SI

Fans Mercilessly Troll Clippers After Tweet Resurfaces Amid Salary Cap Scandal

An unearthed (and extremely relevant) Kawhi Leonard birthday tweet from 2023 is making the rounds online.

Brigid Kennedy

The deal with the fraudulent tree company was meant to circumvent the league's salary cap, sources told journalist Pablo Torre.
The deal with the fraudulent tree company was meant to circumvent the league's salary cap, sources told journalist Pablo Torre. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
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The NBA world was thrown for a loop on Wednesday morning when journalist Pablo Torre alleged that, in 2022, Clippers star Kawhi Leonard signed a $28 million endorsement deal with a now-defunct, fraudulent tree-planting company partially funded by team owner Steve Ballmer. The setup, a source told Torre, was meant to circumvent the league's salary cap.

But things got potentially worse a few hours later, when an old Kawhi birthday tweet mentioning the tree company in question—Aspiration—resurfaced on X (formerly Twitter). Naturally, fans began trolling the team immediately.

"Happy birthday, Kawhi!" the team wrote in the 2023 post. "For every comment/retweet, @Aspiration will plant one tree for Kawhi's birthday!" (If you click on Aspiration's handle now, you are directed to an account belonging to someone by the name of Becca Destreee. There is just one tweet.)

Take a look at that original post, and the newfound reaction, below:

"Aspiration, Inc." filed for bankruptcy in March 2025 after co-founder Joe Sanberg was arrested on fraud charges. Torre also found an LLC reportedly managed by Leonard among the list of creditors in the company's bankruptcy filings, and claimed that the forward never once publicly mentioned or referenced Aspiration.

"The single largest payment to an individual for marketing that Aspiration ever made has completely evaded all press," a former company employee told Torre. "... He didn't have to do anything."

In a statement, the Clippers said that "neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration. Any contrary assertion is provably false: The team ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago, during the 2022-23 season, when Aspiration defaulted on its obligations. Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Ballmer was aware of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation. The team and Mr. Ballmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can."

Should the NBA investigate the matter, current punishments for cap circumvention reportedly include a $4.5 million fine for a first offense, a $5.5 million fine for a second offense and the loss of one first-round draft pick, among other disciplinary actions.

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Brigid Kennedy
BRIGID KENNEDY

Brigid Kennedy is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, she covered political news, sporting news and culture at TheWeek.com before moving to Livingetc, an interior design magazine. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, dual majoring in television, radio and film (from the Newhouse School of Public Communications) and marketing managment (from the Whitman School of Management). Offline, she enjoys going to the movies, reading and watching the Steelers.

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