The NBA investigation into whether payments from Clippers team sponsors to star player Kawhi Leonard were a prohibited attempt to circumvent the salary cap has moved to a contentious discussion phase between the team and the league, people with knowledge of the case not authorized to discuss it publicly confirmed to The Times on Monday.
ESPN reported that the probe conducted on behalf of the NBA by high-powered New York law firm Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz has found no evidence establishing that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through Aspiration Partners, Daktronics or other team sponsors to pay Leonard millions of dollars in excess of his player contract.
However, the NBA issued a statement that read: “ESPN’s article regarding the LA Clippers investigation — for which the NBA declined to cooperate — contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded.”
The Clippers’ stance has not changed since it was reported on Pablo Torre’s podcast 11 months ago that Ballmer invested $60 million in Aspiration, a self-described “socially-conscious and sustainable banking services” firm that in turn promised Leonard $28 million in an endorsement deal.
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“The Clippers introduced players, including Kawhi Leonard, to companies with which we had business relationships,” the Clippers said Monday in a statement to The Times. “Making introductions between players and team partners is both an ordinary practice by NBA teams and a common request of players and representatives.
“From there, Kawhi and his representatives handled their own negotiations. The Clippers did not negotiate or dictate the terms of Kawhi’s endorsement agreements or determine what he would be paid.”
There is no evidence that Leonard did endorsement work for Aspiration, which went bankrupt and saw its co-founder Joseph Sanberg sentenced to 14 years in prison in June for defrauding investors and lenders of over $248 million.
ESPN reported that the NBA probe has shifted from Ballmer’s involvement to whether the Clippers’ introduction of Leonard to team sponsors was done in an acceptable manner. The outlet reported the two sides met recently to discuss the probe’s preliminary findings as well as a resolution, but no agreement has been reached. The Clippers can request arbitration if they oppose the findings.
Read more:Questions over Kawhi Leonard payments put focus on NBA salary cap
The Clippers contend they did nothing different than numerous other teams across the sports landscape do by introducing a player to a potential sponsor. The difference, they say, was that Leonard’s Aspiration deal was made public when the company filed for bankruptcy.
“The fact that a player has an endorsement relationship with a company that also does business with his team is not evidence of salary-cap circumvention,” the Clippers said in their statement. “After nearly a year of scrutiny, the central fact remains true and unchanged: the Clippers did not funnel money to Kawhi Leonard, arrange for others to compensate him on our behalf, or otherwise provide him with undisclosed compensation outside of his NBA contract.”
Over time, the case has added layers of complexity. Torre reported on his podcast Aug. 6 that Leonard had a second lucrative undisclosed sponsorship agreement with a company doing business with the team. Scoreboard manufacturer Daktronics, which built the $100-million video board at the Clippers’ Intuit Dome, hired Leonard to a multimillion-dollar endorsement deal for which he did no work, according to Torre.
The topic was raised on the podcast by a person identified as an “anonymous high-level source under contract for Intuit Dome.” The person alleged in an interview that the sponsorship deal was “1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap. It was funneling money from the Clippers through Daktronics back to Kawhi.”
The endorsement deal with Daktronics raised suspicion because the company doesn’t do business with the general public and doesn’t need prominent athletes or celebrities to pitch its products.
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Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO and one of the wealthiest people in the world, was added as a defendant in a civil lawsuit against Sanberg and others associated with Aspiration — renamed Catona Climate in 2025 just before the bankruptcy filing — brought by 11 investors in the company. Ballmer and other defendants are accused of fraud and aiding and abetting fraud, with the plaintiffs seeking at least $50 million in damages.
“Ballmer was the perfect deep-pocket partner to fund Catona’s flagging operations and lend legitimacy to Catona’s carbon credit business,” says the amended complaint viewed by The Times. “Since Ballmer had publicly promoted himself as an advocate for sustainability, Catona was an ideal vehicle for Ballmer to secretly circumvent the NBA salary cap while purporting to support the company as a legitimate environmentalist investor.”
Leonard was traded by the Clippers to the Toronto Raptors on June 30, but the teams put the deal on hold pending the outcome of the investigation after the NBA stated the Raptors would inherit any sanctions on Leonard triggered by the probe if it finalized the trade. NBA commissioner Adam Silver is pressing for the case to be wrapped up before the regular season begins in October.
The salary cap limits what teams can spend on player payroll to ensure parity and prevent the wealthiest teams from outspending smaller-market teams to acquire the best players. Silver has called attempts to circumvent it a “cardinal sin.”
Salary-cap circumvention allegations first surfaced with Leonard during his free agency in 2019 after he led the Raptors to the NBA championship and was being courted by the Lakers and Clippers.
Negotiations with the Lakers ceased when Leonard’s uncle, Dennis Robertson, requested a house, the use of private aircraft, guaranteed off-court earnings and an ownership stake in the team, according to the Athletic. The Lakers informed Leonard’s representatives that those requests violated the NBA collective bargaining agreement and Leonard eventually signed with the Clippers, where he played the past seven seasons.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
