The NBA season hasn’t started yet, but money’s been an issue. Just as teams have had to navigate the salary cap, a bombshell like this gets dropped.
Journalist Pablo Torre explains, in a YouTube video, that Kawhi Leonard reportedly signed a $28-million endorsement deal with Aspiration, a tree planting/FinTech venture backed by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. The deal paid Leonard $7 million a year, but he did little to no promotional work. The only way the contract from the company could be voided was if Leonard was no longer playing for the Clippers, as he was the company’s priority, being paid more than any other celebrity endorsement combined.
If the company had not filed for bankruptcy, this would probably never have been found out. Under the name “KL2,” Leonard is listed on the bankruptcy document. The NBA has strict rules in place against under the table deals like this. The situation has been likened to the Joe Smith case involving the Timberwolves, where they forfeited draft picks and incurred heavy fines.
Since the initial break, even more has come out: specifically, former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban publicly defended Ballmer, saying he is “not that dumb.” Cuban and Ballmer both believe the company scammed them. Cuban criticizes Torre for focusing on the NBA rather than the potential scam.
In the comments of the interview Torre does with Cuban, many commenters remark on the fact that both men, being owners and billionaires, have a lot to do with the defense. It’s hard to believe that the sixth richest man on the planet was conned by a startup company, especially to that degree. The national media, notably ESPN, has expressed a lot of sympathy towards Ballmer and animosity towards Torre, through the general tone of the sit-down interview done on SportsCenter, or Leonard, notably Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take.
The current situation can take one back to a highly talked-about time: 2019 free agency. Taking a turn back on Leonard’s time with the Clippers: the summer of his arrival was a chaotic one. The year’s free agency class saw major moves like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to the Brooklyn Nets. Leonard had wanted to play with another star of his caliber and the match with him and Paul George had analysts placing the Clippers highest in the tiers of contention.
In hindsight, it seems that a bunch of chaos had yet to be unveiled. Immediately following the Toronto Raptors’ title run, Leonard’s camp played the long game.
Leonard’s uncle and advisor, Dennis Robertson, made a series of unreasonable and illegal requests to teams, particularly the Raptors and the Lakers. According to an ex-employee of the Clippers, the team had been planning for years to recruit Leonard, which had “leapt well beyond the bounds of the NBA constitution.”
Rumors emerged from his camp about requests for houses, private planes and ownership stakes, raising questions about what was going on. Although the NBA has not proven this, it changes the tone and conversation around the issue, as at least two former employees of the organization have sued because of this.
The real nail in the coffin, though, is that when it comes to basketball, the Clippers haven’t achieved much since then. In Kawhi’s first year, they reached the Western Conference semifinals in the bubble, where they lost a 3-1 lead to the Nuggets. The following year, in 2021, they made it to their first Conference Finals ever, but Leonard partially tore his ACL, and they lost to the Phoenix Suns in six games.
After missing the playoffs in 2022 due to losing the play-in game to the Pelicans, they lost in five games to the Phoenix Suns in 2023, in six to the eventual Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks in 2024, and in seven to the 2023 champion Nuggets in 2025—three consecutive first-round exits. Leonard only played two games in the 2023 playoffs before tearing his meniscus. In 2024, he played two games before knee inflammation sidelined him, and he dealt with a nagging right knee injury throughout the season and playoffs.
On one hand, Leonard’s peak greatness cannot be undermined or disrespected. On the other hand, we haven’t seen that performance due to injuries—creating a sense of both sympathy and frustration among some Clippers fans, national media, and probably some Clippers staff. It’s an unfortunate turn of events. This scandal is muddy at best, and if true, it will likely have profound implications for the Clippers as an organization.
That being said, a key point of discussion is: what will the NBA do? With all the strict crackdowns on gambling in the NBA, especially this summer, the league takes salary cap manipulation and the integrity of the game seriously. Something in a similar vein took place regarding the New York Knicks in their 2022 acquisition of Jalen Brunson, in which the Knicks lost a second-round pick this year.