Six months have passed since allegations first arose that the LA Clippers circumvented the NBA\u2019s salary cap to pay star Kawhi Leonard, prompting the league to investigate.<\/p>\n
At last week\u2019s board of governors meeting, NBA commissioner Adam Silver did not address, and was not asked about, the investigation. But last month at All-Star weekend — hosted by the Clippers — Silver said the investigation has been \u201cenormously complex.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what we know — and don\u2019t know — about the allegations and where the investigation stands:<\/p>\n
What are the details of the investigation, and what\u2019s the latest?<\/p>\n
The investigation, led by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, began in September 2025 and centers on allegations that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and the team orchestrated a $28 million endorsement deal between Leonard and Aspiration, a now-bankrupt green banking company in which Ballmer had invested, to circumvent the league\u2019s salary cap.<\/p>\n
The NBA investigation followed a series of reports by Pablo Torre, a podcaster and ESPN contributor, who cited internal documents that showed Ballmer invested $50 million in Aspiration through his personal LLC in September 2021. That month, the Clippers also signed a $300 million deal with Aspiration, making the company the \u201cfirst founding partner\u201d of the Intuit Dome.<\/p>\n
Six months later, Aspiration signed its deal with Leonard. An unnamed employee who purportedly worked for the banking company told Torre that Leonard\u2019s sponsorship deal \u201cwas to circumvent the salary cap.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Ballmer said he introduced Leonard to Aspiration, he told ESPN\u2019s Ramona Shelburne in September 2025 he had no knowledge of the deal and denied he directed the company to strike one.<\/p>\n
Multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation said that interviews are ongoing.<\/p>\n
Those sources say that the team from Wachtell Lipton, led by attorney David Anders — who has led other league investigations — is interviewing Clippers officials and other key figures, including former Aspiration employees with knowledge of the company\u2019s sponsorship deal with Leonard.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if Leonard has yet been interviewed — or if anyone close to him has, either.<\/p>\n
The NBA did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not unusual for investigations to take many months. In 2021, the league asked Wachtell Lipton to conduct an investigation into the Phoenix Suns and then-owner Robert Sarver following a November 2021 ESPN story detailing allegations of racism and misogyny during Sarver\u2019s 17 years as owner.<\/p>\n
Anders also led that investigation, and Wachtell Lipton interviewed 320 people and reviewed more than 80,000 pages of emails, text messages and other documents.<\/p>\n
The findings from that investigation weren\u2019t announced until September 2022 — 10 months after the investigation was first launched.<\/p>\n
Silver addressed the complexity of the Clippers investigation at All-Star Weekend: \u201cYou have a company in bankruptcy. You have thousands of documents, multiple witnesses that have been needed to be interviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said, \u201cFrom everything I\u2019ve been told, the Clippers have been fully cooperative.\u201d<\/p>\n
What happens after Wachtell Lipton brings its findings back to the league office?<\/p>\n
As it relates to potential salary cap circumvention, and depending on the findings, Silver is not solely responsible for deciding whether the Clippers will be punished, per the terms of the NBA\u2019s collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n
Rather, Wachtell Lipton will present its findings to the league office, and Silver will decide whether to bring the firm\u2019s findings to a neutral arbitrator appointed by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association.<\/p>\n
The arbitrator would then examine what Silver brought forth and decide the next step. The arbitrator could either grant Silver the authority to punish the Clippers or decide that there isn\u2019t enough evidence to merit any discipline and deny him the ability to levy penalties against the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe burden is on the league if we\u2019re going to discipline a team, an owner, a player or any constituent members of the league,\u201d Silver told reporters following the league\u2019s board of governors meetings in Midtown Manhattan in mid-September 2025. \u201cI think as with any process that requires a fundamental sense of fairness, the burden should be on the party that is, in essence, bringing those charges.\u201d<\/p>\n
How have those involved in the investigation responded to the allegations?<\/p>\n
The allegations and subsequent investigation have cast a cloud over the Clippers franchise, but the team\u2019s leadership hasn\u2019t wavered from its initial public denials.<\/p>\n
In September 2025, following Torre\u2019s report, Ballmer appeared on ESPN to deny he had knowledge of the endorsement contract the sides eventually signed, or that he directed the company to do so. Ballmer also said in his interview that he would welcome an investigation.<\/p>\n
Later that same month, Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank made similar remarks at the Clippers\u2019 media day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are glad there\u2019s an investigation, and we welcome it,\u201d Frank said. \u201cWe appreciate that there\u2019ll be a clear-eyed look at these allegations, and we\u2019re eager for the truth to come out. The assumptions and conclusions that have been made are disappointing and upsetting, and we expect the investigation will show that these allegations are wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard also addressed the matter during media day in September 2025.<\/p>\n
He dismissed the allegations, adding, \u201cThe NBA is going to do their job. None of us did [any] wrongdoing. That\u2019s it. We invite the investigations. It\u2019s not going to be a distraction for me or the rest of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Clippers continue to cooperate with the league\u2019s investigation and look forward to a resolution of this matter,\u201d the Clippers told ESPN in a statement this week.<\/p>\n
In a September 2025 statement posted to X, Aspiration co-founder and former CEO Andrei Cherny also denied the allegations of salary cap circumvention, saying Leonard\u2019s contract had \u201cthree pages of extensive obligations,\u201d and that he signed the contract following \u201cnumerous internal conversations about the various things Aspiration was planning to do with Leonard.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in response to Cherny\u2019s statement, three former Aspiration executives who reported to him released a statement of their own, which was obtained by Torre.<\/p>\n
That statement was from Rojeh Avanesian, Aspiration\u2019s former chief financial officer; Mike Shuckerow, Aspiration\u2019s former chief operating officer; and Eric Anderson, Aspiration\u2019s former chief technology officer.<\/p>\n
The executives said they didn\u2019t agree with the company\u2019s decision to sign the Leonard deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team expressed concerns at the time regarding the high cost of the arrangement and its lack of alignment with Aspiration\u2019s brand and business strategy,\u201d they said in the statement. \u201cWhile subsequent marketing efforts were undertaken, they were ultimately discontinued and should not be interpreted as support for the deal itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
They continued, \u201cIn our judgement, the Leonard Deal was not in the company\u2019s best interest. It was strategically difficult to justify then, and it remains so today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cherny declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n
Also as a result of Torre\u2019s reporting, Ballmer has been named in a lawsuit filed by 11 former Aspiration investors who say they were defrauded out of millions by co-founder Joseph Sanberg and others at the company. Ballmer was added to the lawsuit, initially filed in July 2025, in November 2025, with investors alleging he participated in the fraud by funneling money to Leonard.<\/p>\n
A hearing for the suit is scheduled for April 22 at Los Angeles County Superior Court in downtown Los Angeles. Ballmer\u2019s attorneys have asked the court to determine that the investors failed to allege facts sufficient enough to state a legal claim, and for the case to be dismissed.<\/p>\n
What do we know about how Leonard\u2019s contract with Aspiration came about?<\/p>\n
Ballmer told ESPN last year that \u201c[Aspiration] did request to be introduced to Kawhi, and under the rules, we can introduce our sponsors to our athletes. We just can\u2019t be involved. We made an introduction. That was in early November [2021].\u201d<\/p>\n
Aspiration, which was founded in 2013 and drew backers including Robert Downey Jr., Orlando Bloom, and Leonardo DiCaprio, had announced in August 2021 that it intended to go public via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a deal that would\u2019ve valued the company at $2.3 billion and infused more than $400 million in cash.<\/p>\n
But by 2022, Shuckerow, Aspiration\u2019s former chief operating officer who says he is not a whistleblower to any government agency about Aspiration, told ESPN that spending had become a problem at the company.<\/p>\n
He said Aspiration had made expensive investments in carbon projects in Brazil and elsewhere, hired in nonrevenue areas and accrued expenses tied to sponsorship deals, including brand deals with the Clippers, Athletes Unlimited and the Boston Red Sox.<\/p>\n
Shuckerow said that preserving some of the company\u2019s major investor relationships took on greater importance — including with Ballmer, one of the 15 wealthiest people in the world — which he said Sanberg conveyed to the members of the executive team.<\/p>\n
Shuckerow said the entities that Ballmer oversaw — including the Clippers and the Intuit Dome — had become critical to Sanberg and Cherny not only for Ballmer\u2019s continued investment but for the credibility that Aspiration needed in its pursuit of going public.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was made clear to the corporate side of the house that the Ballmer ecosystem was a priority,\u201d Shuckerow said.<\/p>\n
Another high-level former Aspiration executive told ESPN that Sanberg also told colleagues the Clippers were looking to raise Leonard\u2019s public profile, which could lead to more endorsements for him. That executive also said Sanberg said the deal could lead to more business between Aspiration and the Clippers. The executive said there was never any mention of the salary cap or attempts to circumvent it, and that they never heard Sanberg\u2019s sentiment from Clippers officials.<\/p>\n
A source close to the Clippers with knowledge of the investigation said, \u201cAs is clear from (Sanberg\u2019s) guilty plea, this desperate admitted felon would say anything while struggling to keep his company afloat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanberg\u2019s attorney didn\u2019t return a request seeking comment.<\/p>\n
Shuckerow also said that some company executives expressed opposition at the initial size of Leonard\u2019s deal — $28 million, plus $20 million in equity in cash. (In one text message exchange between Aspiration executives, reviewed by ESPN, one executive described calling a \u201cHail Mary\u201d to contact Sanberg about the deal while noting that it \u201clikely won\u2019t do anything.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Shuckerow said that, in response to the opposition, Sanberg told other executives that he\u2019d give Leonard $20 million of his personal equity in the company. The deal was signed in April 2022. In their joint statement, the three former executives said the deal \u201cwas presented to the company as a completed arrangement and executed by Mr. Cherny despite significant objections from members of this senior management team.\u201d<\/p>\n
It did not reflect any strategy previously communicated to us, nor was it reviewed through Aspiration\u2019s Investment Committee process.”<\/p>\n
In one email exchange from June 2022 that was obtained by ESPN, an Aspiration marketing official said there were \u201csome pretty big flags\u201d in the agreement. (The Wall Street Journal first reported about the emails in October.)<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecifically, we should be getting way more than one 8-hr. production day for the price that we are paying,\u201d the official wrote. \u201cSecond, Kawhi\u2019s lack of social media accounts will significantly hamper our ability to deliver meaningful media value on this campaign. As currently written, Aspiration will need to make a big investment in paid media for this content to get any visibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
In hindsight, the high-level Aspiration executive who spoke to ESPN said that the process \u201ccould\u2019ve been handled better.\u201d<\/p>\n
What does Leonard\u2019s contract with Aspiration actually say?<\/p>\n
ESPN obtained a 19-page contract between Leonard and Aspiration, signed in April 2022, which details several pages of obligations for Leonard. Among them were commitments including autograph signings, community service events, promotional and public appearances and an annual eight-hour day of filming.<\/p>\n
Aspiration had the right to terminate the contract if Leonard no longer played for the Clippers. The contract also includes a so-called \u201cbeliefs\u201d clause, which stipulates that Leonard \u201cmay decline to proceed with any action desired by the Company under Section 3.2 if Leonard believes that such proposed actions are not consistent with his beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The beliefs clause became a focus of both Torre\u2019s reporting and other commentary about the Clippers-Aspiration allegations.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if Leonard or the Clippers had any other contracts or agreements with Aspiration.<\/p>\n
What do league insiders think of Leonard\u2019s contract?<\/p>\n
ESPN showed five player agents who don\u2019t represent Leonard language in Leonard\u2019s endorsement contract pertaining to obligations and termination clauses. ESPN also showed the same language to an NBPA source who is familiar with such contracts.<\/p>\n
Said one agent, \u201cThis is standard. Nothing unusual here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said another, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing in there that jumps out to me. Everything is pretty standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third agent made similar comments.<\/p>\n
Two additional agents singled out the \u201cbeliefs\u201d clause, with one saying, \u201cI\u2019ve never seen a player have the right to decline to do something due to \u2018beliefs.\u2019 A good lawyer would have at least said bonafide \u2018religious\u2019 beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another, the fifth agent, made a similar remark, adding that it could represent an \u201camazing negotiation and\/or an inexperienced lawyer on behalf of Aspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NBPA source told ESPN that \u201cthere is nothing in that contract that is inconsistent with the regular course of business. The only thing that stands out is that language that says \u2018consistent with his beliefs, which is too broad and too vague. And that is really just a question of good negotiation. If a lawyer said, \u2018Look, we want to have this language as broad as possible because we can\u2019t sit here today and envision all the promotional activities you may be asking Kawhi to do,\u2019 and if the lawyer for Aspiration is stupid enough to say, OK, we\u2019ll allow that,\u2019 then that\u2019s just good negotiation by Kawhi\u2019s team. But there\u2019s nothing on the face of that contract that suggests that this was all orchestrated.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NBPA source then said that while the language in the \u201cbeliefs\u201d provision is certainly favorable to Leonard, the source also pointed out that Aspiration wasn\u2019t a well-managed company and that it ultimately went bankrupt.<\/p>\n
The five agents separately echoed the NBPA source\u2019s point that while aspects of the contract may be favorable to Leonard, there appears to be nothing in the deal itself that suggests that Leonard\u2019s deal was orchestrated in such a way as to circumvent the NBA\u2019s salary cap.<\/p>\n
In his September 2025 post on X, Cherny defended the \u201cbeliefs\u201d clause. \u201cThe \u2018beliefs\u2019 provision is not unusual in celebrity endorsements and merely means we can\u2019t do something like make a vegetarian eat meat as a way of forcing them to break the contract,\u201d he wrote in his September post. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean you can have a \u2018belief\u2019 of not talking to a camera.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did Leonard fulfill any of those obligations?<\/p>\n
In the summer of 2022, Variety reported that Aspiration partnered with Creative Artists Agency to \u201cprovide sustainability services, carbon reduction services and customer-centric climate impact solutions to corporate, sports and entertainment industry brands.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agency helped develop a list of potential ideas for Leonard to be involved with Aspiration, which they sent to the company that summer, after Leonard had signed the deal, according to an email obtained by ESPN.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo launch Aspiration\u2019s new partnership with Kawhi Leonard, the team has developed initial concepts for how the two can partner for maximum impact of his service days and to amplify the partnership in a unique way that drives the topics Aspiration cares about,\u201d the email stated.<\/p>\n
One involved partnering with the musician Drake, another Aspiration partner; another focused on tracing Leonard\u2019s carbon footprint; another imagined Leonard working with local schools for efforts involving environmental sustainability.<\/p>\n
The high-level Aspiration executive told ESPN that company marketing officials discussed various obligations with Leonard\u2019s camp in the fall of 2022, including community activities and media\/filming.<\/p>\n
Shuckerow said he alerted the marketing staff in 2022 that the company had unused assets in the Leonard deal and suggested they at least target the \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d such as autographed memorabilia. Shuckerow said he wasn\u2019t sure if marketing staff or any Aspiration officials contacted the Clippers or Leonard about such efforts.<\/p>\n
A source with knowledge of Leonard\u2019s schedule said that Leonard\u2019s camp was in talks with Aspiration about executing some obligations, including community appearances, adding that nothing was set in stone because the two sides were working around both Leonard\u2019s schedule — especially as he continued to rehab his surgically repaired right knee — and the Clippers\u2019 schedule.<\/p>\n
At the same time, change was also occurring within the company. In October 2022, Aspiration parted ways with Cherny, and Olivia Albrecht became its new CEO.<\/p>\n
Leonard returned from injury in December 2022. That same month, Aspiration laid off roughly 100 employees.<\/p>\n
Also in December 2022, according to Torre\u2019s reporting, Clippers limited partner Dennis J. Wong invested $1.99 million in Aspiration, nine days before the company made an overdue $1.75 million payment to Leonard.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Leonard didn\u2019t appear in any of the discussed marketing activations for the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no reason to believe that Kawhi wouldn\u2019t have done something if we asked,\u201d Shuckerow said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if we ever got to the stage where something got far enough in the strategy stage where we actually asked him for a concrete ask.\u201d<\/p>\n
In March 2023, Ballmer invested an additional $10 million in Aspiration in a funding round that included previous company investors, The Athletic reported last year, in what one source with knowledge of Ballmer\u2019s intentions called a show of good faith in both Albrecht and the company\u2019s new direction.<\/p>\n
Were there any public links between Leonard and Aspiration?<\/p>\n
The high-level Aspiration executive who spoke to ESPN said the company discussed an Aspiration-themed Leonard bobblehead that the Clippers would release during the 2022-23 season.<\/p>\n
A source with knowledge of the deal said the item was part of the Clippers\u2019 deal with Aspiration, and not Leonard\u2019s.<\/p>\n
While the bobblehead was in production in late 2022, Aspiration officials contacted the Clippers and requested that the company\u2019s name be taken off the bobblehead because it was a plastic item, which ran counter to Aspiration\u2019s climate-focused mission, the source said.<\/p>\n
The Aspiration name was subsequently removed from the bobbleheads\u2019 packaging and all promotional material, but because the bobbleheads had already been produced, the Aspiration name couldn\u2019t be removed from the bobbleheads themselves, the source said.<\/p>\n
The bobblehead was released, as planned, to the first 10,000 fans at the Clippers-Thunder game in late March 2023, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cBobblehead production follows a consistent timeline each season, which begins in late summer. The bobbleheads are commonly tied to sponsorship agreements, and in the 2022-23 season, included partners such as Cedars-Sinai, Kia and AT&T,\u201d the Clippers told ESPN. \u201cThe Kawhi bobblehead was handled in the same way, part of a sponsorship activation that included Aspiration, similar to others players\u2019 bobbleheads that year.\u201d<\/p>\n
What happened with Aspiration?<\/p>\n
A source with knowledge of the matter told ESPN that the Clippers terminated their agreement with Aspiration in May 2023 because the company breached its contract with the team by defaulting on payments.<\/p>\n
The Clippers continued posting a series of happy birthday messages to their players and staff on social media that referenced the company in 2023. The posts were part of a social media schedule for that season, according to the source with knowledge of the matter. The final such post on X came on June 29, 2023, when the Clippers posted a happy birthday for Leonard and referenced Aspiration in the caption.<\/p>\n
Later that summer, in August 2023, the company that was going to take Aspiration public announced that it terminated the deal. In January 2024, Bloomberg News reported that Aspiration was the subject of a Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigation into whether the company misled customers.<\/p>\n
Aspiration filed for bankruptcy in March 2025, with a reported debt of $170 million. In bankruptcy filings, the company said it owed the Clippers $30 million, the most of its creditors, and that it owed $7 million to a limited liability company owned by Leonard.<\/p>\n
At media day, Leonard was asked if he was still owed that figure. \u201cI got to look back at the books,\u201d he said, \u201cbut nah, it was more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In August 2025, Sanberg formally pled guilty to two counts of wire fraud. Federal prosecutors said he defrauded investors and lenders of more than $248 million.<\/p>\n
He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 27 in federal court in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six months have passed since allegations first arose that the LA Clippers circumvented the NBA\u2019s salary cap to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[65403,49,48,14728,34087,459,221425,82,65402],"class_list":{"0":"post-577323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-aspiration","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-kawhi-leonard","12":"tag-la-clippers","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nba-investigation","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-steve-ballmer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}