The Los Angeles Clippers have for weeks been rocked by the Aspiration-Kawhi Leonard saga. Pablo Torre, who initially brought the story out, has now revealed further details about Steve Ballmer’s involvement in the alleged cap circumvention.
Torre revealed that, according to a former Clippers official, there was simply no way Ballmer did not know about the nature of the payments he had made to Aspiration.
“The world in Clipperland revolves around Kawhi Leonard and the moon is Dennis Robertson. There is no way the Clippers did not know about this deal. And they pointed straight to Steve Ballmer and the President of Basketball Operations, Lawrence Frank, the innermost circle who handled the most sensitive issues around one of the most delicate superstars that anyone has managed in professional sports,” Torre said on the latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out.
However, the more scathing observation came out when Torre pointed out further payments made by the Ballmer Group, specifically one made back in 2022. Torre claimed that, according to the Group’s website, specifically its “Our Grants” section, a $1.875 million grant was given to a “Golden State Opportunity Foundation,” which was created by Joe Sanberg.
Sanberg, a co-founder of Aspiration, pleaded guilty to defrauding multiple investors and lenders of a total of $248 million in August 2025.
“And so just to set the scene, this is all about Kawhi Leonard's second-ever payment of $1.75 million that was due from aspiration at the end of September 2022. But of course, September 2022 came and went, October 2022 came and went,” Torre continued, effectively suggesting that the $1.875 million grant was merely a creative way to cover the payments that were eventually made to Kawhi Leonard by Aspiration.
Torre went on to reveal text messages from Impact Sports’ Mitch Frankel, who previously worked with Kawhi, asking for payments from Mike Shakaro, who was Aspiration’s chief legal officer and chief compliance officer at the time. The journalist was almost appalled at the ease with which he was able to unearth scathing details about the controversy.
He claimed that details about Joe Sanberg’s involvement in The Golden State Opportunity Foundation were visible on its website as recently as November 2024, something he verified on the Internet Archive.
