Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard allegedly signed a contract for a no-show job with a company that just filed for bankruptcy—a deal that may violate NBA salary cap rules, according to a report from podcaster Pablo Torre.
Leonard signed a four-year, $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration, a tree-planting company that partnered with the Clippers in developing the team’s arena and amassed an A-list roster of celebrities to promote it. Steve Ballmer, the Clippers owner, provided the company $50 million of funding.
However, according to Torre, Leonard had not performed any promotional function for the company—not a single commercial, tweet or sponsored appearance.
For his podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out, Torre interviewed a former employee for Aspiration’s finance department, who claims to have been told by unspecified team personnel: “Oh, by the way, we have a marketing deal with Kawhi Leonard, a $28 million organic sponsorship deal with Kawhi, and if I have any questions about it, essentially don’t, because it was to essentially circumvent the salary cap, LOL.”
When asked if Leonard ever promoted Aspiration, the employee said, “never, not once.”
Aspiration, whose founder Joseph Sanberg recently pled guilty to defrauding investors and lenders, filed for bankruptcy in March, with the Clippers listed as the company’s largest creditor with over $30 million owed. Leonard, through his limited liability company KL2 Aspire LLC, is listed as the fourth-largest creditor at $7 million.
In a statement, the Clippers said: “Neither the Clippers nor Steve Ballmer circumvented the salary cap. The notion that Steve invested in Aspiration in order to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard is absurd. Steve invested because Aspiration’s co-founders presented themselves as committed to doing right by their customers while protecting the environment.
“After a long campaign of market manipulation, which defrauded not only Steve but numerous other investors and sports teams, Aspiration filed for bankruptcy. Its co-founder, Joseph Sanberg, recently pleaded guilty to a $243 million fraud. Neither Steve nor the Clippers had knowledge of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government initiated its investigation. Aspiration was a team sponsor for the 2021- 2022 and 2022- 2023 seasons before defaulting on its contract.
“There is nothing unusual or untoward about team sponsors doing endorsement deals with players on the same team. Neither Steve nor the Clippers organization had any oversight of Kawhi’s independent endorsement agreement with Aspiration. To say otherwise is flat-out wrong.
“The Clippers take NBA compliance extremely seriously, fully respect the league’s rules, and welcome its investigation related to Aspiration. The Clippers will also continue to cooperate with law enforcement in its investigation into Aspiration’s blatantly fraudulent activity.”
The NBA is investigating the deal. “We are aware of this morning’s media report regarding the LA Clippers and are commencing an investigation,” a league spokesman said.
After helping the Toronto Raptors win their first NBA championship in 2019, Leonard signed a three-year, $109 million deal with the Clippers. Torre said that the league found that the Clippers did not offer impermissible benefits to Leonard for him to sign with them.
Leonard has since signed two extensions, worth $325.8 million, to stay with the team. He will be a free agent after the 2026-27 season.
The alleged move by Ballmer and Leonard is reminiscent of the salary cap scandal involving Joe Smith and the Minnesota Timberwolves after the 1998-99 lockout. At the time, Smith signed a below-market value deal with the Timberwolves to apparently help the team add veteran talent around All-Star forward Kevin Garnett.
A year later, a league investigation revealed team owner Glen Taylor and general manager Kevin McHale secretly promised Smith that if he signed a below-market free agent deal, he would eventually sign a seven-year, $86 million pact. Smith would sign three one-year contracts for under $3 million per year, which allowed the Timberwolves to retain his “Bird rights” and exceed the salary cap to sign him to a lucrative extension after the final one-year contract. The machinations violated the NBA’s salary cap rules.
The late commissioner David Stern handed down strict punishments on all parties. He voided Smith’s contracts as well as his “Bird rights.” Minnesota was fined $3.5 million and stripped of its first-round draft picks for five seasons from 2001 through 2005. (The team would get two of those picks back in later years.)
Taylor was barred from team operations through Aug. 31, 2001, while McHale took an unpaid leave of absence through July of that year; both were effectively suspended for the 2000-01 season.
The NBA strengthened its cap circumvention monitoring practices in 2019.
Teams are required to retain records of communications with players and their representatives for a year. The league can perform random audits of team communications, even without cause. Team executives are annually required to certify, in writing, that they are not engaging in tampering. Finally, teams must report to the league any demand by a player representative for impermissible benefits within 24 hours.
Aspiration was a founding partner for the Intuit Dome, the Clippers’ new home which opened ahead of the 2024-25 NBA season. In 2021, the company signed a 23-year, nearly $400 million deal as Ballmer pushed to have sustainable materials in the arena’s development.
“There is a responsibility associated with building the best arena in the world,” Ballmer said in a statement at the time. Aspiration “supports the stake we are planting in the ground to make Intuit Dome the most sustainable arena in the world,” he said.
(This story has been updated to add statements from the Clippers and the NBA.)
