Rapper and actor Vince Staples addressed Los Angeles Clippers veteran Kawhi Leonard and the drama surrounding his endorsement deal with Aspiration. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is being sued by Aspiration's investors in response to the bombshell surrouding Leonard's reported no-show deal that paid out $28 million over four years.
Staples, a local rap artist from Long Beach who helped the Clippers recruit Leonard in free agency in 2019, delivered his take on the scandal, per 7PM in Brooklyn.
“They were doing the most, man. They really wanted him to come to the team,” Staples said, looking back on the Clippers' recruiting. “And I think it was a good plan, you know what I mean? It's just, dudes get hurt when they tried to get that boy with that case for them trees. Nobody wanted to take the case, man. They should have planted those trees. Everything would have been different. Somebody could've planted those trees.
“Bro, they could have gone down to Home Depot — got them some joints. Twenty dollars a piece. Fifty dollars a piece, Put them trees in the ground, bro. And everything would have went away,” Staples concluded.
The Kawhi/Clippers tree-planting scandal woulda had Vince Staples moving different 🤣
"They could've went down to Home Depot … $20 a piece, $50 a piece, put them trees in the ground and everything woulda went away." pic.twitter.com/Bn89RVDMW7
— 7PM in Brooklyn (@7PMinBrooklyn) November 14, 2025
There hasn't been any record of Leonard endorsing Aspiration, a now-bankrupt tree-planting company of which investigative reporter Pablo Torre says Ballmer and the Clippers used as a way to cicumvent the salary cap. Former employees of the company came forward with the information, as something many people in the company were privvy to. The NBA's intestigation into the matter is ongoing.
Steve Ballmer reportedly sued by former Aspirations investors
It's been a difficult 2025-26 season — on and off the court — for the Clippers, as investigative reporter Pablo Torre's report on Aspiration's deal with Clippers' Kawhi Leonard set an ominous tone. This was followed by a 3-8 start, which is the fourth-worst record in the Western Conference.
Off the court, Ballmer is named in a new lawsuit, according to Torre's Pablo Finds Out podcast.
“BREAKING: Steve Ballmer has been sued by Aspiration investors over an alleged scheme ‘to secretly funnel millions' to Kawhi Leonard,' reported Pablo Torre Finds Out on X, formerly Twitter.
Torre was the reporter who originally broke the story on the alleged no-show deal, and this latest piece of evidence certainly doesn't look good for the Clippers.
