Ex-Clippers employee files lawsuit, saying he was fired over Kawhi concerns

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, accusing him of wrongful termination He had raised 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 as strength and conditioning coach on July 1, 2019 after a similar one in San Diego State, where he worked with Leonard before moving to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2011 NBA Draft.

Shelton said he was part of a multi-year effort to recruit Leonard that “went well beyond the bounds of the NBA Constitution” regarding possible tampering violations.

He is seeking “significant” but unspecified damages in court, his lawyers 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 take down the Clippers based on allegations that Mr. Shelton should know are false.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

In his discussions, Shelton said the Clippers manager “talked about bringing Shelton into the Clippers organization as a strength and conditioning coach, given the personal relationship and trust Leonard had with 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 until 2017, when Leonard’s prominence increased with the Spurs, where he Won a title in 2014 and earned Finals MVP honors.

Shelton claims the Clippers’ recruiting efforts “disregarded the NBA’s prohibitions on tampering.” Article 35 of the NBA Constitution prohibits teams from attempting “directly or indirectly” to persuade players under contract with one team to join another 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 “prestigious position at San Diego State.”

Clippers staff 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 public comments made by then-Clippers coach Doc Rivers , in which Leonard was compared to Michael Jordan.

After the Clippers signed Leonard in July 2019, Frank said during an introductory press conference: “We never had a conversation with Kawhi or any of his people. We always felt like we were very, very transparent when we did it out front. “We know the rules. We follow the rules [Clippers owner Steve Ballmer] does business, his integrity is No. 1. We will always stay above the line.”

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

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

Leonard suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in the second round of the 2021 playoffs, underwent surgery in July 2021 and was forced to sit out the 2021-22 NBA season.

Shelton said the recovery goal for Leonard, who has “previously suffered numerous injuries,” should have been 730 days, but the Clippers deemed that time frame “unacceptable.”

He said that in a meeting with members of the Clippers’ medical team in August 2022, it was agreed that the team would use load management principles on Leonard, prevent him from playing in back-to-back games 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 games in the first two weeks of the season with knee problems and then, Shelton said, suffered torn ligaments in his right ankle on Nov. 21, 2022, which cost 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 Frank a complaint about his diminished role and how the team handled Leonard’s health. In it, he said he found that “the mishandling of Kawhi Leonard’s injury and return protocol was staggering” and that “the disregard for his recovery process is unacceptable.” Shelton also said the Clippers placed more emphasis on Leonard’s productivity than his recovery.

The next day, Frank responded, “We take your concerns very seriously and will begin an immediate investigation.”

Shelton said his allegations were unfounded and that Frank terminated him in July 2023 without explanation. He said he received no compensation for wages owed, including expenses and reimbursements.

“We hope that our client’s lawsuit will serve as a wake-up call to the Clippers organization that its players are not just dollar values, but also people who need appropriate – and not rushed – health and recovery treatment for their careers and lives afterward need,” John David, one of Shelton’s lawyers, wrote in a statement to ESPN.

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

Last season, Leonard played 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 nomination .

But his health continues to be a problem.

Leonard has missed 179 of a possible 435 games since joining the Clippers in 2019 and is out indefinitely earlier this season as he deals with inflammation in his right knee.