Clippers reject NBA findings, but reportedly have no avenue for appeal

The Clippers aren’t going quietly. Exactly where they intend to go, however, is another question.

Hours after the NBA handed down massive penalties over salary-cap circumvention involving Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles issued a blistering statement rejecting the league’s findings and promising to challenge them.

“We 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,” the Clippers said.

The team also alleged that what the NBA told the Clippers privately differed from what the league announced publicly Wednesday.

“For the past year, we cooperated fully and in good faith and we will now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence,” the statement continued.

“We intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward to an ethical and impartial arbitration process.”

There may be a problem with that last part. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the NBA’s rulings are final and there is no formal appeal or arbitration process available to the Clippers through the league. Charania reports that the Clippers’ only avenue to challenge the punishment is in court.

The NBA announced Wednesday that an independent investigation conducted by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz found that the Clippers violated salary-cap circumvention rules involving Leonard.

The punishment included the loss of five first-round draft picks and a $30 million fine, along with suspensions for owner Steve Ballmer, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank and president of business operations Gillian Zucker.

Leonard was fined $700,000, while his uncle and former representative, Dennis Robertson, was banned from conducting business with NBA teams. So the Clippers clearly intend to fight.

If Charania’s reporting is correct, they’ll have to take that fight outside the NBA to do it.