Adam Silver's Firm Stance on Clippers Punishment Amid NBA Expansion Talks
NEW YORK — Adam Silver walked out of the Board of Governors meetings in midtown Manhattan with one message he wanted ringing around the league: the Los Angeles Clippers’ punishment is not up for debate.
Five first-round picks gone. A $30 million fine. Owner Steve Ballmer banned from all league and team activities for a year.
All of it, Silver stressed, is final — and intentional.
The league ruled that the Clippers “knowingly” tried to help Kawhi Leonard secure off-court income opportunities, a move that crossed the line on salary-cap rules. Two team executives were suspended, Leonard was fined $700,000, and the franchise paid a steep competitive price.
Silver admitted the decision was not easy, but insisted it was necessary.
“There had to be competitive consequences,” he said, noting that he does not believe he has inflicted permanent damage on the franchise.
The commissioner knows who else feels the impact: the people who buy the tickets and wear the jerseys.
“We still want to be a 30-team league, and we recognize that, in some ways, we're unfortunately punishing the fans of that team as well. And so that's the balance we're trying to seek,” Silver said. The aim, he added, is to make sure no other front office looks at the cap and sees it as something to work around instead of respect. “There has to be something beyond suspensions and financial consequences, and that has to be to regulate competition.”
The league’s investigation had hovered over the Clippers’ summer, delaying the trade that sent Leonard back to the Toronto Raptors. Once the punishment landed, that deal finally went through: Leonard to Toronto, where he lifted the NBA title in 2019, with Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks, a first-round pick swap, and two second-rounders heading to Los Angeles.
Ballmer, who was not at the meetings, has already apologized to Clippers fans and said he will not contest the sanctions. The executives involved and Leonard were also absent from the Board of Governors sessions.
All of this played out as the league prepared for its 81st season, which tips off Oct. 20 with the New York Knicks beginning their title defense against the Philadelphia 76ers. While the Clippers grapple with the fallout, the NBA’s power structure is shifting somewhere else in Los Angeles.
Lakers sale hits a family battle
Across town, the Los Angeles Lakers — a franchise built on dynasties and star power — sit in the middle of a record-breaking sale and a family dispute that could reshape their future.
Mark Walter, Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner and TWG Global CEO, has agreed to sell the Lakers for a staggering $12.5 billion to businessman Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger. It would be the richest sale in league history.
Jeanie Buss is not simply watching it happen.
The Lakers’ controlling owner is challenging the move, arguing her five siblings do not have the right to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% stake. Buss, who holds more than 15% of the franchise, retains her role as the team’s governor under league rules.
Silver said he only learned of Walter’s intent to sell after hearing from potential buyers who had a handshake agreement with him. The commissioner also addressed the cloud hanging over Walter, who is under federal investigation for potential financial improprieties involving two insurance companies he controlled.
“Even to this day, as you know, these are allegations,” Silver said. He emphasized that when Walter originally bought into the team in October 2025, the league found no red flags, and that the NBA itself is not investigating him. “Independent of Mark Walter choosing to sell this team right now, he was not being investigated by our league.”
The legal and ownership wrangling in Los Angeles comes at a time when the NBA is quietly, but unmistakably, looking outward.
Las Vegas, Seattle and a restless Portland
Silver did not unveil a timetable for expansion. He rarely does. But he did not hide where the league’s eyes are drifting: Las Vegas and Seattle.
The NBA has been a 30-team league since 2004, when the Charlotte Bobcats joined. A decade later they reclaimed the Hornets name. Every year since, speculation around the next markets has simmered. It is now back to a boil.
As the next round of bids comes in, Silver pointed to the arena landscape as a central piece of the puzzle, especially in Las Vegas.
“I think that there is real excitement around either, you know, a renovated T-Mobile Arena,” he said. “I think it still needs some significant improvements, but at the same time, there are groups who have presented plans to go, what I would call, you know, a modern entertainment palace in Las Vegas, and it's a unique market.”
Seattle, long viewed as a natural candidate after losing the SuperSonics, remains firmly in that conversation. The commissioner stopped short of promises, but the direction of travel is clear: expansion is coming, the only mystery is when.
Before that happens, the league has a more immediate building problem in Portland.
The Trail Blazers remain locked in a drawn-out struggle over a new arena under owner Thomas Dundon. The Moda Center, opened in 1995, has slipped down the league’s internal rankings and is now viewed as one of its weakest venues.
Silver did not sugarcoat the situation. The Blazers, he said, need a new building.
He also drew a sharp line on relocation. The league has not discussed moving the team, and Silver called any such outcome a “failure.”
“It is important, at the same time, that Tom Dundon reaches a deal with the city officials and the state elected officials that makes operating important and viable for the long term. So that's what we're focused on.”
So the picture is this: a flagship franchise fighting over who controls its future, a contender-level team hammered for breaking the rules, a proud small-market club stuck in arena limbo, and two cities waiting with open arms for the NBA to plant its flag again.
All of it unfolds as the defending champion Knicks get ready to raise a banner and the league steps into season 81 with a clear message from its commissioner — the rules are not suggestions, and the map of the NBA is not finished yet.
