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This is how the controversy around Kawhi Leonard and and his Aspiration endorsement deal is going to play out (likely for most or all of the NBA season): There will be drips and drops of new information, but the NBA will just say its official investigation is ongoing and will take time to play out. Nobody in league circles expects this to be resolved before the Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer host the NBA All-Star Game in February, and maybe not until the season ends. The latest bits of news comes from Robert O’Connell and Harriet Ryan at the Wall Street Journal, and their story added a couple of key new things to the conversation: • The Clippers initiated the conversation between Aspiration — a “green bank” company and Clippers sponsor — and Kawhi Leonard. From the WSJ: In December 2021, [Aspiration CEO and founder Joe] Sanberg told a high-ranking Aspiration executive that the Clippers had approached him about doing a deal with Leonard, their injured star. The executive recalled Sanberg saying: “This is important to the Clippers.” Under the terms of the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Clippers can introduce Leonard (or any player) to a sponsor but cannot be involved in the endorsement deal. Sanberg pushed for that to be a $48 million endorsement deal, $28 million in cash and $20 million in stock, with those stocks eventually coming out of Sanberg’s personal allocation of stock in the company (that stock is now worthless). • While executives in the company had questions about why Sanberg wanted to focus on Leonard and not a more charismatic star with a bigger presence on social media, they didn’t see it as salary cap circumvention. That contradicts what some company employees had told the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, which broke the story and has pushed it forward. From the WSJ: Inside the company, jaws dropped at the terms, with one executive telling a colleague that Aspiration could purchase seven Super Bowl ads for the contract price ... Former top executives at Aspiration said that although people inside Aspiration had concerns about the deal, there had never been any discussion or speculation by senior executives that it might be a vehicle for Leonard and the Clippers to circumvent the salary cap. The controversy surrounding Leonard’s endorsement deal with Aspiration is the claim made by Pablo Torre and others that this was a “no show” endorsement deal. There is no public evidence of Leonard having done any work, made any appearances or done any social media posts for Aspiration (at least to this point, although his endorsement deal stipulated a variety of things he was supposed to do). That led to the suggestion from some in the company that the Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer used this Aspiraton deal circumvent the NBA’s salary cap and get more money to Leonard (and his family, including his uncle and business manager Dennis Rodgers). The Clippers and Leonard have steadfastly and vehimiently denied any wrongdoing in this case. “I mean, the NBA is going to do their job. None of us did no wrongdoing,” Leonard said at Clippers media day. “And, yeah, I mean, that’s it. We invite the investigation ... I understand that full contract and the services that I had to do. Like I said, I don’t deal with the conspiracies or the clickbait analysts or journalism that’s going on.” Ballmer had invested $60 million total in Aspiration and said that he, like other big-name investors, were defrauded by Sanberg (who has since pled guilty to two counts of wire fraud related to the company, and Aspiration itself has gone bankrupt). There is a lot of circumstantial evidence for the Ballmer and the Clippers to explain, including Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong investing $2 million in Aspiration in late 2023 — when it was clear the company was failing — and Leonard getting a $1.75 million endorsement check days later. The NBA has hired the law firm of Wachtell Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate the claim that this was a “no show” endorsement deal, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated he expects this to take some time. “I can say it will take some time, just based on past experience. From the reporting so far, many of the sources are anonymous, but there are several of them. And you have here a separate court proceeding. We have a guilty plea [by Sanberg for wire fraud]. So there’s a fair amount of evidence for us to look at. The stakes are very high here. We, as a league, want to be careful and make sure that not only are we being fair to the Clippers and Steve Ballmer, but also that we have a true understanding of whatever happened here.” The evidence so far against the Clippers would be considered circumstantial in a court of law, but Silver reiterated to SI that this is not a court of law and circumstantial evidence could be enough. ”...Circumstantial evidence alone doesn’t prevent findings for one particular side. But then, even in the case of circumstantial evidence, you look at the totality of the circumstances. So it’s not formulaic. We will look at everything that’s presented to us, and that includes inferences that come from evidence as well.” Whatever findings come out of the investigation, Silver has to take them to an independent arbitrator (picked by the league and the player’s union), who will decide if Silver can go ahead with any punishment of Leonard or the Clippers.
