The Los Angeles Clippers are claim a former strength and conditioning coach asked for millions of dollars from the franchise before filing his wrongful termination lawsuit in October. Randy Shelton sued the Clippers and Lawrence Frank saying he was punished for expressing concerns about how Kawhi Leonard’s injuries were managed.
The Clippers asked that the dispute be settled by arbitration, as per the terms of the employment contract Shelton signed in November 2021. The Clippers terminated Shelton in July 2023 and paid his salary through the end of his contract in June 2024.
“That should have been the end of the matter,” the Clippers said in their response. “But [Shelton] misperceived himself as a crusader and wanted attention. After cashing the last of the Clippers’ checks, he demanded that the Clippers pay him millions of dollars for the imagined wrongs asserted in his complaint. When the team refused, he sued.”
In his lawsuit, Shelton alleged that he was hired as part of a yearslong recruiting campaign to lure Leonard and said the Clippers “leapt well beyond the bounds of the NBA constitution” with respect to potential tampering violations. Shelton also alleged that the team’s “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 said the Clippers placed more of an emphasis on Leonard’s productivity than his recovery.