Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard gestures after scoring during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers in Los Angeles on Oct. 20, 2022. Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo
The NBA on Aug. 17 criticized a report by ESPN claiming the league found no evidence in its investigation that the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented the salary cap by funneling money to Kawhi Leonard.
“ESPN’s article regarding the LA Clippers investigation—for which the NBA declined to cooperate—contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement posted to X.
Citing three unnamed sources, ESPN reported on Aug. 17 that the league found no evidence that Clippers owner and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer funneled money to Leonard, 35, through team sponsors and is instead focused on investigating whether the team circumvented the salary cap by introducing Leonard to sponsors.
ESPN’s sources claimed that the 11-month investigation expanded beyond Leonard’s deal with Aspiration in 2021 to at least three other companies that also had deals with the Clippers.
The NBA didn’t specify which parts of ESPN’s article were inaccurate.
Independent journalist Pablo Torres’s report questioning Leonard’s deal sparked the league’s
which focused on the team’s involvement with Aspiration Fund Advisor, a now-bankrupt California-based sustainability services company.
Around a month after Leonard signed a four-year, $176 million extension with the Clippers in August 2021, the team announced a $300 million partnership with the company, and Ballmer made a $50 million investment in it. Leonard also signed a $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration.
Before the investigation was launched, the company’s bankruptcy filings listed the Clippers and KL2 Aspire LLC as creditors to which it owed $30 million and $7 million, respectively. “KL” are Leonard’s initials, and 2 is his jersey number.
Shortly after the league began investigating the matter, Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and received a 14-year sentence in June this year for falsifying company financials multiple times and defrauding lenders and investors of at least $248 million.
The Clippers have denied wrongdoing, and in a statement to ESPN, said they “introduced players, including Kawhi Leonard, to companies with which we had business relationships. Making introductions between players and team partners is both an ordinary practice by NBA teams and a common request of players and representatives.”
The team added that it did not negotiate or dictate the terms of Leonard’s endorsement deals and said a player-company business relationship does not prove salary-cap circumvention.
The team previously stated that it ended its partnership with Aspiration after two years because the contract defaulted.
After seven seasons with Los Angeles, Leonard was
back on June 30 to Toronto, where he won a championship in 2019.
On July 9, the trade was put on pause pending the NBA’s ongoing investigation into the Clippers’ alignment with salary cap rules, both teams said in statements to ESPN.
The Clippers said the trade could only be finalized if Toronto’s ownership group assumes the risk of penalties related to Leonard’s contract that could result from the investigation, and that the trade will be finalized after its conclusion.
“At the heart of this investigation are Joe Sanberg and Aspiration,” the team said. “We did not funnel money to Kawhi Leonard through Aspiration. Like many sophisticated investors, financial institutions, and business partners, we were victims of a fraud initiated by Sanberg.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
