LOS ANGELES — The LA Clippers appear to be done making national headlines after the NBA's investigation found that they violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement's salary cap circumvention rules by initiating off-court earning opportunities between star Kawhi Leonard and companies in business with the franchise.

Owner Steve Ballmer has begun serving his one-year suspension, appointing trial lawyer John Gibson as the interim CEO and Governor of the franchise to oversee both the business and basketball operations. With President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank serving a six-month suspension, Gibson has appointed general manager Trent Redden to be the interim basketball operations president.

With Kawhi Leonard now traded, the Clippers officially turn the page on a disastrous era of basketball that you can only assume they will learn from. More importantly, one hopes that the shrouds of secrecy, the forgetfulness, and the misguided frustrations depart the halls of Intuit Dome with Leonard, replaced instead by top-to-bottom authenticity as well as a genuine care for the fans and for basketball stories to be told.

Kawhi Leonard's arrival changed things for the LA Clippers organization. It marked the first time that a superstar player chose them in free agency and the first time they were legitimately title contenders, led by their two superstars: Leonard and Paul George.

It also made everyone much more uptight and über secretive seemingly overnight. Anything involving Leonard and his health from the very beginning felt like you were asking about Pentagon secrets. And… well, now we know why.

Heck, when the head coach you cover answers everything related to Leonard's injury status with “I can't remember” enough times, it starts to feel less like a press conference and more like Dr. Anthony Fauci's Republican-led congressional hearing.

But you really cannot fault Tyronn Lue, because he's seemingly relaying what he's been told to say. Whether with Ballmer or Frank, that pattern of silence and secrecy always began at the top.

Clippers, 2023 nba draft, Emoni Bates, Kawhi Leonard, Lawrence Frank, Tyronn Lue

Leonard suffered a torn ACL in Game 4 of the Clippers' second-round series against the Utah Jazz in 2021, and yet the Clippers considered him day-to-day moving forward. Could you argue it was a little gamesmanship? Absolutely. But it was the start of a pattern of habitual secrecy around Leonard and his unfortunate injury history. When it came to other players on the team, however, those would be properly updated.

Even asking about Kawhi Leonard's replacement in the starting lineup elicited outrage, or so I was led to believe. During the 2020-21 season, when press conferences were held on Zoom, I always started pressers off in a light manner by asking about the starting lineup before diving into the games and matchups.

I did the same ahead of Game 5 against the Jazz, Leonard's eventual first absence, asking Lue who would be replacing Leonard in the starting lineup if he couldn't go. I didn't necessarily expect an answer, but I was curious what he was looking for in that position. Lue laughed and essentially said he couldn't tell me that.

At the conclusion of the Zoom call, I received an unexpected phone call from someone in the room with Lue asking what I was thinking, stating that the Clippers’ head coach was fuming at the question, and that “it would be a good idea not to make an enemy out of him.”

After reaching out to the head coach personally, ClutchPoints discovered that Lue was not at all upset, and rather confused at the claim that he was.

A prime example of dishonesty and for what? To this day, no explanation has been given.

On another occasion, Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle, stayed after a practice to watch his nephew shoot around as Leonard neared a return from injury. When we began recording him, Robertson whistled at reporters, waved at them, and aggressively motioned his hand back and forth under his chin as if to say, “Cut it out!”

Leonard’s uncle.

Kawhi Leonard wanted to start his shooting drills after practice but couldn’t because media were there.

We were told to stop filming and Leonard began his drills after we left. pic.twitter.com/GovmDkSj5R

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) December 7, 2024

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Just a couple of examples of fishiness around the organization. These issues went even beyond Leonard.

After moving out of Staples Center, the Clippers were less interested in helping tell the stories about their hometown stars or all-time greats and became increasingly concerned about why reporters were “negative” on social media during the team’s struggles, why a player was being asked about impending free agency rumors, and the appearance of a half-empty Intuit Dome.

As a colleague of mine noted recently, it highlighted their vast insecurities about playing in a city shared with the 17-time NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers. That franchise has stumbled backwards into multiple superstar players for a decade now. The Clippers, on the other hand, were forced by Leonard to trade a future two-time MVP of the league along with five future draft picks and, according to Wachtell Lipton's findings, find him additional off-court income opportunities just to secure his commitment to the franchise.

With what’s transpired in the last few months, the Clippers have to get back to being genuine to their inexplicably loyal fanbase and helping tell the basketball stories that should be told. They’ll never win the city of Los Angeles away from the Lakers, that’s certain. But they damn sure won’t be able to carve their own lane in the city with cap circumvention schemes, rising ticket costs, fewer season ticket holder perks, concerns about reporters' critical, albeit correct, social media posts, in-arena gimmicks, and by being unaccommodating to their local media.

Their recent video featuring interim governor John Gibson could not have been a worse start. First, the YouTube video is, as of right now, unlisted and not discoverable on the team’s page or through the platform’s search bar. You can only view the video if you have the link.

Second, it took about five seconds to realize Gibson's nearly five-minute speech is being read entirely off a teleprompter and about 20 seconds to feel how cringeworthy and inauthentic the video — and the message it's relaying — is. You don't have to take my word for it. Watch the video for yourself or read the thoughts of actual fans in the comment section.

Lastly, Gibson and the Clippers did not take any accountability for their actions in the video, but did mention the importance of, “integrity,” and called this a “defining moment” for the franchise while vowing to be better.

It seems impossible to do, but the Clippers keep one-upping themselves this offseason. Basketball cannot be back sooner for the franchise that has actually put together a solid roster that should be highly competitive in the Western Conference. Everyone on this roster will have something to prove, and that's usually when Tyronn Lue's teams perform at their best.

In the last few months, trading away Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and Ivica Zubac has given the Clippers something to look forward to from a player perspective and has also absolutely saved them from an asset perspective.

The hope is that everyone can finally move on sooner than later from Kawhi Leonard, the salary cap circumvention scandal, and the way they operated during his now-regrettable tenure here as a Clipper. Get back to prioritizing your fans, bring back heightened transparency, authenticity, and integrity, and continue building on the identity you had which NBA fans fell in love with before giving literally everything up for Leonard.