Apr 24, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) moves the ball up court against the Denver Nuggets during the second half of game three in the first round for the 2024 NBA Playoffs at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Clippers governor Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard are under investigation for an alleged "no-show" job and NBA salary cap circumvention.

According to reporting from Pablo Torre on his hit podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out earlier this week, Ballmer made an investment in a company called Aspiration. The company later paid Leonard on a lucrative endorsement deal but did not require much from him in return.

Based on the similarities in the sizes between Ballmer's investment and Leonard's endorsement deal, there is cause for concern about why this may have happened.

Aspiration is now bankrupt and under federal investigation for fraud. The league is conducting its own investigation, which could take an extended period, but will dictate what happens next.

Depending on the results of the investigation, punishment could get extreme for the Clippers (via ESPN):

"Under the circumvention rules of the NBA's 2023 collective bargaining agreement, teams can be punished for circumventing the league's salary cap. Penalties can include fines up to $7.5 million, direct forfeiture of draft picks, voiding any player contract and a suspension -- up to a year -- for any team personnel found to have engaged in such a violation."

There are not many examples of publicly known salary cap circumvention in the NBA, so this is fairly unprecedented. However, during an interview with ESPN's Ramona Shelburne (though not Torre himself) on Thursday night, Ballmer stated his case.

Ballmer maintained that the Clippers abided by the salary cap circumvention rules because it's the "right thing to do" and that he believes it's an important rule to promote competitiveness and equality. He wants the fans to know that they support an organization that does things the right way.

His view is that NBA teams cannot pay a player anything beyond the contract and they cannot cause anybody else to pay the player beyond the contract.

Ballmer emphasized that teams can have sponsors and players can have endorsements, and occasionally, those might overlap so long as there is negotiations.

Ballmer felt that Aspiration helped his team and his new arena become more carbon neutral and that the company offered the Clippers a large sponsorship deal of $300 million in September 2021.

The Clippers were later listed as one of the largest creditors when Aspiration eventually went bankrupt.

The relationship eventually ended in 2022-23 when the company defaulted on its obligations.

Due to his enthusiasm and his belief in their business plan at the time, the team made a subsequent investment. Ballmer reiterated that he did not take a board seat and, per league rules, he owned less than 3 percent of the company.

According to Ballmer, the Clippers had not introduced Leonard to Aspiration until after they agreed to terms on the sponsorship deal and after Leonard had already agreed to an extension in August 2021.

He said that the Clippers later introduced Leonard to Aspiration a few months later in November 2021.

Ballmer told Shelburne that he does not know how much Leonard's endorsement deal was with Aspiration.

However, multiple reports indicated the total for Leonard amounted to $28 million over four years as well as an additional $20 million in company stock. That puts the total at $48 million.

That number is significant because, per Torre, that initial investment from Ballmer to Aspiration was for $50 million.

Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban defended Ballmer on social media and on Torre's podcast. Other executives around the league have had a less pleasant reaction, per Sam Amick (via The Athletic):

“This (sort of endorsement deal) does not happen,” one long-tenured general manager said of the nature of this arrangement.

“I’ve never seen it,” said another executive.

According to Kirk Goldsberry, longtime executives he spoke to said that people are "scared as hell" of the rules surrounding cap circumvention and it is not something that happens in the league.

Ballmer said that if this was reported about another owner, he would want the league to investigate and take it seriously.

However, he maintained that he nor the Clippers made no direction to anyone from Aspiration to make an endorsement deal with Leonard.

We don't know what will happen to the Clippers or to Ballmer to Leonard.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver, however, has called NBA salary cap circumvention a "cardinal sin" in the league.

If the organization is found guilty of any wrongdoing with the investigation, it could get ugly quick.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: The latest updates on the Kawhi Leonard endorsement scandal, explained

Reporting by Bryan Kalbrosky, For The Win / For The Win

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