was complete since they would’ve assumed the risk for any potential outcome of the investigation impacting Leonard. 

Leonard was in South Florida last week as part of an organized minicamp with Raptors players, but was a limited participant because the trade wasn’t official yet. 

The Clippers and Raptors have been able to co-submit the trade for league approval for it to become an official transaction for a while now, and they finally pulled the trigger Monday, 13 days after the league punished the Clippers.

The trade is being complete amidst federal prosecutors opening a criminal investigation into the franchise over allegations it circumvented the NBA’s salary cap.

It wasn’t clear what possible crimes federal prosecutors are investigating, or which people are the target of the federal inquiry. It also wasn’t clear whether criminal charges would come from the investigation.

The Department of Justice is the second government entity to investigate the Clippers-Leonard scandal.

Daktronics acting CFO Howard Atkins said during a recent earnings call with investors that the Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking information concerning the South Dakota-based company — which built the $100 million video board inside the Clippers’ Intuit Dome — and its relationship with Leonard. Daktronics, along with Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless and Lockton Insurance, was one of the four companies with endorsement deals with Leonard that were at the center of the NBA’s investigation.

Leonard was forced to pay the NBA $700,000 for restitution for improper benefits provided by the Clippers, while his uncle and former business manager, Dennis Robertson, has been banned by the NBA from all business dealings for five years.