Kawhi Leonard Under NBA Investigation Over $28M Endorsement Deal Tied to Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer
Reese, Pam and Alex discuss an NBA investigation involving Kawhi Leonard, Steve Ballmer and the Clippers.
Kawhi Leonard is currently under investigation by the NBA over allegations that he received a $28M “no-show” endorsement deal from a now-bankrupt sustainability start-up called Aspiration. The deal was made through Leonard’s company, KL2 Aspire LLC, and reportedly required little to no actual promotional work from him. What makes the situation particularly controversial is that Aspiration was financially backed by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. This has raised suspicions that the deal may have been structured to secretly funnel money to Leonard outside of official team compensation—potentially violating the NBA’s salary cap rules.
The league has launched a formal investigation into whether this arrangement constitutes salary cap circumvention, a serious offense under the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. What happened?
