A $28MM endorsement deal signed by Kawhi Leonard could land the Clippers in hot water with the league.
According to an investigation by ESPN’s Pablo Torre on his “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast (Twitter video link), Leonard performed no work for an allegedly fraudulent tree-planting company funded by $50MM from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer.
The endorsement deal could be construed as a means to circumvent the salary cap, which would carry heavy penalties from the league.
After leading the Raptors to the 2019 championship, Leonard declined his player option and became an unrestricted free agent. Leonard chose to sign with the Clippers on a three-year, $103.1MM deal in July of that year. He has subsequent signed a pair of extensions with the franchise.
The “tree brokerage” company named Aspiration filed for bankruptcy in March 2025. Among the list of creditors is KL2 Aspire LLC with Leonard named as the manager or member. The company owed KL2 Aspire LLC $7MM.
Torre couldn’t find any evidence that Leonard actually performed any work for the company, unlike other celebrity endorsers. Torre interviewed seven former employees of the company, one of whom provided a document showing Leonard was to receive $7MM over four years in the marketing agreement. According to a former Aspiration employee who worked in the finance department, Leonard “didn’t have to do anything.”
The Clippers denied any wrongdoing. The organization provided Torre with a statement that read, “Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration. Any contrary assertion is provably false.”
Back in 2000, the league and then-commissioner David Stern issued harsh penalties against the Timberwolves due to salary cap violations. Minnesota signed former No. 1 overall pick Joe Smith to a series of one-year contracts below market value with the promise of giving him a long-term deal that would pay him up to $86MM over seven seasons.
As Spotrac contributor Keith Smith notes (Twitter link), Smith’s contract was voided and the Timberwolves were fined $3.5MM and had five first-round picks forfeited (the team later recouped two of those picks). Owner Glen Taylor was suspended and general manager Kevin McHale was forced to take a leave of absence.
For what it’s worth, Stern had a reputation for handing out harsher discipline than current commissioner Adam Silver. In recent years, teams found to have engaged in free agent gun-jumping or tampering violations have typically been docked a single second-round pick. However, if an NBA investigation determines the Clippers were circumventing the cap via this agreement with Leonard, it seems safe to assume the penalty would be more significant than that.
Oh boy. This might get ugly and Clippers might be set as an example for other owners/franchises/players.
Billionaires should no longer be allowed to own companies. They are all bad, corrupt, amoral lunatics who destroy everything they touch.
They are the only ones employing people
Best to look up stats. 47% of small businesses employ Americans. 14% are employed by local, state, military, and fed jobs.
When you come down to it, consumers are the job creators. What business could survive without people buying their goods?
Saying this as a San Francisco sports fan is so funny. LOOK AROUND BOSS ahahahaha
Huh? What?
San Francisco is literally the capital for billionaires in the US….
Who else is going to pay the ridiculous salaries?
Why would he need a no-show job? He already has one. He has barely played half of his teams total games over the past 7 seasons.
JS… which clearly shows the no-show $7mil job was perfect for him.
If he actually had to show up for that measly 7mil, none of us would believe he’d do it.
But the no-show for 7? That type of situation should be named after Kawhi.
Clippers are forever the toilet franchise of the nba if this gets them punnished and they lose more of what they already don’t have in picks.
No 7 year rule on docking picks. They may not have one of their own for a long long time.
Doesn’t sound legit at all. You are paying a guy $7 million to do nothing. All the money should go against the cap.
Clippers find an owner who isn’t a human demon challenge: impossible difficulty
Anyone who ever offered or took money from a no-show job should be in prison. No exceptions. No-show jobs are pure corruption and tax theft.
Quote: “The “tree brokerage” company… filed for bankruptcy in March 20025.”
Should be: “… WILL file for bankruptcy in March 20025.”
Clairvoyant but erroneous English nevertheless.
Not sure what the whole fuzz is about. A company that aspires to last for the next 18,000 years sure must have done its homework. Neither Ballmer nor Leonard will be alive at that point anyway. The remnants of humankind have probably move on by then, in order to destroy another planet.
This is exactly why I laugh when people say “such and such player is selfish/greedy and won’t take a pay cut to help his team win under the salary cap” bs. The salary cap is NOT about owners inability to pay a player or a players needs to take $10 million less. The salary cap is there to protect cheap owners who don’t want to win and instead only want to maximize profit. And it’s to protect those owners against owners like Ballmer, who will pay anything to see their team successful.
This entire ordeal shows that there are owners who WANT and are able to spend and there are owners who don’t.
Stop blaming employees for rules cheap employers put in place to depress salaries.
Its not about paying players but avoiding the cap to cheat. This is cheating so why not put teh money against his cap and make him pay and restict spending on future free agents. Every fan wishes their team could cheat like teh Clippers are cheating to sign more players.
It’s definitely about paying players. Does it escape you that Ballmer avoided the cap TO PAY KAWHI LEONARD?
Who do you think is advancing such a punitive salary cap that certain owners are willing to circumvent it to pay their players? Cheap owners. So instead of saying, damn why won’t my owner pay like Ballmer, you’re worried about cheating a system put in place to artificially lower employee salaries. You’re a good company man.
You’re correct, every fan wishes they had a franchise willing to spend whatever.
Of course balmer did it to escaper the tax apron. He should get punished for doing that more than just money but not allow them to sign any free agents above vet min. I also wonder if any other owner is going to get caught doing it too.
Jerry Reinsdorf are you taking notes??? Wins by all means necessary….JK guys but actually not really bc we’re headed towards orphan status soon enough.
:(
He got the money back when he came over from Raptors. Clippers were up against competition then. No wonder he signed with Clippers. In reality Ballmer paid for damaged goods. It hasn’t helped. Still he did try and cheat the system. And got caught. Silver will have to do something.
Clippers have a chance to really do something this year. So this is bad timing.
This is funny
Oh the irony. Does Davey J realize the Warriors owners are billionaires? Steph Curry is close to becoming one. LeBron, Durant and Giannis are well on their way reaching that milestone. I guess they are all evil.
Don’t use logic when trying to digest Davey’s unhinged carping. None was used to form the original thought so you just end up going nowhere lol
Uncle Dennis got caught slippin
I might be crazy but didn’t this somewhat surface when he first signed in LA?
Why should we care? The Large market teams will always be getting the big name free agents. Big market teams like the Bulls spend like they are always near insolvency and they never sign any trio of combination all stars who are looking for a new home and are looking to pair up with fellow players/friends with the hopes of creating a new mega sports championship dynasty n the hopes of contending on a regular basis. That takes money. But the owners like Jerry R., prefer the pauper route, Revenue sharing, just putting enough cash in tomkeep the fans coming thru the gates, buying overpriced merchandise. And finally, the team partners can hit up the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois every couple of years seeking billions of tax free dollars in order to build a new state of the art super duper stadium to replace that old and now considered outdated dilapidated stadium which had to go even that they just built it ten short years ago and the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois (Read tax payers ) will continue on footing both the costs building the new stadium and the interest payments for both the new construction bonds and the old stadium bonds from ten years ago. Nothing plays a fool better than us funding chumps for billionaires!
I didn’t know he was part of the Soprano crew.