Two weeks before the opening of the 2025 preseason, the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard have been exposed for what could be one of the most explosive NBA scandals we have seen in the 21st century, one that flew under the radar of the NBA commissioner for 5 years, and will most certainly take center stage during the governors’ meetings happening this week.
It’s 2019, and the Toronto Raptors, led by All-Star Kawhi Leonard, have just upset Stephen Curry and the 6-time world champion Golden State Warriors. The morale is high in Toronto until Leonard rejects his 21.3 million dollar option, and one week later, breaks the bank and signs a max contract with the Los Angeles Clippers. Ballmer, the owner of the Clippers, was five years into his tenure with the growing franchise, having purchased it for the $2 billion highest bid in 2014. Over half a decade later, during a podcast hosted by prominent journalist and sportswriter Pablo Torre, it was revealed that Ballmer had been involved in a salary cap circumvention scandal with their star forward, Kawhi Leonard. To keep him from rejecting his player option, Ballmer secretly gave Leonard more money in lieu of registering it within the Clippers’ cap for that season.
Ballmer invested over 50 million dollars into a startup company named “Aspiration” as the first step of his master plan to circumvent the salary cap, and then signed Kawhi Leonard to a “no-show endorsement deal” that effectively funneled more money outside the NBA’s books. According to whistleblowers like Pablo Torre, who were close to the arrangement, Leonard never once appeared in a single ad, campaign, or promotional effort tied to the company. Yet year after year, millions flowed quietly into accounts linked to his business team, all while Ballmer and the Financial Office of the Clippers were only reporting his player contract under the league cap. The scheme unraveled when Aspiration filed for bankruptcy, exposing documents that revealed Leonard $28 million “endorsement” contract, along with a side agreement promising him $20 million in stock to use by his choosing. Even more incriminating, the deal contained a clause stating that it would be void if Leonard ever left the Clippers–an unmistakable sign that this was less about money and more about securing the superstar’s loyalty outside the rules of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.
League executives were stunned. While it’s common for franchises to connect players with sponsors, these deals are usually worth a few hundred thousand dollars and require real promotional work–TV spots, public appearances, or social media campaigns. Ballmer could have at least covered it up more by having Leonard appear in the media for Aspiration, but no, Kawhi never lifted a finger. “It reeks,” one former player turned executive said. Another called the scale “extreme,” noting that no one in the league circles had ever seen a sham arrangement worth this much.
The NBA wasted no time launching an investigation, retaining the law firm Watchell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the same group that handled the Donald Sterling and Robert Sarver cases. Commissioner Adam Silver, cautious by nature and a lawyer by training, now faces one of the most consequential tests of his tenure in the National Basketball Association. The penalties could be enormous: forfeited draft picks, fines over $50 million, suspensions for Ballmer and front office executives, and the potential voiding of Leonard’s current 3-year, $152 million contract.
This was not the only controversy on Ballmer’s resume. During the 2015 offseason, Steve Ballmer was fined a quarter of a million dollars for circumventing the salary cap and offering the same “no-show endorsement deal” to DeAndre Jordan, who later accepted a 4-year, $87.6 million contract from the Clippers. Meaning that for Ballmer, the stakes are even higher now that he’s at two strikes. The league forced Donald Sterling to sell the Clippers in 2014 due to racist remarks and pressured Robert Sarver to sell the Suns in 2022 for workplace misconduct. If investigators can prove Ballmer orchestrated the Aspiration deal to circumvent the salary cap, the NBA could have no choice but to pursue similar action.
Leonard, once the quiet superstar who let his game do the talking, is suddenly the face of a scandal. His two Finals MVPs and historic run with the Toronto Raptors may now be overshadowed by whispers that his Clippers tenure was built on financial manipulation. As one executive told The Ringer, “If the CBA doesn’t matter, the league doesn’t matter. The integrity of the system is at stake.”
With the preseason just weeks away, the Clippers’ season may already be defined: not by Kawhi Leonard’s health, not by championship aspirations, but by whether the NBA uncovers a paper trail proving Steve Ballmer’s billion-dollar franchise bought its cornerstone star outside the rules.
