When Pablo Torre released his findings on Kawhi Leonard signing a $28 million ‘no-show' endorsement deal with Aspiration, the NBA world erupted. Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested $50 million in the company, making Leonard's endorsement deal appear to be a circumvention of the NBA salary cap rules.
Ballmer appeared on SportsCenter with ESPN's Ramona Shelburne on Thursday night to reinforce the Clippers' statements that this accusation is ‘provably false.'
“Any speculation would be crazy,” Ballmer said. “These are guys who committed fraud. They conned me. I made an investment in these guys, thinking it was on the up-and-up, and they conned me. At this stage, I have no ability to predict why they did anything they did, let alone the specific contract with Kawhi.”
Hours after Ballmer appeared on SportsCenter at night, former Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban appeared on Torre's podcast Friday morning. He detailed why he sides with Ballmer, particularly regarding the termination of the Aspiration partnership.
“Ballmer made an announcement at some point in time saying that the deal was not moving forward, and this was several years ago,” Cuban said. “But that wasn't really the trigger for team Ballmer. The trigger for team Ballmer was in January of 2024, when it was either the SEC or CFTC said that they were under investigation. So, the minute Aspiration was under investigation, I guarantee you, in the mortal words of Charles Barkley, ‘I guarantee it' that the NBA took a hard look at it.”
Cuban, being a businessman himself, understands the risk of investing. However, he was also quick to point out that many investors can be wronged in a deal.
“I've been scammed,” Cuban said. “Everybody's scammable, but in order for this to work in my opinion, (Ballmer) has to trust that whole company. And at that point in time, he trusted them enough to give them an investment at some level. But I don't see how he would trust that company to keep, probably his darkest secret as an NBA owner.”
Leonard has yet to make a public statement since Torre's report. Despite Ballmer and Cuban's public testimonies, the NBA has officially opened an investigation into the matter.
