New Details Speculate Alarming Paper Trail in Kawhi Leonard Allegations

A new report throws extra shade on Kawhi Leonard's situation with Aspiration

Mar 9, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; FanDuel reporter Kristina Pink (left) interviews LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) after the game against the Sacramento Kings at the Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

At this point, everybody knows the situation that Kawhi Leonard, Steve Ballmer, and the LA Clippers have put themselves in, reaching a suspicious deal with Aspiration before they were found guilty of being a fraudulent company.

Aspiration has a history with the Clippers, as the company even attempted to outbid Intuit for naming rights to their new arena. Steve Ballmer claims that he is a victim of Aspiration's wrongdoing, as he was an investor in this company before it filed for bankruptcy.

Of course, the speculation is that Ballmer was practically indirectly paying Leonard, by having him sign a "no-show job" endorsement deal with this third-party company, and everyone is now finding out about it.

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.

"It was to circumvent the salary cap," an inside source says. pic.twitter.com/F6z5pNEkI1

— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) September 3, 2025

Can it get more suspicious?

The NBA has already launched an investigation into this fishy deal, but Pablo Torre continues to dig deeper and uncover more dirt on his own.

Leonard's second scheduled payment from Aspiration, which was worth $1.75 million, was reportedly running behind schedule. Eventually, Leonard got his $1.75 million payment on December 15, 2022, but what happened just nine days prior? Clippers' vice chairman and minority owner, Dennis J. Wong, made a $2 million payment to Aspiration.

EXCLUSIVE: Kawhi Leonard's $1.75M "no-show" payday was running late.

Then, per new documents obtained by @PabloTorre, the Clippers' co-owner invested $1.99M in the team's broke sponsor.

Nine days later, Kawhi got paid.

"It is beyond shocking," an Aspiration executive says. pic.twitter.com/yxOYGfo3dZ

— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) September 11, 2025

On top of that, an anonymous former Aspiration employee confirmed that 20% of the company's staff was let go on December 15, 2022, the same day that they had to pay Leonard his owed $1.75 million.

This is an absurd situation that continues to look worse for the Clippers, despite Steve Ballmer's attempt to defend himself on national televesion in an interview with ESPN.

The NBA still needs to investigate to confirm if there was any wrongdoing within the Clippers' organization, specifically if they legitimately used Aspiration to circumvent the salary cap. Time will tell how the league office handles this situation, but it does not look great for Ballmer and the Clippers.

BREAKING: Adam Silver speaks on the Clippers investigation

"The burden [of proof] is on the league if we're going to discipline a team, owner or player ... As a matter of fundamental fairness I would be reluctant to act if there was only an appearance of impropriety ... The… pic.twitter.com/jBUYvAl7by

— APHoops (@APH00PS) September 10, 2025

What comes next for the Clippers?

If the NBA decided to hand the Clippers a punishment, there are a number of ways they could go. However, there has been a question of whether they will actually be punished or not. ESPN's Bobby Marks reported that other teams that he has spoken to are not expecting the Clippers to receive any punishment.

However, assuming the Clippers do receive a punishment, it will most likely be a hefty fine or potentially a forfeiture of draft picks, but nothing as extreme as some people are speculating. Still, time will tell what happens to the Clippers after this investigation.