Ex-Clips staffer: Fired for questioning Kawhi care

Baxter Holmes

ESPN Senior Writer

Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) is a senior writer for ESPN Digital and Print, focusing on the NBA. He has covered the Lakers, the Celtics and previously worked for The Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times.Ramona Shelburne

Ramona Shelburne

ESPN Senior Writer

Senior writer for ESPN.comSpent seven years at the Los Angeles Daily NewsOct 24, 2024, 04:12 PM ET

A former LA Clippers strength and conditioning coach who says he was hired in 2019 as part of a years-long campaign to recruit Kawhi Leonard has sued the team and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank, alleging wrongful termination in part for raising concerns about the management of Leonard’s health and injuries.

The lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN, was filed Thursday in Los Angeles County by attorneys representing Randy Shelton, who joined the Clippers on July 1, 2019, as a strength and conditioning coach after serving in a similar role at San Diego State, where he worked with Leonard before he joined the San Antonio Spurs in the 2011 NBA draft.

Shelton said he was part of a multiyear effort to recruit Leonard that “leapt well beyond the bounds of the NBA constitution” with respect to potential tampering violations.

He is seeking “significant” but unspecified damages at trial, his attorneys told ESPN.

The Clippers issued a statement denying the allegations.

“Mr. Shelton’s claims were investigated and found to be without merit. We honored Mr. Shelton’s employment contract and paid him in full,” the team said. “This lawsuit is a belated attempt to shake down the Clippers based on accusations that Mr. Shelton should know are false.”

Through a spokesperson, the NBA said it was unaware of the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, Shelton said the Clippers first contacted him in 2017 after Leonard, who was then under contract with the Spurs, suffered a severe ankle injury in Game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference finals against the Golden State Warriors.

That injury ended Leonard’s postseason, and he missed the first 27 games of the next season with a right quadriceps injury. Leonard’s injury and subsequent rehab created a rift with the Spurs, leading him to seek a second opinion outside of the organization.

Beginning in 2017, while Leonard remained under contract with the Spurs, Shelton said a Clippers executive contacted him to seek “private health information” about Leonard and expressed the need for “discretion.” The two sides spoke approximately 15 times on the phone and had at least seven meetings, according to the lawsuit, as the Clippers sought to learn more about Leonard’s contractual obligations with the Spurs and his medical situation.

In June 2018, Spurs president RC Buford acknowledged that the team was willing to “explore all of our options” as Leonard had grown disgruntled with the franchise.

The Clippers were one of the teams that sought to acquire Leonard, but ultimately he was traded to the Toronto Raptors in July 2018 and brought the franchise its first title in 2019. Leonard became an unrestricted free agent after that season.

In his conversations, Shelton said the Clippers executive “discussed bringing Shelton into the Clippers’ organization as a strength and conditioning coach, given the personal relationship and trust that Leonard had in Shelton.”

After Leonard left San Diego State, Shelton said he was hired by Leonard to help him prepare for the NBA and that they maintained a relationship through 2017 as Leonard’s stardom rose with the Spurs, where he won a title in 2014, earning Finals MVP honors.

Shelton alleges that the Clippers’ recruiting efforts were in “disregard for the NBA’s prohibitions on tampering.” Article 35 of the NBA’s constitution prohibits teams from “directly or indirectly” attempting to entice players under contract with one team to join a different team.

Shelton said he was “promised a bright future with the Clippers” and that at the time he “had a thriving business in San Diego” and a “respected position with San Diego State.”

Clippers personnel attended many of Leonard’s games in Toronto during the 2018-19 season, and the team was fined $50,000 by the NBA in May 2019 for then-Clippers coach Doc Rivers’ public comments that compared Leonard to Michael Jordan.

After the Clippers signed Leonard in July 2019, Frank said during an introductory news conference, “We never had a conversation with Kawhi or with any of his people. We always felt by doing it out in front that we were being very, very transparent. We know the rules. We follow the rules. With how [Clippers owner Steve Ballmer] does business, his integrity is No. 1. We are always going to be above the line.”

But on or around February 2019, Shelton said he met in San Diego with Frank, who “personally assured” him that he would have a role on the team’s strength and conditioning staff if Leonard joined the Clippers. Shelton said he met with the Clippers again during the Raptors’ playoff run regarding Leonard’s willingness to join the team.

The Clippers hired Shelton in July 2019. Soon after joining the team, Shelton said his role was diminished, that he was excluded from meetings and that information about Leonard’s health was withheld from him.

Leonard suffered an ACL tear in his right knee in the second round of the 2021 playoffs, underwent surgery in July 2021 and sat out the 2021-22 NBA season.

Shelton said the recovery target for Leonard, who “has suffered numerous injuries previously,” should have been 730 days, but the Clippers considered that timeline “unacceptable.”

He said that in an August 2022 meeting with members of the Clippers’ medical team, it was agreed that the team would apply load management principles for Leonard, restrict him from playing in back-to-backs and limit his minutes as he recovered.

Leonard returned to action in October 2022, 16 months after the injury, but complained of swelling and inflammation after two games. Leonard missed 12 straight games, returning less than a month later. Then, Shelton said, Leonard suffered two ruptured ligaments in his right ankle on Nov. 21, 2022, costing him six more games early in the season.

Later that season, Leonard tore his right meniscus in a playoff series against the Phoenix Suns. After that injury, Shelton said he wrote a complaint to Frank about his diminished role and how the team had managed Leonard’s health. In it, he said he noted that the “mishandling of Kawhi Leonard’s injury and return-to-play protocol has been mind-blowing” and that “the disregard for his recovery process is unacceptable.” Shelton also said the Clippers had placed more of an emphasis on Leonard’s productivity than his recovery.

The following day, Frank responded, stating, “We take your concerns very seriously and will promptly move forward with an investigation.”

Shelton said his allegations were found to be unsubstantiated and that Frank terminated him without cause in July 2023. He said he was not compensated for wages owed, including expenses and reimbursements.

“We hope that our client’s lawsuit will serve as a wakeup call to the Clippers organization that their players are not just dollar values but are humans requiring proper — and not hastened — health and recovery treatment for the careers and lives afterwards,” John David, one of Shelton’s attorneys, wrote in a statement to ESPN.

Shelton’s attorneys also said their client would cooperate with any investigation into the Clippers’ conduct.

Last season, Leonard played in 68 regular-season games — his most since 2016-17 — and averaged 23.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.6 steals while earning his sixth All-Star nod.

But his health has remained an issue.

Leonard has missed 179 of a possible 435 games since joining the Clippers in 2019, and he remains sidelined indefinitely to start this season while rehabbing inflammation in his right knee.