What to know about the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard’s $28 million deal

What to know about the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard’s $28 million deal

The NBA world ran abuzz after sports journalist Pablo Torre dropped a bombshell on Wednesday, exposing a $28 million endorsement deal between Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and star Kawhi Leonard that aimed to circumvent the league’s salary cap restrictions.

In his podcast, “Pablo Torre Finds Out,’ Torre highlighted Ballmer’s investment of $50 million into a California-based financial firm turned tree-planting organization called Aspiration and how it connected the former Microsoft CEO and franchise cornerstone Kawhi Leonard with a $28 million “no-show” endorsement deal, a deal in which one whistleblower told Torre was the most lucrative deal to an endorser in the company, that added to the star’s already hefty salary.

Exclusive: Kawhi Leonard signed a $28M endorsement deal for a “no-show job” with a fraudulent tree-planting company funded by $50M from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, according to documents obtained by @PabloTorre.

“It was to circumvent the salary cap,” an inside source says. pic.twitter.com/F6z5pNEkI1

— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) September 3, 2025

The surprising turn near the season has left fans confused as to what the whole scandal means for Leonard, the Clippers, and the league. Here’s what you need to know.

Aspiration’s co-founder pleaded guilty to wire fraud and faces up to 40 years in prison

Last August, Aspiration co-owner and Harvard graduate Joe Sanberg pleaded guilty to two charges of wire fraud, admitting to swindling investors for amounts up to $248 million, and faces up to 40 years in prison. Sanberg and fellow co-founder Andrei Cherny launched Aspiration in 2013 as a neobank focused on linking investing with sustainability. Cherny left the company in 2022 following the company’s pursuit to go public fell through.

Court documents revealed that Sanberg deceived banks after claiming the company had $250 million in finances, despite the company going through financial hardships until it filed for bankruptcy in March 2025.

It is also worth noting that in the midst of Aspiration’s financial troubles, Leonard’s deal was still being paid despite the former Finals MVP never endorsing the company even once. Torre revealed that this was due to the contract being safeguarded by obligations, primarily, a clause that said Leonard could decline anything that was “not consistent with his beliefs” — rendering the contract unbreakable by anyone except Leonard.

Clippers statement: pic.twitter.com/2nZR75JCTo

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 4, 2025

If proven guilty, the Clippers could lose a lot

One of the most interesting pieces of evidence presented by Torre was a termination clause in Leonard’s contract that stated Aspiration could only trigger to termination of the deal if the star left the Clippers. 

With the Clippers and both its owner and star player, being heavily involved in dealing with Aspiration, alongside the $28 million deal, one may believe that repercussions may follow for the whole organization.

Back in 2000, the late David Stern, who was commissioner at that time, sanctioned the Minnesota Timberwolves after promising $86 million to forward Joe Smith after the 1999 free agency. Smith’s contract was voided, and the Timberwolves were stripped of their next five first-round picks and fined $3.5 million. 

Current commissioner Adam Silver has the Timberwolves incident as a blueprint for how he can deal with the Clippers if the recently announced investigation found them guilty of salary cap circumvention.

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