Justice Dept. Investigating Clippers’ Dealings With Kawhi

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have opened a criminal investigation into the Clippers following allegations that the team circumvented the NBA’s salary cap to pay Kawhi Leonard more than his typical salary through a series of “no-show” endorsement deals, report Michael S. Schmidt, William K. Rashbaum and Santul Nerkar of The New York Times. Two people familiar with the matter said the criminal inquiry “is in its earliest stages,” per The New York Times. According to Schmidt, Rashbaum and Nerkar, the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn began looking at the allegations before the NBA announced the results — and major penalties…