The Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard are at the center of a major NBA scandal involving millions of dollars in off-court endorsement payments, allegations that the team used business partners to provide Leonard compensation outside his NBA contract, and findings that the Clippers violated the league’s salary-cap circumvention rules.
The controversy began publicly in September 2025 with reporting about a secret endorsement agreement between Leonard and bankrupt financial-technology company Aspiration. A yearlong independent NBA investigation eventually concluded that the Clippers improperly helped Leonard obtain lucrative deals from four companies doing business with the franchise.
The NBA fined the Clippers $30 million, stripped the team of five future first-round draft picks, suspended owner Steve Ballmer for a year and ordered Leonard to pay $700,000. The case escalated again in September 2026 when reports revealed that federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had opened a criminal investigation into the Clippers’ dealings involving Leonard.
What Did The LA Clippers Do In The Kawhi Leonard Scandal?
The NBA concluded that the Clippers repeatedly violated salary-cap circumvention rules by helping Kawhi Leonard obtain outside income from companies doing business with the team. An independent investigation by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz identified Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance as the four companies involved. [NBA] [Wachtell Report]
Investigators said the Clippers:
- initiated off-court income opportunities for Leonard;
- helped facilitate the endorsement agreements;
- offered or provided team business to induce companies to make the deals;
- paid unauthorized personal expenses for Leonard and his representatives; and
- failed to report improper demands for outside compensation made on Leonard’s behalf by his uncle and then-business manager Dennis Robertson.
What Was Kawhi Leonard Accused Of Doing?
The NBA found that Leonard violated league rules through the conduct of Robertson acting on his behalf. Investigators said Robertson repeatedly pressured Clippers officials to obtain lucrative outside business opportunities for Leonard and that those efforts succeeded. [Wachtell Report]
The report also found that personal expenses paid by the Clippers on behalf of Leonard, his family and Robertson were not properly reimbursed or deducted as league rules required. [Wachtell Report]
The NBA did not accuse Leonard of committing a federal crime. The federal investigation reported in September 2026 remained in its early stages, and no criminal charge against Leonard had been announced.
What Is Salary Cap Circumvention?
Salary-cap circumvention occurs when a team provides, arranges or promises compensation or other valuable benefits to a player outside the forms of compensation allowed by the NBA collective bargaining agreement.
NBA rules prohibit teams from secretly increasing what a player receives by arranging money, investments, business opportunities or other benefits outside the player’s official contract. [Wachtell Report]
A player can legitimately sign independent endorsement deals. The problem in the Clippers case was the NBA’s finding that team officials themselves initiated, facilitated and induced companies that wanted Clippers business to enter lucrative agreements with Leonard.
The report notes that teams may generally provide a sponsor with a player’s contact information when the sponsor independently asks for it. They cannot initiate or facilitate a sponsorship for the purpose of increasing a player’s outside compensation. [Wachtell Report]
What Was Kawhi Leonard’s Aspiration Deal?
The deal with Aspiration ultimately promised Leonard $48 million over four years. The agreement called for $7 million in cash and $5 million in equity annually, according to the NBA investigators — a total of $28 million in cash and $20 million in equity. [Wachtell Report]
The scandal originally became known as the “$28 million no-show endorsement” controversy because Pablo Torre’s initial September 2025 investigation revealed the $28 million cash component. Later reporting and the NBA investigation established that an additional $20 million in Aspiration equity was part of the arrangement. [Washington Post] [Wachtell Report]
Did Kawhi Leonard Have To Do Any Work For The $48 Million?
NBA investigators described Leonard’s obligations as unusually limited relative to the size of the Aspiration agreement. The deal was never publicly announced or activated as a conventional celebrity endorsement, and investigators said experts considered the compensation extraordinarily high given Leonard’s obligations and endorsement profile. [Wachtell Report]
The original Pablo Torre investigation characterized the arrangement as a “no-show” endorsement after reviewing documents and interviewing former Aspiration employees. [Washington Post]
Leonard disputed that characterization in 2025. Asked whether he had performed services for Aspiration, Leonard said the claim that he did nothing was not accurate and said he understood the services required under his contract. [ESPN]
How Much Money Did Kawhi Leonard Actually Receive From Aspiration?
Leonard received $21 million of the $28 million cash portion before Aspiration collapsed. The bankrupt company still owed an entity connected to Leonard another $7 million, according to bankruptcy records reviewed during the original investigation. [LA Times]
The promised equity became effectively worthless after Aspiration’s collapse.
What Was Steve Ballmer’s Connection To Aspiration?
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer personally invested tens of millions of dollars in Aspiration while the company also maintained extensive business relationships with the Clippers.
In September 2021, Ballmer made a $50 million personal investment in Aspiration. Around the same period, Aspiration entered agreements including a 23-year, $382.5 million Clippers sponsorship arrangement and a separate $72 million sustainability-services deal involving the Intuit Dome. [Wachtell Report]
Ballmer later invested another $10 million as the company struggled financially. [LA Times]
Ballmer has said he was himself victimized by fraud at Aspiration and has denied deliberately using the company to circumvent the NBA salary cap.
What Was The $7 Million Connection Between Aspiration And The Clippers?
NBA investigators found a striking link between the amount the Clippers agreed to spend with Aspiration and the amount Aspiration was supposed to pay Leonard in cash each year.
A proposed agreement involving environmental work at the Clippers-owned Forum contemplated the Clippers spending $7 million annually with Aspiration. Leonard’s endorsement contract separately required Aspiration to pay Leonard $7 million in cash annually. [Wachtell Report]
Investigators cited internal communications showing that Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg tied those two arrangements together.
The report said Sanberg told other Aspiration executives that the Clippers would increase the business they gave Aspiration in line with what Aspiration was paying Leonard. [Wachtell Report]
Did Steve Ballmer Know The Aspiration Deal Was Connected To Kawhi Leonard?
The NBA investigators found that Ballmer knew Aspiration was threatening to abandon Leonard’s endorsement agreement if the Clippers did not complete a separate business agreement with Aspiration. [Wachtell Report]
Internal communications described by investigators show Sanberg threatening to cancel Leonard’s deal unless the Clippers finalized the Forum arrangement.
Ballmer told investigators he knew about that threat. He nevertheless personally approved the Clippers’ execution of the Forum agreement in April 2022. [Wachtell Report]
The investigators concluded that Ballmer’s approval constituted improper facilitation under NBA rules.
What Was The Dennis Wong $1.99 Million Payment?
Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong invested approximately $1.99 million in Aspiration shortly before the financially troubled company made a late $1.75 million payment to Leonard.
The investment occurred nine days before Leonard received the payment, according to reporting based on financial documents. [LA Times]
That sequence attracted substantial attention during the early stages of the scandal, although the NBA’s eventual findings extended far beyond the Aspiration arrangement.
Who Is Joe Sanberg?
Joe Sanberg was an Aspiration co-founder who later pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges unrelated to the NBA’s salary-cap rules.
Sanberg was sentenced in June 2026 to 14 years in federal prison for defrauding investors and lenders of more than $248 million. [Reuters]
NBA investigators interviewed Sanberg but said they treated his testimony cautiously because of his criminal history and relied on his statements where they could be corroborated with other evidence. [Wachtell Report]
Were Other Companies Paying Kawhi Leonard?
Yes. The NBA investigation uncovered three earlier agreements involving Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance.
Leonard was owed a combined $18 million under those three endorsement contracts, all of which had been paid by August 2021. [Wachtell Report]
Investigators said the agreements shared unusual characteristics:
- all were arranged during the COVID-19 pandemic;
- the companies had little or no history of comparable athlete endorsements;
- Leonard’s performance requirements were minimal;
- none of the deals was publicly announced; and
- investigators found little evidence of meaningful promotional work.
The report said Leonard’s only confirmed activity under the three deals consisted of one visit to a military base under one agreement and signing memorabilia under another.
What Happened With Daktronics?
The Daktronics relationship provided some of the clearest evidence cited by investigators that Clippers business was tied directly to a Leonard endorsement.
Daktronics was competing for a contract to provide scoreboards and video displays for the Clippers’ new Intuit Dome. Investigators found that a Clippers executive proposed satisfying a “spend back” requirement through an endorsement deal with Leonard. [Wachtell Report]
The Clippers allegedly specified that Daktronics should pay Leonard $3 million per year for two years.
Investigators said Daktronics believed refusing the arrangement could jeopardize its chances of securing the Intuit Dome business. The company agreed.
The following year, a Clippers executive allegedly told Daktronics that because the team’s spending on the scoreboard project had increased, the company should increase its payment to Leonard. Daktronics ultimately added another $2 million. [Wachtell Report]
In September 2026, Daktronics disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission had contacted it about its dealings involving Leonard. [Reuters]
Did The Clippers Pay Kawhi Leonard’s Personal Expenses?
Yes, according to the NBA investigation. Investigators found hundreds of instances in which the Clippers paid personal expenses for Leonard, members of his family and Robertson without making the deductions from Leonard’s compensation required by league rules. [Wachtell Report]
Those expenses included air and ground transportation, accommodations, gifts and tickets.
The report said Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, authorized the payments. [Wachtell Report]
What Role Did Kawhi Leonard’s Uncle Dennis Robertson Play?
The NBA investigation identifies Robertson as a central figure in the scandal.
When Leonard became a free agent in 2019, Robertson allegedly requested benefits prohibited under NBA rules, including team equity, housing, private transportation and guaranteed outside endorsement income. The Clippers acknowledged to the NBA at the time that those requests had been made but denied agreeing to them. [Wachtell Report]
After Leonard signed with the Clippers, investigators say Robertson continued pressing the organization for approximately $10 million per year in outside income opportunities for Leonard. [Wachtell Report]
NBA rules required the Clippers to report improper requests for outside compensation even when the team rejected them. Investigators said the Clippers repeatedly failed to do so.
How Did The Kawhi Leonard Clippers Scandal Begin?
The story broke publicly on September 3, 2025, through an investigation by journalist Pablo Torre on his podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out.
Torre reported that Leonard’s company had entered a secret four-year, $28 million endorsement agreement with Aspiration, a company heavily connected financially to Ballmer and the Clippers. Former Aspiration employees told Torre that Leonard was not expected to perform conventional endorsement work and alleged the arrangement was intended to circumvent the salary cap. [Washington Post]
The NBA hired Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz shortly afterward.
The investigation ultimately expanded far beyond the original Aspiration allegation and included 73 interviews of 60 people and a review of more than 200,000 pages of documents. [Wachtell Report]
Had The Clippers Been Accused Of Salary Cap Circumvention Before?
Yes. The Clippers were already a prior offender.
In 2015, the NBA fined the team $250,000 after determining that the Clippers improperly attempted to facilitate an endorsement opportunity involving DeAndre Jordan and a prospective team sponsor. [Wachtell Report]
Investigators emphasized that history because it meant Ballmer and other Clippers officials had already received specific notice about what league rules allowed and prohibited.
The league also investigated circumstances surrounding Leonard’s original 2019 free agency after Robertson made requests for benefits that NBA rules prohibited. That inquiry remained open pending additional evidence. [Wachtell Report]
What Punishment Did The NBA Give The Clippers?
The NBA imposed sweeping penalties on September 2, 2026.
The Clippers were fined $30 million and ordered to forfeit their first-round draft picks in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033. [NBA]
The franchise was also placed under a league compliance and monitoring program for five years.
Commissioner Adam Silver said the severity of the penalties reflected what he called flagrant violations and institutional leadership failures. [NBA]
What Happened To Steve Ballmer?
Ballmer was suspended from all NBA and Clippers activities for one year.
The league said Ballmer knowingly attempted to help Leonard obtain outside income, approved the business arrangement that Aspiration had made a condition of its Leonard endorsement, and failed to create an organization that complied with salary-cap rules. [NBA]
What Happened To Clippers Executives Gillian Zucker And Lawrence Frank?
President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker was suspended without pay for one year. The NBA said she was primarily and directly responsible for impermissible endorsement arrangements and gave investigators false or misleading statements. [NBA]
President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank was suspended without pay for six months. The league cited his involvement in the endorsement arrangements and approval of improper expenses involving Leonard and his family. [NBA]
What Happened To Dennis Robertson?
Robertson was banned for five years from conducting business with NBA teams or their affiliates on behalf of players or other league personnel. [NBA]
The punishment reflected the investigators’ finding that Robertson repeatedly sought impermissible outside compensation opportunities on Leonard’s behalf.
What Was Kawhi Leonard’s Punishment?
The NBA ordered Leonard to pay $700,000. [NBA]
Leonard was not suspended.
The NBA and National Basketball Players Association reached an agreement confirming the announced penalties as final and binding. [NBA]
What Did Kawhi Leonard Say After The NBA Ruling?
Leonard said he did not know of any intent to circumvent the salary cap. In a statement issued through his new agent, Harrison Gaines, Leonard said integrity and respect for basketball were fundamental to him. [Reuters]
Leonard nevertheless said he accepted responsibility for lapses in judgment by people in his inner circle and regretted the distraction caused to fans and his family. [Reuters]
What Did The Clippers Say About The NBA Findings?
The Clippers rejected the investigation’s conclusions. The organization said it “vehemently” disagreed with the findings and has continued to maintain that its relationships involving Leonard did not constitute prohibited salary-cap circumvention. [LA Times]
The Clippers previously argued that introducing players to team business partners was commonplace around the NBA and maintained that Leonard and his representatives independently negotiated endorsement terms after any introductions were made. [LA Times]
The Wachtell investigators rejected that explanation, finding that the Clippers’ involvement extended substantially beyond simply sharing contact information. [Wachtell Report]
Are The Clippers Suing The NBA?
The Clippers and Ballmer were reportedly considering a legal challenge following the NBA’s ruling. Reuters reported on September 11 that the team was considering suing the league and seeking a restraining order. [Reuters]
As of September 11, no completed lawsuit challenging the penalties had been publicly reported.
Is The Justice Department Investigating The Clippers?
Yes, according to reporting published September 11. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have opened an early-stage criminal investigation into the Clippers’ dealings involving Leonard.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York is conducting the investigation, according to reporting cited by Reuters. At least one subpoena has reportedly been issued. [Reuters]
The federal investigation reportedly began before the NBA announced the findings of its own probe.
A criminal investigation does not mean the Clippers, Ballmer, Leonard or anyone else will be criminally charged. Reuters reported that it remained unclear whether prosecutors would ultimately bring charges or present evidence to a grand jury. [Reuters]
The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the reported investigation.
Is The SEC Investigating A Company Connected To The Kawhi Leonard Deals?
Daktronics has said the Securities and Exchange Commission contacted the company about its dealings involving Leonard. The scoreboard manufacturer said it was cooperating with the SEC. [Reuters]
The contact adds another regulatory dimension to a scandal that began as an NBA salary-cap investigation.
What Happened To Kawhi Leonard’s Trade To Toronto?
Leonard agreed in principle to return to the Toronto Raptors in a June 2026 trade, but completion of the deal was delayed while the NBA investigation remained unresolved. [LA Times]
The proposed transaction would return Leonard to the franchise he led to the 2019 NBA championship.
As of September 11, Reuters reported that the deal had still not been executed. [Reuters]
Why Is The Clippers Kawhi Leonard Scandal So Serious?
The salary cap is central to the NBA’s attempt to maintain competitive balance. If a wealthy owner could secretly supplement a star player’s official salary through team sponsors or related companies, the richest franchises could effectively offer players far more compensation than league rules permit.
That is why the NBA collective bargaining agreement treats circumvention as a serious violation and why investigators focused not simply on whether Leonard had outside endorsement deals, but on whether the Clippers caused, facilitated or financed those deals.
The independent investigation concluded that they did.
What began as a September 2025 report about one secret Aspiration endorsement agreement has therefore expanded into documented NBA rules violations involving four companies, $66 million in promised endorsement compensation, unprecedented damage to the Clippers’ future draft assets, suspensions of senior leadership, an SEC inquiry involving one business partner and a reported federal criminal investigation.
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One of the first political bloggers in the world, Oliver Willis has operated OliverWillis.com since 2000. Contributor at Media Matters for America and The American Independent. Follow on Twitter at @owillis. Full bio.