The Kawhi Leonard improper benefits scandal isn’t going away, despite the Los Angeles Clippers’ best efforts. New evidence has been uncovered by journalist Pablo Torre which implicates the Clippers in what appears to be a clear link between the basketball team and now-defunct carbon offset company Aspiration, which was reportedly paying Leonard $7 million a year for a no-show job.
The latest comes after a week of the Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer being on the defensive, saying there’s no truth behind allegations that Leonard was paid by a third party to circumvent the salary cap. These new reports come from Pablo Torre of Medowlark Media, who first broke the story in early September that Kawhi had been receiving improper payments.
This “smoking gun” comes in the form of a $1.99M investment in Aspiration from a company owned by Dennis Wong, who also owns 1% of the Clippers. It’s alleged that Aspiration was in financial free fall in December of 2022, and didn’t have the funds required to make Leonard’s scheduled $1.75M payment. In order to satisfy this outstanding debt Wong invested money in the failing company, and nine days later Leonard’s payment was made in full. Internal documents from the company show that the payment to “KL2 Aspire,” a company owner by Leonard was marked as “critical,” and a transfer was made the same day Aspiration laid off 20% of its workforce due to financial trouble.
An anonymous former employee detailed the payment to Torre, saying that Wong’s investment in the company was “beyond shocking” and “not a rational investment that someone would make.” At the time it was widely known that Aspiration was in financial trouble, which has since resulted bankruptcy and an investigation from the federal government for defrauding investors.
Ballmer owns 99 percent of the Clippers. Wong owns the other 1 percent, and is listed as the franchise’s alternate governor.
This new information comes just days after a report out of Toronto alleged that Leonard’s camp asked for improper payments from the Raptors in 2019 when they were negotiating with Kawhi following the NBA Finals. That report details that Leonard’s uncle and representative told the Raptors that Kawhi required $10M in payments outside of his NBA contract for a now-show job, and sought to land ownership stakes in companies owned by Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, including part of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs.
Leonard left Toronto in free agency when the Raptors said no to the proposed arrangement, and stunned the world when he signed with the Clippers after being linked to the Lakers for much of the summer.
The NBA is currently investigating whether or not the Clippers did indeed take part in a scheme to pay Leonard as part of a salary cap subversion scheme. Torre also alleges that NBA commissioner Adam Silver chose not to mention the league’s investigation into Ballmer in front of any other owners, positing that part of the reason for this is because Ballmer serves on the NBA’s audit committee. In total the Boston Sports Journal reports that Leonard received stock options for an addition $20 million that never paid off.
Try as they might, this story is getting too big for either Steve Ballmer or Adam Silver to contain. It remains to be seen what punishment the Clippers might receive, but with every new report the odds that it will be a perfunctory slap on the wrist shrinks.