Steve Ballmer apologized to Clippers fans and accepted the NBA's historic sanctions against his franchise, reversing the team's defiant stance from two weeks earlier.

Ballmer released a statement Sunday, Sept. 13, through the team's official X account, 11 days after the league penalized the Clippers for salary cap violations tied to Kawhi Leonard. The team has paid its $30 million fine and is complying with all penalties, Ballmer said.

He said he accepts responsibility as principal owner and apologized to fans, employees and fellow NBA owners for the distraction and distress the matter has caused.

The tone marked a sharp turn.

When the NBA announced sanctions Sept. 2, the Clippers vowed to use all means available to contest the findings, according to the LA Times. Ballmer's statement Sunday dropped that posture. He acknowledged remaining disagreements with the investigation's findings but said that is "not where I want to focus."

The penalties rank among the harshest in NBA history. The league stripped the Clippers of five first-round draft picks from 2029 through 2033, according to ABC7. Combined with picks already traded for 2027 and 2028, the franchise will go at least six consecutive years without a first-round selection. Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for one year. Clippers president of business operations Gillian Zucker received a one-year unpaid suspension, and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank received a six-month unpaid suspension. The team also faces a five-year compliance and monitoring program overseen by the league office.

An investigation by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz found Leonard received $66 million in cash and equity from four companies: Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance. Investigators determined Ballmer and Clippers executives facilitated those deals at the request of Dennis Robertson, Leonard's uncle and then-agent. Ballmer invested $60 million in Aspiration, and the Clippers paid $22 million in consulting fees to the other three companies.

Robertson was banned from conducting business with NBA teams for five years. Leonard agreed to pay a $700,000 fine and did not contest the sanctions.

In a September 2025 ESPN interview cited in the LA Times' Sept. 2 coverage, Ballmer had offered a different account: "We were done with Kawhi, we were done with Aspiration … The deals were all locked and loaded."

Ballmer's compliance appears to have cleared a path for the Leonard trade. Hoops Rumors reported Monday, Sept. 14, that the Clippers and Toronto Raptors agreed to complete the deal, sending Leonard to Toronto for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and draft assets. The trade had been on hold since July pending the investigation's outcome. Full details of the agreement could not be independently confirmed.

As of Sunday night, the Clippers had not named an interim governor to represent the franchise at the NBA's Board of Governors meeting, which opened Monday in New York City. GM Trent Redden is expected to serve as the team's lead basketball decision-maker during Frank's suspension.

The Clippers finished 42-40 during the 2025-26 season and lost to the Golden State Warriors in the play-in tournament. Leonard, 35, averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 65 games. Raptors training camp opens Sept. 29 in Quebec City, with Toronto's regular-season opener set for Oct. 21 against the Chicago Bulls.