It hasn't been a great 48 hours for the L.A. Clippers, who were rocked by accusations of cap circumvention. According to journalist Pablo Torre, the Clippers' owner Steve Ballmer allegedly created a company named Aspiration in which he paid star Kawhi Leonard $7 million annually over a four-year span.
Exclusive: Kawhi Leonard signed a $28M endorsement deal for a "no-show job" with a fraudulent tree-planting company funded by $50M from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, according to documents obtained by @PabloTorre.
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) September 3, 2025
"It was to circumvent the salary cap," an inside source says. pic.twitter.com/F6z5pNEkI1
Hi. PTFO can now confirm that Aspiration gave Kawhi a secret $20M side-deal, as first reported by @BostonSportsBSJ.
— Pablo Torre 🕳️ (@PabloTorre) September 5, 2025
Combined with Kawhi’s secret $28M no-show endorsement deal: that’s $48M.
PTFO previously reported that Steve Ballmer’s personal Aspiration investment was... $50M.
That totaled $28 million in alleged payments plus $20 million in stock options, coming out to nearly $50 million in payments. That is beyond Leonard's $175 million contract with the Clippers.
If true, that would be a huge scandal and the largest instance of cap circumvention in NBA history.
How will the NBA punish the Clippers for the Kawhi Leonard controversy?
That has led to speculation about potential punishments for the Clippers, though the NBA may not be able to drop the hammer the same way they did during the infamous Joe Smith and Minnesota Timberwolves scandal back in 1995.
To catch readers up, the Wolves and Smith agreed to a wink-wink deal that circumvented the salary cap, and man, did the NBA come down hard on them.
The Wolves were penalized five (later reduced to three) first-round picks and the equivalent of $15 million in cash in today's money. Perhaps luckily for the Clippers, they don't have many first-round picks available. That's after having traded most of their picks in the Paul George and James Harden trades.
However, the NBA could get creative. The NBA could strip them of their pick swaps in 2026 and 2028, as well as their 2030, 2031, and 2032 first-round picks, as first proposed by Yahoo Sports' Tom Haberstroh.
That would be costly, with the Clippers not having first-round picks for the next eight years in that scenario. However, if the NBA really wants to send a message, they could void Leonard's deal.
Could the NBA void Kawhi Leonard's contract?
As Haberstroh points out, it possible but complicated. The contract that Leonard was initially on when he allegedly received those payments has already ended. That means the league would have to void his new contract that he's already started.
That would lead to headaches and pushback from the NBAPA. Best guess, but I don't believe that the Clippers would be at risk of losing Leonard. A stiff fine and being stripped of two pick swaps and three firsts, totaling five firsts, is a reasonable penalty.
That doesn't include any penalties to Ballmer himself, who could possibly be suspended for a year or more if these allegations are proven to be accurate. If all that happens, then the Clippers could be feeling the ramifications of the Leonard drama for the better part of the next decade.