Next week, the NBA Board of Governors — better known as the 30 team owners — is meeting in New York, and we know what will be the hot topic of discussion now.
The NBA has opened an investigation into allegations that the Los Angeles Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer circumvented the salary cap to get Kawhi Leonard an additional $28 million through a now-bankrupt environmental company, reporting done by Pablo Torre and team for the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast (PTFO).
While the NBA league office, under the guidance of Commissioner Adam Silver, will conduct the investigation, it is the other 29 owners who would have to vote on any sanctions or punishments. Right now, there are more questions than answers.
There are two key topics for the investigation looking forward. First, what did Ballmer and the Clippers know, and when did they know it? Second, depending on the findings (especially if the evidence is all circumstantial), how willing are the other 29 owners to come down hard on one of their own? There’s a lot to get at, let’s break it all down in bullet points.
Circumstantial vs. smoking gun evidence
• PTFO laid out a troubling timeline garnered through court records and former employees of Aspiration (a “green bank” whose model was to do large amounts of tree planting to gain carbon credits for its corporate clients, a company that has since filed for bankruptcy and had its CEO plead guilty to fraud).
That timeline: In September 2021, Ballmer made a personal $50 million investment in Aspiration. A couple of weeks later, Leonard signed a four-year, $176 million contract extension with the Clippers. At the Clippers’ media day in September 2021, Ballmer announced a $300 million partnership with Aspiration as part of making the Intuit Dome “green” (a priority of his). Soon after, Kawhi Leonard signed a $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration.
• That endorsement was what several Aspiration employees told Torre was a “no-show” job. Leonard never made any public appearances for the company, did not appear in its marketing, nor did he post anything on social media about Aspiration (as others who had endorsements with the company, such as Robert Downey Jr., had done). Leonard just collected the checks, using a clause in his endorsement deal that allowed him to get out of anything he didn’t believe in (which was apparently everything).
• Multiple Aspiration employees said to PTFO they were told not to question the Leonard endorsement and that it was a way for the Clippers to circumvent the salary cap. It doesn’t help the Clippers’ case that Leonard’s adviser, business partner and uncle, Dennis Robertson — who famously made unreasonable requests such as sponsorship deals, a house, a plane on call, and more when teams were recruiting Leonard in 2019 — is involved and helping Leonard cash those checks.
• Here’s where it gets tricky for the league’s investigators: All of that is circumstantial evidence.
• Ballmer investing in a green company that turned out to be a scam? He wasn’t the only billionaire bilked by Aspiration and its CEO. Leonard signing an endorsement deal with Aspiration? Star players signing independent endorsement contracts with team sponsors is pretty common. The Aspiration employees PTFO spoke with said they were “told” this was to circumvent the NBA salary cap, which can be brushed aside as office rumors if there is no email or recorded conversation with Ballmer or a Clippers executive saying exactly that.
• The Clippers deny everything, saying they were scammed like everyone else, and that they had nothing to do with Leonard’s endorsement deal and how that operated. Here is the Clippers’ longer statement on the accusations, sent to a number of media members.
“Neither the Clippers nor Steve Ballmer circumvented the salary cap. The notion that Steve invested in Aspiration in order to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard is absurd. Steve invested because Aspiration’s co-founders presented themselves as committed to doing right by their customers while protecting the environment.
“After a long campaign of market manipulation, which defrauded not only Steve but numerous other investors and sports teams, Aspiration filed for bankruptcy. Its co-founder, Joseph Sanberg, recently pleaded guilty to a $243 million fraud. Neither Steve nor the Clippers had knowledge of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government initiated its investigation. Aspiration was a team sponsor for the 2021-2022 and 2022 2023 seasons before defaulting on its contract.
“There is nothing unusual or untoward about team sponsors doing endorsement deals with players on the same team. Neither Steve nor the Clippers organization had any oversight of Kawhi’s independent endorsement agreement with Aspiration. To say otherwise is flat-out wrong.
“The Clippers take NBA compliance extremely seriously, fully respect the league’s rules, and welcome its investigation related to Aspiration. The Clippers will also continue to cooperate with law enforcement in its investigation into Aspiration’s blatantly fraudulent activity.”
• The Clippers’ defense is the same one politicians use all the time: Plausible deniability. Leonard and his representatives have yet to comment at all.
• This is where Mavericks’ minority owner Mark Cuban comes in: He says Ballmer got scammed, but even if he wanted to circumvent the salary cap he is too smart to leave a paper trail.
I’m on Team Ballmer.
As much as I wish they circumvented the salary cap, First Steve isn’t that dumb. If he did try to feed KL money, knowing what was at stake for him personally, and his team, do you think he would let the company go bankrupt ? Knowing all creditors would… https://t.co/AxvMoLmPv7
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 3, 2025
Crime and Punishment
• A lot of fans and media members pointed to 2000, when the Minnesota Timberwolves were caught circumventing the salary cap with free agent Joe Smith (promising him a larger second contract if he signed a lower-priced one-year first one): Five first-round picks taken away (two were later returned), $3.5M fine (equivalent to a $6.7 million fine now), Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor was suspended for a year, team GM Kevin McHale was forced to take a leave of absence, and Joe Smith’s contract was torn up. I have seen speculation online now that the league could force Ballmer to sell the team.
• Nothing that severe is happening. First, selling the team is off the table — the only time the league pushed an owner out was due to the backlash to the racist comments and actions of former Clippers owner Donald Sterling, and the misogynistic workplace backlash to former Suns owner Robert Sarver. Whatever the NBA’s investigation finds with Ballmer, it is at most cheating the salary cap, which is not near the severity of the other issues.
• In the Joe Smith/Minnesota case, there was a paper trail — the sides agreed to that deal in writing. Again, whatever you think of Ballmer and what he’s done here, Cuban is right: he’s not that stupid.
• Which leads to the big question for the other owners: Assuming the investigation ends with a lot of coincidences and circumstantial evidence, but no smoking gun, and the Clippers vehemently denying anything untoward happened, how hard are they willing to come down on one of their own?
• The answer to that question starts with what exactly this investigation by the league finds. There is still a lot we don’t know, and the Clippers have a lot of explaining to do to the league beyond that statement. Even without hard proof that Ballmer and the Clippers knew what was going on, if the investigation finds more circumstantial evidence, it is not good for the Clippers.
• The NBA CBA says that owners can be punished for “direct or circumstantial” evidence, something The Ringer’s Zach Lowe researched for his podcast. If the league and the other owners see this as a preponderance of circumstantial evidence, they could come down hard on Ballmer.
• There almost certainly will be some level of punishment for the Clippers — and it’s not going to be the Knicks’ slap-on-the-wrist losing a second-round draft pick after the league found New York tampered in recruiting Jalen Brunson. What other owners and front offices took away from the Knicks’ punishment was that if the price to tamper with an elite player is just a second-round pick, it is worth it. The last thing the league wants is for the owners to take that same lesson about circumventing the salary cap, something Lowe notes.
• Despite what some have tried to say online, circumventing the cap like this is not common around the league. To pretend it never happens is naive, but it’s not some common practice. The other owners who have been following the rules are not going to let the richest one of them start breaking them to his advantage.
• That said, don’t expect the league and other owners to fully bring the hammer down on the Clippers in a truly franchise-changing way.
• The punishment phase of this is not going to happen for a long while. First up is the league’s investigation and what it finds. That will set the tone.
