Through his philanthropic arm, the Ballmer Group, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer donated $1.875MM to the Golden State Opportunity Fund, a charity whose founder is disgraced former Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg, Pablo Torre reported on Monday on his Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast (YouTube link).
Ballmer’s donation came in December 2024, more than a year-and-a-half after the Clippers ended their contract with Aspiration, and nearly a year after it was publicly reported that the now-bankrupt “green bank” company was under federal investigation, per Torre. It also came a couple months after Sanberg’s co-conspirator was arrested.
It’s the latest update in an ongoing investigation from Torre, other members of the media, and the NBA, which hired a law firm to determine whether the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard circumvented the salary cap through their deals with Aspiration.
In a public statement on Monday, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank reiterated the Clippers “welcome” the league’s investigation and denied the accusations (Twitter video link via Joey Linn of SI.com).
“We feel confident we are on the right side of this,” Frank said in part.
For his part, Kawhi Leonard denied any wrongdoing and said he was focused on the upcoming season (Twitter links via Law Murray of The Athletic). Leonard mentioned “conspiracies” multiple times, according to Murray.
“This is old… we already knew this was going to happen,” Leonard said.
Here’s more from the Clippers’ Media Day:
- Bradley Beal had arthroscopic surgery sometime after the season ended, tweets Murray. Beal said he was playing through right knee inflammation last season with Phoenix and had the knee scoped, which helped, as he’s feeling “good” and “ready to go” now. However, the team said he would be a limited training camp participant, according to Murray, who adds (via Twitter) that Bogdan Bogdanovic (torn hamstring) will also be a limited participant. Leonard is considered healthy and a full participant.
- Beal, who signed a two-year deal (second year player option) with the Clippers after being bought out by the Suns, says he loves living in Los Angeles and has talked with Frank about potentially ending his career with the team (Twitter links via Murray). The three-time All-Star knows he won’t be a primary scoring option for the Clippers and is welcoming the challenge of taking on tough defensive assignments.
- Head coach Tyronn Lue views offseason acquisition John Collins as a power forward who can play some backup center at times, per Murray (Twitter link). The Clippers landed Collins in the three-team trade that sent Norman Powell to Miami. The 28-year-old big man will earn $26.58MM this season before hitting free agency next summer.
Pablo could find a hand written note confessing to all of the accusations written by Steve Ballmer himself and I’m convinced Adam Silver will still say “we don’t have a smoking gun yet”
Ballmer and Kawhi are so dirty on this. But the playbook is: never admit, always deny, and go on attack. They haven’t gone on attack yet.
Off topic: What if Kuminga got a no show endorsement deal on top of his 2 year and team option third year? Would that convince him to take it?
This whole Ballmer-Aspiration is rather yawn inducing. He has hired 25+ employees to spend $85 billion dollars over the past 10 years to invest in projects like Aspiration. That’s 100s of projects. I guess that is 100s of smoking guns. There is no evidence that he skirted the CBA. You need some sort paper trail that shows they planned to skirt the CBA. Appearances aren’t evidence of guilt.
“Some sort of paper trail? No evidence ….really none?
If I had to guess you haven’t watched a second of any of the Pablo podcasts correct?
Honest Q ?
You are right. I haven’t watched any of it. Nothing I have heard sounds questionable. It all sounds like something he has been doing for decades. Are there any emails or texts telling them to hire kawhi and not have him do any work?
Are you illiterate or just a fox and friends republican?
This looks very bad for Clippers/Ballmer/Kwahi:
“Ballmer’s donation came in December 2024, more than a year-and-a-half after the Clippers ended their contract with Aspiration, and nearly a year after it was publicly reported that the now-bankrupt “green bank” company was under federal investigation.”
Do yourself a favor. Look up Golden State Opportunity Fund. You can lookup the donors to the fund. Not a smoking gun. Not even a water pistol.
What exactly was Kawhi paid Pablo? Think you’ll find Kawhi like everyone else got scammed. Why not mention this? Why can’t you do similar reporting on other star players, ball clubs and owners. What would you find? This is a complete non story where punishment, if any, will be sweet F all. Attacking the Clippers is a bit gutless. Try the lakers or warriors and see the reaction. I mean the backlash from all the Clippers fans around the world must be huge, lols. Torre wants back on a real network or streaming service…this podcast stuff isn’t as profitable for him. Only telling parts of the truth for self gain.
Torre is attacking the Clippers because they’re the ones who did all this shady s**t, not because they’re your favorite team. He’s done it to others too. I’m sure you’ll enjoy what he finds out about Brunson’s team-friendly deal.
Clippers aren’t my favourite team. I’ve never met a clippers fan in my life. Think you’ll find Kawhi stopped getting paid and the stocks he received would be absolutely useless. Point me in the direction of Torres’ deep dive into others. That should be an interesting read.
Kawhi didn’t receive any stocks from Aspiration.
What Ballmer done that is shady?
You are apparently immune to facts
At this point nothing provable….he has merely been convicted in the court of personal opinion and social media, nothing more, nothing less. I have my speculations and doubts but that’s not substantial enough to warrant penalties and or fines being levied just yet. The mass public just wants to convict regardless of truth.
I’m a Beal fan, but I’ve heard these same preseason comments (and knee maintenance) with the Suns. Expecting something different from him would be like asking him to play more like Jrue Holiday.
where’s the new kawhi & new balance ads at? keep seeing the old ones still lol.