The LA Clippers and workforce proprietor Steve Ballmer reportedly have been accused of circumventing the NBA’s wage cap by paying $28 million to Kawhi Leonard for a “no-show job.”
Pablo Torre, a podcaster and former ESPN contributor, reported Wednesday that the Clippers paid Leonard by a now-bankrupt firm owned by Ballmer.
NBA spokesman Mike Bass mentioned in a press release later Wednesday that the league was “conscious of this morning’s media report relating to the LA Clippers and [is] commencing an investigation.”
Within the newest episode of his “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast, Torre cited a trove of inside paperwork from the corporate Aspiration, which Ballmer partially funded with a $50 million funding by his private LLC on Sept. 14, 2021.
Later that month, on Sept. 27, 2021, the Clippers introduced a $300 million partnership with the now-bankrupt Aspiration, together with sponsorship within the workforce’s new area and on the workforce’s jersey patch.
In response to Torre, Leonard agreed to a four-year, $28 million endorsement deal in April 2022 by his LLC, KL2 Aspire. The endorsement deal got here 9 months after Leonard signed a four-year, $176.3 million contract to stay with the Clippers — the utmost allowed on the time below the NBA’s collective bargaining settlement.
A clause in one of many paperwork purportedly obtained by Torre states that the deal between Aspiration and KL2 Aspire could be voided if Leonard left the Clippers. In response to Torre, Leonard additionally may “decline to proceed with any motion desired” by Aspiration and proceed to be paid.
An unnamed worker who purportedly labored for Aspiration informed Torre that the cost to Leonard “was to bypass the wage cap.”
“Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the wage cap or engaged in any misconduct associated to Aspiration,” the Clippers mentioned. “Any opposite assertion is provably false: The workforce ended its relationship with Aspiration years in the past, throughout the 2022-23 season, when Aspiration defaulted on its obligations. Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Ballmer was conscious of any improper exercise by Aspiration or its co-founder till after the federal government instituted its investigation. The workforce and Mr. Ballmer stand prepared to help regulation enforcement in any method they will.”
Aspiration filed for chapter in March 2025. The corporate is below federal investigation for fraud, and Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg, 46, pled responsible to 2 counts of wire fraud in late August to defrauding traders and lenders of greater than $248 million.
Beneath the circumvention guidelines of the NBA’s 2023 collective bargaining settlement, groups will be punished for circumventing the league’s wage cap. Penalties can embody fines as much as $7.5 million, direct forfeiture of draft picks, voiding any participant contract and a suspension — as much as a yr — for any workforce personnel discovered to have engaged in such a violation.
The Clippers, in a second assertion later Wednesday that reiterated most of the identical factors, mentioned, “The notion that Steve invested in Aspiration with a purpose to funnel cash to Kawhi Leonard is absurd.”
“… There’s nothing uncommon or untoward about workforce sponsors doing endorsement offers with gamers on the identical workforce. Neither Steve nor the Clippers group had any oversight of Kawhi’s unbiased endorsement settlement with Aspiration. To say in any other case is flat-out fallacious,” the workforce mentioned.
“The Clippers take NBA compliance extraordinarily severely, totally respect the league’s guidelines, and welcome its investigation associated to Aspiration.”
In 2000, it was found that the Minnesota Timberwolves engaged in an unlawful secret settlement with Joe Smith by allegedly promising to pay him a future multimillion-dollar deal if he signed with the workforce on a shorter contract for much less cash.
The NBA penalized the Timberwolves by eradicating 5 first-round draft picks, fining the workforce $3.5 million and banning head coach Kevin McHale and proprietor Glen Taylor for a season, together with voiding the contracts for Smith.
The NBA fined the Clippers $50,000 in Could 2019 for violating tampering guidelines after then-Clippers head coach Doc Rivers made public remarks evaluating Leonard, who was then with the Toronto Raptors, to Michael Jordan.
The NBA investigated the Clippers after allegations emerged that Leonard and his camp, led by his uncle Dennis Robertson, made improper requests of groups throughout his free company in the summertime of 2019. Such requests, The Athletic reported on the time, included half possession of the workforce, entry to a non-public airplane, a home and assured off-court endorsement cash.
The NBA once more fined the Clippers $50,000 in November 2019 for feedback that Rivers made that “have been inconsistent” with Leonard’s well being.
The NBA investigated allegations involving the Clippers’ free agent pursuit of Leonard following a December 2020 lawsuit filed by a person named Johnny Wilkes, who alleged that he helped the Clippers purchase Leonard in trade for a $2.5 million cost from Clippers advisor Jerry West. The Clippers denied the allegations, and the lawsuit was dismissed. No penalty was issued by the league.
Leonard, 34, most not too long ago signed a three-year, $153 million deal in January 2024 to stay below contract with the Clippers by the 2026-27 season.
The Clippers are also combating a 2024 lawsuit by former energy and conditioning coach Randy Shelton, who sued the workforce and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank, alleging wrongful termination partly for elevating issues concerning the administration of Leonard’s well being and accidents.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks contributed to this report.
