The Clippers lone minority owner made a nearly $2MM investment in Aspiration while the company was in dire straits. The San Francisco-based environmental firm then made a $1.75MM quarterly payment to Kawhi Leonard on the same day the company laid off 20 percent of its workforce, Pablo Torre reports on his latest “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast as relayed by The Athletic’s Joe Vardon.
It’s the latest development regarding the potential salary cap circumvention by the Clippers when they signed Leonard as a free agent in 2019. Last week, Torre broke the story that Leonard signed a $28MM endorsement deal with the company, then performed no work after Aspiration received a $50MM investment from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer.
The NBA has hired a law firm to investigate the matter, and commissioner Adam Silver said on Wednesday that the burden of proof is on the league to find any wrongdoing by the Clippers.
Under the terms of the endorsement deal, Leonard was to be paid $1.75MM on a quarterly basis for four years. In December 2022, Clippers minority owner and vice chairman Dennis J. Wong made an almost $2MM investment in Aspiration despite the fact that its independent auditor, KPMG, had resigned, and the company was already facing lawsuits worth millions for missed payments.
Aspiration missed a payment to Leonard in the fall before paying him in December, following Wong’s wire transfer to the firm, according to documents obtained by Torre. Payments to Leonard were marked as “critical.”
Leonard’s uncle and business manager Dennis Robertson had repeatedly contacting the company about the missed payment.
“There’s a huge freeze because there’s no money to be spent. So from the finance team’s perspective, we feel like we’re on the other end of collections calls. People are constantly coming in asking for their money. Between those months when all of this is missing – so September, October, November, and leading up to December, the actual certainty of the company even existing is up for grabs,” a former Aspiration employee told Torre. “At that point, are we gonna get paid as employees? Why does Uncle Dennis keep calling us? We have such bigger concerns that we’re thinking about, which is our own salaries. Are we gonna have to go through layoffs? Where is the money gonna come from? But lo and behold. Uncle Dennis gets paid.”
The Clippers issued a statement to Torre, which read, “The details of our relationship with Aspiration are under NBA investigation, but it is clear the company was a house of cards that defrauded Steve and many others. We look forward to sharing the facts with the league and providing them with all the information they need.”
Leonard is well known as one of the worst human beings in sports today, so the scummy business tactics are hardly surprising. The Raptors were also asked to do the same kind of things.
I hope that this new information will result in some kind of suspension or ban from the league. All fans would be better off for it.
Yeah that sand castle is looking worse and worse.
I love that Pablo Torre is releasing revelations after allowing people to comment and defend their actions. Makes their comments look even worse after more details are being released.
Let’s be serious now. There are guys with domestic violence issues, bigots, and a slew of real despicable issues. Kawhi was asking for business deals outside of the CBA.
Not great. But nowhere near “one of the worst human beings in sports” today
He’s just probably unethical. But, has he physically or emotionally harmed anyone? So from a business standpoint you can’t trust the guy but otherwise not the worst human.
Was Ballmer on vacation so Wong had to cover the “critical” Kawhi payment?
This really complicates the “we didn’t know what Aspiration was doing” defense…
If this is true, that is all that the league needs to drop the hammer.
The person who needs to be investigated is Leonard’s uncle. Worst agents in NBA history and one of the most corrupt. But he will skate, just like Leonard.
I wonder if LAC thinks the Leonard signings were good for their team? I would be getting out of the Kawhi Leonard business if i was the Clips…tank start all over, if there are any draft picks left. Bradley Beal must be real happy right about now.
I just saw this from Torre:
“Dennis Wong, Chairman of the Clippers, had a daughter who worked at Aspiration under the title “Project Manager, Operations and Strategy”.
WOW.
NBAisOK, if you haven’t watched the entire original Pablo Torre broadcast, you really should. It’s only 70 minutes, but he makes sense of all the pieces in a way you can’t if you get it piecemeal.
There hasn’t been “plausible deniability” for Ballmer and Kahwi since that podcast. Incredibly, most of the media doesn’t seem to have acquainted themselves fully with it.
Maybe the league should just hire Pablo to investigate this instead of the law firm. I hope he keeps dropping these nuggets and puts Silver into a corner to force him to drop the hammer on the Clippers. These are the types of issues that if the league tries to sweep under the rug, could turn fans away from the league, especially those in smaller markets.
We all know that the only thing that Skeletor cares about is the $$$ lining his pockets.
Maybe it’s time for a new commissioner? One who demands respect and advocates safety and security before profits. Adam Silver sleeps in a suit because it makes him feel important; imo the league would benefit from a facelift with someone who understands the game. Maybe then these things wouldn’t happen.. juust a thought.
@noname617, Adam Silver gave Donald Sterling 3 weeks to sell the Cliopers in 2014, and against opposition of most NBA owners.
It was referred to as the “death penalty” — the most severe penalty to owners in the history of N. American pro sports. Roger Goodell, Bud Selig, or, even, David Srern would not have done that.
Is it true Doc Rivers was an investor in Aspiration? As more details are revealed, it seems the scammer was perhaps the the “fall guy”, thank you Chris Carter for that thought. What a group of pathetic, stupid losers, completely incompetent but now with the spotlight thoroughly entertaining. Like David Copperfield, the Clippers, the NBA and ESPN have a magic act that disappears their fanbase. But regardless of how corrupt this makes the NBA look to the fans, Skeletor will likely cover this up quickly.
@MarkTwain
This is direct evidence, he found the bank records of the payments from Wong to Aspiration and Aspiration’s payment to Kawhi’s LLC.
The proverbial cat is out of the bag, Silver can’t cover it up.
What makes you think Silver knew anything about this?
This is such a funny story lmao
Kawhi couldn’t even do a commercial, billboard, tree planting or tweet about the company but his uncle/agent is making sure the guy gets paid while people are getting laid off. His credibility was already shot after the Toronto accusations.
This just keeps getting worse for clippers and Leonard. People were losing their jobs right before Xmas and Dennis the grinch was taking the presents under the tree.
I think people are missing some key factors in their rush to judgement of Silver. Aspiration was a PRIVATE company based on Los Angeles. Their books don’t have to be made public. The founder only plead guilty last month. So, court docs were probably just unsealed this month. It is kind of hard to have legal team that scrutinizes every investment and sponsorship deal every player has.
Pablo does this for a living.