The Los Angeles Clippers and billionaire owner Steve Ballmer are accused of attempting to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap by paying superstar Kawhi Leonard through a third party. The league is investigating the allegations made in a report from journalist and podcast host Pablo Torre.
What triggered the investigation?
The allegations center around $28 million in payments made to Leonard for what was described as a “no-show” job, disguised as an endorsement deal. The report stated that the Clippers paid Leonard through the now-bankrupt environmental startup Aspiration, which was funded in part by Ballmer.
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The Clippers and Aspiration reached a sponsorship deal valued at more than $300 million in July 2021. Aspiration was set to be a major presence in the Clippers’ new arena, the Intuit Dome, and have a logo patch on the team’s jerseys. Ballmer invested $50 million from his personal LLC in the company. Leonard agreed to a $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration one year later. Torre quoted sources on his show “Pablo Torre Finds Out” linking the investment from Ballmer to the endorsement deal.
“According to all seven former Aspiration employees I spoke to,” Torre said. “That enormous infusion of money from Steve Ballmer, $50 million, is what allowed the allegedly fraudulent Green Bank (Aspiration) to quite eagerly pay Kawhi Leonard $28 million for an alleged no-show job.”
The endorsement deal came nine months after Leonard signed a four-year, $176.3 million contract to remain with the Clippers, the maximum allowed in the NBA at the time. According to sources interviewed by Torre, Leonard was not required to do any work for his endorsement, make any public appearances for Aspiration, or post on social media about the company.
“The term that my sources called this arrangement, which again neither Aspiration nor the Clippers nor Kawhi Leonard ever announced, despite the tonnage of announcements that they were making all the time, was, quote, sweetener,” Torre said.
What is the Clippers’ response to the allegations?
The Clippers responded to the allegations with two separate statements.
The first said, “Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration, any contrary assertion is provably false. The team ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago, during the 2022-23 season, when Aspiration defaulted on its obligations. Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Ballmer was aware of any improper activity by Aspiration or its cofounder until after the government instituted its investigation.“
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Kawhi Leonard signed a $176.3 million contract with the Clippers in 2021, the NBA maximum amount, then signed a $153 million extension in 2024, keeping him with the team through 2027.
A second statement issued by the team later Wednesday afternoon described the relationship between the Clippers, Ballmer and Aspiration.
“Neither the Clippers nor Steve Ballmer circumvented the salary cap. The notion that Steve invested in Aspiration to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard is absurd,” the Clippers said. “Steve invested because Aspiration’s co-founders presented themselves as committed to doing right by their customers while protecting the environment. 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.”
What happened to Aspiration?
Aspiration filed for bankruptcy in March 2025. The company is under federal investigation, and cofounder Joe Sanberg pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in August. The Department of Justice said Sanberg’s actions fleeced $248 million from investors and lenders.
Aspiration’s three largest creditors, according to publicly available bankruptcy filings, are the Clippers, who are owed $30 million, Forum Entertainment, also owned by Ballmer, with $11 million in debt claims, and Leonard’s personal LLC, “KL2 Aspire,” with a debt of $7 million. The Clippers were fined $250,000 by the NBA in 2015 for violating league rules regarding a third-party endorsement with free agent DeAndre Jordan. In 2000, the Minnesota Timberwolves were fined $3.5 million and lost five first-round draft picks for an illegal secret agreement with star forward Joe Smith.
