One of the biggest stories during the 2019 NBA offseason was Kawhi Leonard's decision to join the Los Angeles Clippers. Right after winning the NBA Finals with the Toronto Raptors, Leonard made the decision to join the Clippers.
At the time, the most common explanation for his decision was his preference to be in Los Angeles, his hometown.
Since then, Leonard has remained with the Clippers, and he signed a contract extension in 2024 to try and help keep Paul George in LA. The move was seen as a savvy decision by both Leonard and the Clippers.
However, a recent report suggests that there's more going on behind the scenes that allowed Steve Ballmer to keep the star happy.
Pablo Torre reports that he obtained documents suggesting that Leonard signed an endorsement deal with Aspiration, a “tree brokerage” company affiliated with the Clippers that recently filed for bankruptcy.
The only problem is that the Clippers star never seemed to endorse the company publicly and never held any events for them. Torre, through interviews with some of Aspiration's former employees, has learned that the deal was to circumvent the salary cap.
“It was to circumvent the salary cap,” the employee told Torre. “The single largest payment to an individual for marketing that Aspiration ever made has completely evaded all press. … He didn't have to do anything.”
This is obviously not allowed under the NBA's salary-cap rules. The Collective Bargaining Agreement specifically prohibits NBA teams from offering “under-the-table” contracts to players to sweeten the deal.
This prevents teams and/or owners from signing star players to a cheaper contract while still giving them a lucrative deal.
“Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration,” the Clippers sent to Torre regarding these allegations. “Any contrary assertion is provably false.”
Leonard first signed with the Clippers in 2019 on a three-year, $103.1 million contract. At the end of that deal, the two-time Finals MVP signed a four-year, $176.3 million max contract. In January 2024, Leonard signed a three-year $149.5 million contract extension, taking less money than he could have received.
Should Steve Ballmer and the Clippers be found guilty of evading the salary cap rules, the punishments are likely to be severe. The Minnesota Timberwolves were found guilty of trying to circumvent the salary cap during talks with Joe Smith back in 1999.
The Wolves convinced Smith to sign a contract lower than his market value at the time, with the promise of a larger contract in the future. As a result, the Timberwolves lost three first-round picks.
Whether or not a similar punishment will come down on the Clippers and Leonard is unknown.
The NBA did investigate Dennis Robertson, Leonard's advisor, in 2019 for asking for impermissible benefits when Kawhi was originally a free agent. Upon completion of this investigation into “Uncle Dennis,” the league found no evidence of Leonard being granted or promised illegal benefits during his negotiations with the Clippers.
As a result of Torre's recent report, the NBA will likely revisit this investigation and look into whether Leonard received illegal benefits from Ballmer and Los Angeles.
