It’s almost been a week since Pablo Torre, from the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast dropped a bombshell on his show. Torre reported that the Clippers, Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard committed the ultimate cardinal sin within sports. Leonard was reportedly paid 28m for an endorsement deal that he had to do nothing for. Yes, you read that right, Leonard entered into an endorsement deal with a ‘green bank’ named Aspiration, and the terms of his contract were very much in his favor.
Now before we get started explaining the whole situation and what the heck an Aspiration is. I wanted to give a huge shoutout to Pablo Torre for his work on uncovering this important issue within the league and his professionalism. I highly recommend you go check out the podcast for yourself here, and subscribe to his newsletter here!
NOTE: During the writing of this article, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported, that the Clippers reportedly got a 1bn+ bid from Aspiration to name rights to the stadium, but Owner Steve Ballmer decided to go with the more longstanding company, Intuit, who paid 550m for name right to the Intuit Dome.
What is Aspiration?
Founded back in 2013 by Andrei Cherny and Joseph Sanberg, Aspiration, once hailed as a “green bank” promised carbon credits and tree planting to offset client emissions. They surged to prominence in 2021 with a $2.3 billion valuation. This was bolstered by celebrity backers and investors, like Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., Drake and even former Clippers Head Coach Doc Rivers. With Robert Downey Jr even going as far as appearing in a commercial for Aspiration.
Then later in 2023, as Aspiration’s banking momentum dwindled, it shifted focus to selling carbon credits—working with firms including Meta and its own corporate partners. Meta ended up buying nearly 700m tons of carbon credits from Aspiration. The delivery of this deal was scheduled to be between 2027 and 2035, with Aspiration committing to an array of carbon projects managed by themselves, focusing on nature-based climate solutions. These projects encompass a diverse range of ecosystem restoration efforts, including native reforestation, agroforestry, and sustainable agricultural practices.
What is salary cap manipulation and what could be considered salary cap manipulation?
I felt like this section would be important to break down as some people may be confused on what is salary cap manipulation, and what certain things could be defined as that.
First off, the salary cap is an amount that is collectively bargained on by all NBA owners. It states that teams aren’t allowed to go over X amount of dollars, and if they do, certain penalties will incur. Now with the first-and-second apron rules in effect, it heavily penalizes teams who go over this salary cap.
Teams are only allowed to offer players the money agreed on the contract, they can’t promise any extra amenities. For example, the Los Angeles Clippers can’t promise Kawhi Leonard a free Ferrari, endorsement deals if they sign with said team, or even college education for anyone in his family.
Teams for example can offer suite tickets and similar offerings, but the players will be forced to pay face value on those tickets. Essentially, NBA teams and its owners aren’t allowed to give extra amenities to players to have them sign to their team.
What was the deal between the Clippers and Aspiration and how does Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard tie into this?
In 2021, the Clippers struck a landmark partnership with Aspiration, valued at nearly $400 million over 23 years, according to Spotrac. At the time, it was one of the largest sustainability-driven sponsorships in American sports. The goal, as both sides stated, was to “raise the bar” for professional franchises worldwide.
“It was a match made in heaven, then they offered us an unbelievable sum of money, 330 million dollars, that by itself is one of the biggest sponsorship deals ever done and it wasn’t naming rights.”
Steve Ballmer on ESPN
For Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, sustainability wasn’t just a talking point, it was central to the design of the team’s new stadium. The arena was built with low-water plumbing systems, sustainable concrete mixes, a green roof, on-site solar panels and battery storage, natural ventilation, and annual greenhouse gas monitoring. The team promised it would be carbon-free from day one, a claim Ballmer backed personally:
“There is a responsibility associated with building the best arena in the world,” Ballmer said at the time. The Aspiration deal “supported the stake we are planting … to make Intuit Dome the most sustainable arena in the world.”
As part of the agreement, Aspiration’s branding was everywhere — on arena signage, digital platforms, and as the presenting sponsor of the Clipper Nation MVP program for season-ticket holders. It also partnered with the Clippers’ Mentorship Assist Zone, a program for underserved youth. On top of that, Aspiration and the Clippers launched a fan initiative allowing ticket buyers to offset their carbon footprint from attending games and concerts.
But what looked like a straightforward sponsorship became more complicated when it was revealed that Ballmer’s personal LLC wired $50 million into Aspiration just two weeks before the deal was finalized. Internal emails and a signed contract, obtained by Pablo Torre, confirmed Ballmer’s direct financial stake in the company. That blurred the lines between sponsor and investor, tying Ballmer’s own money, and not just the Clippers money.
Then on November 22nd 2021, Kawhi Leonard and his team applied for a LLC. This was under the name of ‘KL2 ASPIRE LLC’. Just a mere 5 months after Leonard and his team applied for the LLC, Leonard and Aspiration agreed to a 4yr/28m endorsement deal. That endorsement deal was signed just eight months after Kawhi Leonard made a surprising decision to sign with the Clippers. Which confused multiple NBA executives at the time, they thought to themselves. Why would Kawhi Leonard would sign with the mid-market team that was the Los Angeles Clippers?
If Leonard had gone the “short deal” route, he could’ve signed a two-year contract with a player option after the first season, according to Bobby Marks—basically a “one-plus-one.” That would’ve paid him just over $81 million through 2023 while keeping the Clippers under pressure to keep improving the roster. More importantly, it would’ve let Kawhi stay in control. If things didn’t work out, he could’ve tested free agency again the very next summer.
The other option was to “go long.” By waiting until 2022, Leonard could’ve hit the market and signed a massive five-year contract worth around $235 million. Or, if he wanted to lock in sooner, he had another path: pick up his $36 million salary for 2021-22 and then sign a four-year extension worth about $187 million. Put together, that would’ve added up to nearly $223 million over five years.
The catch? He hadn’t been with the Clippers long enough to qualify for the absolute biggest deal possible—players need three years with a team before that option opens up.
According to The Athletic, the NBA conducted a formal investigation of the Clippers in 2019, following complaints that Leonard’s uncle, Dennis Robertson, had requested “improper benefits” — including guaranteed endorsement money that would break the league’s collective-bargaining agreement — during the free agency process that saw Leonard sign with Los Angeles. Sources told The Athletic’s Sam Amick at the time that no evidence was found indicating that the Clippers had granted any of the requests but that the league would re-open its investigation should relevant evidence surface in the future.
What were the terms of Kawhi Leonard’s contract with Aspiration?
According to Pablo Torre’s source, A former Aspiration employee, who worked in the company’s finance department and requested anonymity due to multiple federal investigations into the company, recalled to Torre: “We went through a litany of really, really top-tier name contracts. And then, ‘Oh, by the way, we also have a marketing deal with Kawhi Leonard’ — and that if I had any questions about it, essentially don’t, because it was to circumvent the salary cap, LOL”
According to Torre’s source, it was the largest endorsement deal that Aspiration had ever signed. They said that all the celebrity endorsements they signed, wouldn’t have amounted to the 28m that Leonard signed.
“It completely eclipsed every other agreement. Completely eclipsed it, so every other celebrity endorsement wouldn’t have even met a quarter of Kawhi Leonard’s endorsement.”
Pablo Torre then asked his source, if he ever saw Kawhi Leonard marketing/endorsing the company in any way. This is what his anonymous source had to say.
“Never, not once. The single largest payment to an indivual for marketing that Aspiration has ever made, has completely evaded all press. It’s honestly incredible, and it was a very strong pain point for our marketing team, and honestly realistically their job is to get Aspiration’s name out there. They don’t understand why the largest part of their budget, that they actually have blown, hasn’t delivered”
Now let’s get into the terms of this contract and how this contract was designed to have Kawhi Leonard not do anything. According to Torre’s source, he contractually didn’t have to do anything. “There was a cause in every single KPI. (Key performance indicator).
Torre’s source said if Leonard’s beliefs didn’t align with what Aspiration wanted him to do, (like/retweet a post, wear merch, etc) then all he had to do was let them know. The contract even goes as far as mentioning that Kawhi Leonard doesn’t even have to notify them if he doesn’t wanna do it.
“KL2 may 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.”
Section 3.2, part 4 and 5 – Obligations of KL2
“KL2 shall have the exclusive right to control and approve all content and distribution, for commercial, non-commercial or lawful purpose, bearing the Athlete Endorsements or approved Leonard IP. Company will provide sufficient and reasonable advance notice of any such materials Company intends to use hereunder at least thirty (30) days prior to their use and will not use any such materials without KL2’s explicit written consent.”
No one in Aspiration had this sort of power over Aspiration. Kawhi Leonard essentially held all leverage in this deal and made 28m for not even having to do anything that the likes of Robert Downey Jr and Drake had to do. The contract is written in full terms so that Kawhi Leonard is never in breach of said contract.
One thing he was requested to do was sign (50) items, only if requested. Kawhi Leonard was also requested to do a minimum one photo a month (probably showing off Aspiration merch, doing non-profit work for Aspiration, etc) but Leonard did none of that.
Kawhi Leonard also had to be available to participate in (5) organic comments, which could’ve either been as easy as a like or a retweet, to endorsing them during an interview. According to Pablo Torre, Leonard didn’t even like or retweet a single post from Aspiration, nor mention them in any interview. Torre’s sources confirmed that Leonard didn’t do a single thing for Aspiration, but made 21m for this deal.
Leonard was also requested to be “available and participate with the Company to create an annual program in support of the Company’s reforestation efforts with a tie of calculating Leonard’s carbon footprint given annual schedule (games played), events and travel.”
Out of all the things that were in Leonard’s contract, surprisingly this was also another thing that he did not do.
But this is where the most important clause of the contract comes in here, and you may be thinking to yourself at this point. What can get more juicier then a no-show 28m job? Well it’s the terms for termination set by Aspiration.
The terms set forward by Aspiration state, that if Kawhi Leonard is no longer part of the Los Angeles Clippers, the contract can be terminated (no longer getting paid). It also defined terms, that if in the hypothetical situation, the Clippers bought-out Leonard, and he signed with X team. The contract would also be terminated since he is no longer a member of the Los Angeles Clippers.
This isn’t normal in almost all endorsement contracts, for example, if Gatorade signed Tom Brady to an endorsement deal when he was with the Patriots. But then he later signed with the Bucs, that endorsement deal would still be good. It’s an agreement between said player and company, no matter what jersey they are wearing. That wasn’t the case in this endorsement deal though, as Leonard had to be a member of the Clippers to get his annual 7m.
To put it into light terms and in a quick explanation, Kawhi Leonard didn’t have to sign any pictures of himself, show up to any events, or even endorse the company as a whole. But, if he wasn’t a Los Angeles Clipper, then it was grounds for termination in Aspirations eyes.
What do the Clippers, Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard have to say about the allegations?
NOTE: Despite us not having as much ‘motion’ as ESPN, The Athletic and other companies, we reached out to the Clippers, Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard’s teams but did not get a response before our set deadline.
The Pablo Torre podcast reached out to the Clippers and the Ballmer team for comments, with both sides denying all allegations of wrongdoing. The Clippers sent Pablo Torre Finds Out this statement.
“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 co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation. The team and Mr. Ballmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can.”
“I really appreciate you giving me a chance, i look forward to it, i just, up front i want to say something very clearly, We, the Clippers have abided by the salary cap circumvention rules, because that’s the right thing to do. We have done that, i have been for what it’s worth, i think it’s a very important rule, in terms of promoting competitiveness and equal playing field across the league. Whether i agree to it or not, it’s the rule and we have absolutely abided by it.”
Ballmer reiterated the circumvention rules and are “provably false”. He mentioned that they knew the rules, and that Aspiration was a company that solely reached out for a sponsorship deal. His family and himself were ‘keen’ on doing work with a company that’s main goal was climate change. Even going as far as changing the design of Intuit Dome to be ‘carbon neutral’.
Ballmer also said that he did not have any board seat, owned less then 3% of the company, so he didn’t really have any ‘pull’ at the company if you will. “Heck, it was a fraudulent company, no one had any control” said Ballmer. “Can anyone of their employees believe anything they said?”
Steve also mentioned that Aspiration requested that the Clippers introduce Kawhi Leonard to them, for a potential deal. The Clippers produced hundreds of documents in the Department of Justice’s investigation into the matter as well. He says that they were off to the races and they signed a deal, that he’s not aware of the terms are.
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne pressed Ballmer on the issue, asking him how this may look to the common fan. Ballmer said they signed the deal LONG before the Clippers deal even took place. “I literally didn’t have any control in the company, someone had put 6x as much money as i did.”
He says the average fan should understand that it was just an investment and that it wasn’t much different from any other endorsement deals that most players do.
Shelburne asked Ballmer why he thinks they gave Leonard that much money, and he isn’t sure. “The speculation is what it is, and why did they do that?, said Ballmer.
RAMONA: “It’s a lot of money, i mean 28m/7m a year is a lot of money for a guy you didn’t actually require to do anything.”
BALLMER: “I don’t know why they did what they did, and I don’t know how different it is, i really don’t, and frankly any speculation would be crazy, these are guys who committed fraud. How would i be able to, they conned me. They conned me, I-
RAMONA: “But your one of the richest men in America?”
BALLMER: “I made an investment in these guys thinking they were on the up and up, and they conned me. At this stage, i have no ability to predict why they might have done anything they did, let alone the specific contract with Kawhi.”
RAMONA: “Your one of the richest men in America, you’ve obviously done very well in your career in business, you didn’t smell anything, you didn’t see anything, you obviously reviewed the financials before you got involved with the business proposal?
BALLMER: “My staff reviewed primarily fraudulent financials, now should i have sniffed it out? Maybe, i feel embarrassed and kind of silly that I didn’t sniff it out, but I didn’t. I made the investment, a lot of other smart investors didn’t sniff it out either. It’s also true I’ve made a bunch of bad business deals and investments in my life, and I’ve made some good ones. This was fraud and a bad investment and I’m embarrassed by that.
Ramona also asked about the investigation that the NBA held in 2019 about the ‘extra amenities’ that Kawhi was reportedly offered. She outright asked if Uncle Dennis (Kawhi’s uncle and agent) has asked for any benefits since then. Ballmer denied it and reiterated that both sides know exactly what the rules are and that they will also abide by all the rules.
Ballmer and Kawhi haven’t spoke as of ESPN’s interview and says that it’s his business and wouldn’t ask him about it. Ramona asked if the roles were switched, and another owner was alleged of this.
Steve said he’d want the league to investigate it and take it seriously. “Like I said earlier, the salary caps convention rules are important to the league and I’d want the league to investigate” Ballmer said.
Ballmer said they only made an introduction but never directed anyone from Aspiration to make a deal with Kawhi Leonard.
Is there any credible proof of these allegations?
According to Pablo Torre, the Clippers and Steve Ballmer were completely aware of the deal between Aspiration and Kawhi Leonard. Torre has over 3,000 bank statements, internal emails and more. Including emails from Ballmer.
Multiple internal emails from Joe Sandberg, Andrei Cherny and multiple Aspiration executives revealed that Ballmer was very “enthusiastic to help and will personally be a reference and advocate where we ask him.”
Then an email on November 1st, 2021, from Steve Ballmer, connecting the CEO from Intuit to the owners of Aspiration. Ballmer mentioned that they all had a common passion for the Intuit Dome and should all go to a game together. Ballmer gave two dates, one in December, and one in January. With Joe Sandberg replying the same day agreeing to ether date. Mentioning that he was “looking forward to our spending time together. Andrei and i admire Intuit’s commitment to sustainability and your smart partnership with the Clippers! Go Clippers!”
Then on December 15th, 2021, it was announced that Steve Ballmer joined Oaktree Capital Management in investing 315m into Aspiration. 50m was from Ballmer’s personal LLC named Polpat LLC. The 50m from Steve Ballmer is reportedly what allowed Aspiration to pay Kawhi Leonard to 28m for his alleged no show job.
If this is true, Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard not only committed the ultimate cardinal sin in sports. They potentially could be investing money into Aspiration, then giving that money to Kawhi by ‘the transitive property of flow of funds’. It went from Ballmer’s account, into Aspiration, then to Kawhi Leonard.
Torre’s sources say that this was a ‘sweetener’ in the deal for Kawhi to join the Clippers.
An email from Joe Sandberg to multiple people read “What you’re implying is that Ballmer’s investment was a sweetener and impure when the math above pretty blatantly contradicts your implication.” Sandberg said, “In conclusion, it really pisses me off.”
Torre’s source says that Sandberg, who was arrested in March 2025, wasn’t very smart about covering his tracks and made sure to leave everything in writing (emails).
Even despite Qatar, who bought tons of carbon credits from Aspiration in October 2022 to offset the carbon from the World Cup, the cash was quickly draining out. Weekly meetings happened about who would get paid what, when and during those meetings, one thing was always certain, no matter what, Kawhi Leonard’s payment would go through.
There is multiple reasons why Leonard’s payment was always good to go, despite the financial hardships from the company. Torre’s source said that one of the reasons was, Uncle Dennis would call and demand payment. “It was something that had to be done and it was crucial to our relationship with Ballmer and the Clippers.”
What’s next for the Clippers, Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard?
Right now, the NBA is digging into whether the Clippers used Aspiration as a way to funnel extra money to Kawhi Leonard outside of his official contract. If the league finds proof, the repercussions could be big.
For the Clippers:
The NBA could hit the team with fines, loss of draft picks, or even voided contracts if it determines they broke salary-cap rules. It wouldn’t be the first time the league punished a franchise for shady dealings — the Minnesota Timberwolves were fined $3.5 million and lost five first-round picks in 2000 for a secret agreement with Joe Smith, a punishment still remembered as one of the harshest in league history.
For Steve Ballmer:
Ballmer’s personal $50 million investment into Aspiration, combined with the Clippers’ $330 million sponsorship deal, raises questions about conflicts of interest. If the NBA views this as a deliberate attempt to skirt cap rules, Ballmer could face heavy league discipline, though it’s unlikely he’d be forced to sell the team unless something criminal emerges.
For Kawhi Leonard:
If Leonard knowingly accepted money from a “no-show” job, the NBA could fine or suspend him. But players often argue they just signed endorsement contracts offered to them, putting more of the responsibility on the team.
Legal repercussions:
The DOJ has already charged Aspiration’s co-founder, Joe Sanberg, with fraud for defrauding investors, so that angle is settled. The NBA’s jurisdiction is separate — the league doesn’t need criminal charges to punish cap circumvention. If investigators were to prove Ballmer or Leonard personally misrepresented financial dealings to investors or regulators, that could open a new legal front, but so far all legal action has focused squarely on Sanberg.
Bottom line:
The NBA has every reason to protect the integrity of the salary cap. The Clippers are under the microscope, Ballmer’s investment muddies the waters, and Leonard’s name being tied to a $28 million no-show job means this story isn’t going away soon.
NOTE TO THE READER: If you read this far into the article, i wanna say thank you! I know this was extremely long but there’s tons of information and here at Bear Sports News, i always wanna make sure all the information is gathered, from both sides. You can count on BSN to cover this from now to the moment that the NBA considers this investigation closed, but until then, we will see you all next time.
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