Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard is at the center of a brewing controversy after reports emerged that he received $28 million from a bankrupt company without doing any actual work.
The Athletic’s Pablo Torre revealed on his podcast that the six-time All-Star had signed a massive endorsement deal with Aspiration, a “tree brokerage” company that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
The kicker? Leonard reportedly didn’t do any work for the company.
This has raised serious questions about whether the arrangement was actually a sneaky way to pay Leonard extra money outside the NBA’s salary cap rules.
The NBA has launched an investigation into the matter.
Initially, the Clippers issued brief denials to Torre and the Los Angeles Times. Now, they’ve come out swinging with a much stronger statement.
“Neither the Clippers nor Steve Ballmer circumvented the salary cap,” the team insisted. “The notion that Steve invested in Aspiration in order to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard is absurd.”
The Clippers claim Ballmer invested because he believed in Aspiration’s environmental mission.
What went wrong with Aspiration? According to the Clippers, the company’s co-founder Joseph Sanberg recently pleaded guilty to a $243 million fraud that victimized numerous investors, including Ballmer himself.
“Neither Steve nor the Clippers had knowledge of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government initiated its investigation,” the statement continued.
Aspiration was a team sponsor for two seasons before defaulting on its contract.
The Clippers emphasized there’s nothing unusual about team sponsors making deals with players on the same team. They also claimed neither Ballmer nor the organization had any control over Leonard’s “independent endorsement agreement” with Aspiration.
“The Clippers take NBA compliance extremely seriously, fully respect the league’s rules, and welcome its investigation,” the statement concluded.
Torre isn’t backing down. He responded on X (formerly Twitter) that his reporting is backed by over 3,000 pages of documents and seven sources inside Aspiration.
He also challenged specific language used in the team’s statement.
The relationship between the Clippers and Aspiration began in September 2021, when they announced a $300 million partnership. The deal included sponsorship in the team’s new arena and on jersey patches.
Ballmer personally invested $50 million in the company, which was founded in 2013 by Andrei Cherny and Joseph Sanberg.
Now it’s up to NBA investigators to determine if this was simply a failed business relationship or something more problematic for the league’s competitive balance rules.
