LA Clippers’ future in jeopardy after NBA finds $28 million no-show deal
The NBA determined that the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented the salary cap, handing them the largest punishment in NBA history
Photo from Chensiyuan/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)
On Sept. 3, 2025, investigative sports journalist Pablo Torre published a 1-hour-20-minute-long video on his podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” accusing the Los Angeles Clippers of paying Kawhi Leonard under the table. Aspiration, a sustainability-as-a-service company, accumulated an impressive list of celebrity endorsers: Robert Downey Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio, Drake, etc. But after the company filed for bankruptcy, Torre combed through thousands of documents and found an unexpected name at the top. The most lucrative deal wasn’t for Downey Jr., DiCaprio, or any celebrity who publicly endorsed Aspiration. It was a $28 million deal for Leonard requiring him to do absolutely nothing. Torre suspected that through this deal, Leonard and the Clippers were circumventing the NBA’s salary cap, which limits how much a team can spend on its players.
After a year-long independent investigation by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the NBA confirmed Torre’s findings and gave the Clippers the largest punishment ever imposed on a North American professional sports franchise. Team owner Steve Ballmer must pay a $30 million fine and is banned from any league and team activities for a year, Kawhi Leonard must pay a $700,000 fine, President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker is suspended without pay for a year, and President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank is suspended without pay for six months. The Clippers also lost every future first-round pick from 2029 to 2033, severely hindering their ability to stay young and field talented prospects out of the draft.
How did Kawhi Leonard tempt the Clippers into this sticky situation?
To understand how the Clippers got themselves into this situation, we must travel back to the summer of 2019. Kawhi Leonard led the Toronto Raptors to their first championship in franchise history, punctuated by one of the most iconic shots in NBA history: a Game 7 buzzer-beater against the Philadelphia 76ers that bounced off the rim four times before going in. As the best player in the league at the time, Leonard became the most sought-after free agent in the 2019 offseason. His options eventually narrowed down to returning to Toronto, joining the Los Angeles Lakers, or joining the Los Angeles Clippers.
Leonard heavily recruited Paul George, who had recently finished third in MVP voting and also expressed significant interest in going to Los Angeles, to join him. On July 6, 2019, the Clippers signed Leonard and acquired George in exchange for a historic haul of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, five unprotected future first-round picks, and two pick swaps from the Oklahoma City Thunder. However, the signing came with major controversy, primarily because of the requests from Leonard’s primary business representative and adviser Dennis Robertson, who is also Leonard’s uncle (Uncle Dennis).
During free agency discussions with the Lakers and Raptors, Uncle Dennis made several requests that directly violated the salary cap. He reportedly asked for a percentage of team ownership, a private plane, a house, and guaranteed off-the-court endorsement money once Leonard signed with the team. While Uncle Dennis made the same requests to the Clippers, the organization did not report any of these requests to the NBA.
The Clippers directly facilitated endorsement deals for Leonard during COVID-19
When the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) agreed on the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in April 2023, one of its main objectives was to limit how much teams can spend on players to create a balanced and competitive league. To do so, the CBA strictly prohibits circumvention of the salary cap, meaning that teams cannot compensate the player outside of their standard NBA contract. Teams also cannot affirmatively introduce players to third-party business parties. The one exception is that if a partner initially requests to connect with a player, the team can provide their contact information but cannot further facilitate the relationship.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Uncle Dennis reached out to Ballmer and Frank, frustrated that the Clippers were not securing enough off-the-court endorsement deals for Leonard. He requested a three-to-six month plan to connect with companies and more frequent communication with Zucker on the deals.
In June 2020, Zucker sent three separate emails to Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance in an effort to connect Leonard’s representatives to company executives. On the same day that Zucker sent the second “introduction” email, paperwork for “KL2 LBS LLC” was filed. With KL2 representing Kawhi Leonard’s initials and his jersey number, the timing of the filing suggests that Leonard’s camp already anticipated a payment before they even met the companies to discuss the endorsement details. It was also unusual that the companies were signing and paying Leonard during the pandemic, a period of major economic instability.
The Clippers’ role in facilitating these deals for Leonard became clear with their Daktronics partnership. In the spring of 2020, Daktronics sought a contract to provide the scoreboard and signage technology at the Clippers’ newly finished arena. The Clippers wanted to arrange a “spend back” deal where Daktronics would provide business back; Zucker proposed that Daktronics could fulfill this by simply paying Leonard $3 million per year for two years.
In July 2020, Daktronics agreed out of fear that declining the agreement would impact their chances of securing a contract with the Clippers. In February 2021, the Clippers’ executive who outlined the terms insisted that Daktronics pay Leonard an additional $2 million the second year because the team spent more on the scoreboard than initially planned. The Clippers were not merely connecting Leonard with a sponsor, but were actively negotiating the value of his endorsement compensation.
Ballmer ensured that Leonard’s deal with Aspiration would successfully go through
In August 2021, Leonard signed a maximum contract extension with the Clippers: $176.3 million over four years. A few weeks later, the Clippers negotiated a 23-year $382.5 million sponsorship agreement with Aspiration to become a founding arena partner and be on the Clippers’ jersey patch, another agreement for Aspiration to provide sustainability services to the arena, and a separate agreement by Ballmer to personally invest $50 million into Aspiration. In October 2021 — after deals were finalized — Zucker met with Joe Sanberg, co-founder and board member of Aspiration. After presenting the idea of securing endorsement details between Aspiration and the Clippers’ players, Zucker helped Sanberg structure a deal for Leonard.
The final agreement required Aspiration to pay Leonard $7 million in cash and $5 million in equity per year for four years, totaling $48 million. The deal was never publicly announced, and the contract stated that Leonard did not have to fulfill any obligations if they did not align with his “beliefs.” Furthermore, Section 2.10b in Leonard’s contract explicitly stated that he would only receive sponsorship payments if he remained a member of the Los Angeles Clippers. In connection with this deal, Aspiration entered an agreement with the Forum, a separate arena that Ballmer owned; the Forum would pay Aspiration on a quarterly basis corresponding to the exact amount Aspiration paid Leonard. When negotiations between the Clippers and Aspiration were stalling, Ballmer himself stepped in to execute the Forum deal.
In retrospect, the Clippers have absolutely nothing to show for the Kawhi Leonard era. Even worse, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the rookie they traded for Paul George alongside multiple first-round picks, blossomed into a two-time MVP and led the Thunder to a championship last year. The Clippers recently traded Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, giving him an opportunity to pursue a championship alongside star Scottie Barnes. Meanwhile, the Clippers are stuck in a stacked Western conference, not having their own first-round pick until 2033. The NBA has sent a strong message to all teams, ensuring that the price of circumventing rules can extend far beyond a fine or a lost draft pick; it can alter the franchise’s trajectory for years to come.