Possible punishments for Clippers? Questions loom over NBA’s investiga
On Wednesday morning, Pablo Torre dropped a bombshell that was felt all across the NBA.
In an 80-minute episode of “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” Torre revealed a secret $28 million endorsement deal that Kawhi Leonard inked with a fraudulent green bank called Aspiration back in 2022. It’s a story because Aspiration had close business ties with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and the Clippers organization. Aspiration made a $330 million sponsorship deal with the Clippers that was supposed to run through 2034, in addition to a reported $50 million investment from Ballmer himself.
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But it’s a big story because of the most startling detail of all, according to PTFO’s reporting:
Leonard’s $28 million endorsement deal didn’t seem to actually require him to do any endorsement of any kind. And so Leonard did not do any of the endorsing of said company.
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Was it a no-show job to circumvent the NBA cap?
That’s a question league investigators and team owners — not to mention fans and players — will want answered. Ballmer and the Clippers initially denied any wrongdoing to PTFO in Wednesday’s episode. Later that day, the team released a four-paragraph statement leading with: “Neither the Clippers nor Steve Ballmer circumvented the salary cap.”
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Where do we go from here? Here are some questions lingering over the proceedings.
Could the league hand the Clippers the Joe Smith penalty?
Let’s go back to October of 2000. Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson were out of the league, but Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers were the reigning champs. Momentum was moving in the right direction for the NBA.
But ahead of the 2000-01 season, a scandal rocked the league. Then-commissioner David Stern levied one of the harshest penalties in NBA history, hammering the Minnesota Timberwolves for circumventing the NBA’s salary cap regarding deals with former No. 1 overall…
