NBA Office Reportedly Caught Off Guard by Kawhi Leonard’s $28 Million Aspiration Agreement
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The National Basketball Association has opened an investigation after learning of a previously undisclosed $28 million endorsement deal linking Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard to Aspiration, a tree-planting and financial-services startup that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
Journalist Pablo Torre, speaking Wednesday on “The Dan Patrick Show,” said league executives reacted with “panic” when the arrangement surfaced. “I’m told they did not know about this deal between Steve Ballmer—or at the very least between Aspiration and Kawhi Leonard with the influence of Steve Ballmer,” Torre said, referring to the Clippers’ governor whose investment firm had supplied Aspiration with hundreds of millions of dollars.
Details of the Contract
According to documents reviewed by Torre, Leonard signed the $28 million agreement in 2021. Despite the size of the contract, the two-time NBA Finals MVP never promoted the company in public appearances or on social media.
A former Aspiration employee told Torre the endorsement was intended to work around the NBA’s salary-cap rules by effectively moving compensation off the Clippers’ books.
Single Public Link
The only documented instance tying Leonard to the firm occurred on June 29, 2023, when the Clippers’ official X (formerly Twitter) account posted a birthday message promising that Aspiration would plant one tree for every comment or repost. Fans recently resurfaced the post and ridiculed the franchise online.
Company Collapse and Fraud Allegations
Aspiration sought Chapter 11 protection earlier this year after its co-founder was charged with fraud. The bankruptcy has intensified scrutiny of the Leonard deal and raised questions about disclosure requirements for player endorsements connected to team ownership.
Clippers Deny Violations
The Clippers said in a statement that any suggestion of wrongdoing is “provably false.” The NBA, however, is proceeding with its own review. The league previously examined Leonard’s 2019 free-agency recruitment, when multiple teams alleged improper demands from the player’s representatives.
The current inquiry will assess whether league rules on salary-cap circumvention and endorsement disclosures were breached and whether Ballmer’s financial stake in Aspiration created an impermissible benefit for Leonard.
No timetable for the investigation’s findings has been announced.
Source: Hoops Wire
