NBA commissioner delays Leonard trade amid investigation

An ongoing NBA investigation into alleged salary-cap violations involving star forward Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers has indefinitely delayed his planned return to the Toronto Raptors, league commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday. The commissioner, speaking after a Board of Governors meeting in Las Vegas, stated the independent probe must conclude before the trade can be finalized, a process he hopes will wrap up this summer.

The Raptors and Clippers agreed to a trade that would send Leonard to Toronto in exchange for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, and draft picks. However, both teams mutually decided not to proceed with the transaction while the investigation remains open. Silver clarified that the league did not pause the trade, but the parties involved chose not to move forward due to uncertainty over potential impacts on Leonard’s contract. He emphasized that the issues under investigation were well-known to the teams involved before the trade was proposed.

The investigation, being conducted by the law firm Wachtell Lipton, has been ongoing for over ten months. It centers on whether the Clippers circumvented the salary cap by facilitating a sponsorship deal for...