Kawhi Leonard, who is already under investigation from the NBA for an alleged under the table sponsorship deal with a now defunct company named Aspiration, is believed to be in hot water once again.
According to the latest report from journalist Pablo Torre, Leonard is alleged to have been receiving money from Intuit Dome videoboard company Daktronics. The allegations suggest that the Los Angeles Clippers would funnel money to Daktronics, who would then pass the funds along to Leonard as a means to circumvent the NBA salary cap. While the exact total is unknown, the report suggests that the sum would be in the “millions” of dollars.
The Clippers have yet to respond for comment on the report and have subsequently turned down requests for interviews.
The NBA launched its investigation into the Clippers and Leonard in September after Torre referenced internal documents showing Clippers owner Steve Ballmer investing large sums of money into Aspiration through his personal LLC. If the timeline is to be believed, Ballmer forwarded close to $50M to Aspiration in 2021, weeks before the team signed a 23 year, $300M deal with the company making it a “founding partner” of the Intuit Dome.
Fast forward 6 months, and suddenly Aspiration was allegedly inking a $28M endorsement deal with Leonard. That deal reportedly included little in the way of actual “work”, and was largely viewed as a no-show contract as another effort to circumvent the salary cap.
Ballmer and the Clippers have stated that they simply made an introduction between Leonard and Aspiration and had no further involvement in the matter. The Clippers owner would later state that he lost the entirety of his investment in the start up whose founder Joseph Sanberg was ultimately sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for his role in defrauding investors out of close to $248M.
Now, it would appear as thought a similar pattern is playing out on the west coast once again. Torre and his co-reporter, Sam Koppelman of Hunterbrook Media, were quick to point out that Daktronics appeared to be in financial distress in 2023, which was right around the time they were working on the Intuit Dome video board.
What is unclear at the moment is whether the NBA became aware of the potential second violation through the current investigation which is being spearheaded by independent law firm Wachtell Lipton. If they were, it would certainly explain why this saga has dragged on for so much longer than anticipated.
If the allegations prove true, they will have massive ripple effects across the NBA. There is no world in which this can be merely a slap on the wrist for Ballmer, and it also raises questions about Leonard’s future in the league. The previously announced Leonard to Toronto reunion has been put on hold until a final resolution is announced. But with summer ticking away, and the 2026-27 season looming, something will have to give in relatively short order if the Clippers and Raptors are expected to proceed with the year ahead.
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