This seems really bad (Kawhi cap circumvention)

[clipperlover]

What was so bad about the interview? He didn't implicate himself or the team in terms of circumvention- yes, he admitted making the introduction, but he stated nothing about the sponsorship being a way of flouting the cap. It was a bit disappointed that he stated he got swindled- he should have investigated more before investing in that company

Aspiration was a green company, and Ballmer's a liberal. Selling carbon credits, planting trees to remove CO2 from the atmosphere? What's not to like? $50M is tip money to him. He probably spent a half hour at most on the whole thing.

As far as I can figure Aspiration was fraud, maybe not a Ponzi Scheme, but pretty close. One of the secrets is to round up famous investors so the non-famous feel comfortable giving them their money. They paid Kawhi for the use of his name in rounding up new investors.

I thought Ballmer cleared himself and expect no further repercussions.

Remember this?

The 2022 Super Bowl was dubbed the "Crypto Bowl" due to the wave of cryptocurrency advertisements featuring A-list celebrities. Companies like FTX, Coinbase, Crypto.com, and eToro aired high-profile ads with stars like Larry David, LeBron James, Matt Damon, and Tom Brady. These ads, costing up to $7 million for 30 seconds, aimed to mainstream crypto by leveraging celebrity appeal and FOMO (fear of missing out) messaging, like Crypto.com’s “fortune favors the brave” campaign.

However, the crypto industry faced significant fallout later that year, most notably with the collapse of FTX. By November 2022, FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges, filed for bankruptcy after a liquidity crisis sparked by concerns over its balance sheet. Its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested and charged with defrauding customers out of billions, with his trial set for October 2023. The crash wiped out significant user funds, and celebrities like Larry David, Tom Brady, and Stephen Curry were named in a lawsuit claiming their endorsements promoted FTX’s flawed business model.

Been writing my post for awhile and just saw your post. Guess we found some similar rabbit holes researching.

[clipperlover]

I am beyond done with Kawhi. I don't know how anyone isn't. It's been nothing but drama with him and nowhere near enough success to make it worth it.

To me Kawhi ranks #2 all time when it comes causing destruction to this franchise. I think you already know who ranks #1.

If you are insinuating Sterling destroyed the franchise, I think you are looking at it emotionally and not logically. Sterling was told not to move the team to L.A. because it would never work. Sterling was told to go to Orange County or the Clips would fail. Sterling was told not to move into Staples Center. He had to fight to build the practice facility in Playa Del Rey.

He took a $12.5M purchase and turned it into $2B while defying all the doubters that L.A. could support a 2nd team. He is the only reason the Clippers exist in Los Angeles. Not liking him as a person or how he operated the Clippers is separate issue. He destroyed himself and brought the worst publicity to the franchise, but he certainly didn't destroy the franchise.

[Caneman786]

We believe in innocent until proven guilty.

Until then this is a Nothing-Burger!

[esqtvd]

I am beyond done with Kawhi. I don't know how anyone isn't. It's been nothing but drama with him and nowhere near enough success to make it worth it.

To me Kawhi ranks #2 all time when it comes causing destruction to this franchise. I think you already know who ranks #1.

If you are insinuating Sterling destroyed the franchise, I think you are looking at it emotionally and not logically. Sterling was told not to move the team to L.A. because it would never work. Sterling was told to go to Orange County or the Clips would fail. Sterling was told not to move into Staples Center. He had to fight to build the practice facility in Playa Del Rey.

He took a $12.5M purchase and turned it into $2B while defying all the doubters that L.A. could support a 2nd team. He is the only reason the Clippers exist in Los Angeles. Not liking him as a person or how he operated the Clippers is separate issue. He destroyed himself and brought the worst publicity to the franchise, but he certainly didn't destroy the franchise.

Exactly. For zillionaires like Ballmer, it's an ego trip and a plaything, and they don't mind losing money pursuing winning and a title.

For Sterling it was a bit of a plaything, mostly the attending games and rubbing elbows with LA's Hollywood elites, even showing off his young girlfriend, V. Stiv. But the bottom line was the bottom line, and Sterling insisted on making a profit EVERY YEAR, so while the others spent themselves silly competing with each other and driving up the price of talent, he laughed all the way to the bank.

And his move to LA from backwater SD quadupled the value of the club right off the top--that was genius. Near the end, he actually started enjoying winning, so he loosened the purse strings for Doc, knowing that a 2 BILLION DOLLAR PROFIT was already in the bag. Dumb like a fox.

[Clemenza]

To fully "sell it" all the way its crazy how they didn't have one single "tree planting day" where Kawhi shows up with a media crew, plants one tree in the ground, signs a few autographs, and leaves. How hard is that, seriously?

[TrueLAfan]

Part of the problem is that there's this incredibly mistaken idea that Super Wealthy People Are Super Smart About Money. And to be super nice about it, that’s not true a lot of the time. FTX is a perfect example. You don’t hear stories about Curry or Brady or other FTX investors getting blamed. They got ripped off. Their business people made bad decisions—which, rich or poor, people do.

I don’t know what Kawhi did. His Uncle was clearly looking for money and I think he or, by proxy, Kawhi may have taken a shady deal from a company that was ripping people off—even Steve Ballmer. It doesn’t excuse Kawhi and his team, but it makes their actions a whole lot less questionable. They didn’t know about this company

They weren't the only ones. Aspiration got over a quarter of a billion dollars in funding beyond Ballmer’s stake, and then more after that. Renren Chinese Media Conglomerate put in a huge amount. Leonardo DiCaprio is/was on the Board of Directors. David Bonderman, a founder and partner of TPG Capital, made a big investment. So did Frank Yeary, who ran Citigroup’s global mergers and acquisitions group. There are top businessmen. All of them lost big by having stock options in a company that got targeted by the Feds last year and filed Chapter 11 six months ago.

The Kawhi stuff, even if 100% true and bad, is small stuff. First, I think the Ballmer is angle is—nothing. What I’m supposed to get out of this is Ballmer lost a huge chunk of money because it was a way of avoiding cap penalties. Doesn’t make sense. If “This company is shady because of a $28 million deal with Kawhi Leonard!” is how you’re framing this, you’re missing out. Aspiration had a valuation of close to $2 billion in 2021, before the house of cards started to collapse. Kawhi’s deal was .014 of that.

And, yes, Ballmer was a backer, like all those other guys and groups. Did Aspitation offer a deal to Kawhi to get Ballmer’s (much larger) investment? Probably. Did Ballmer have anything beyond his investment to do or say about Kawhi’s deal? Unlikely. (Leonardo DiCaprio may have.) Did Kawhi get a deal for which he did little to nothing beyond being a name on a website? Probably. Is that illegal or uncommon? No. Was the company legit? No. Would Kawhi or Ballmer have known that? No. My .02.

[Ballings7]

Part of the problem is that there's this incredibly mistaken idea that Super Wealthy People Are Super Smart About Money. And to be super nice about, that’s not true a lot of the time. FTX is a perfect example. You don’t hear stories about Curry or Brady or other FTX investors getting blamed. They got ripped off. Their business people made bad decisions—which, rich or poor, people do.

I don’t know what Kawhi did. His Uncle was clearly looking for money and I think he or, by proxy, Kawhi may have taken a shady deal from a company that was ripping people off—even Steve Ballmer. It doesn’t excuse Kawhi and his team, but it makes their actions a whole lot less questionable. They didn’t know about this company

They weren't the only ones. Aspiration got over a quarter of a billion dollars in funding beyond Ballmer’s stake, and then more after that. Renren Chinese Media Conglomerate put in a huge amount. Leonardo DiCaprio is/was on the Board of Directors. David Bonderman, a founder and partner of TPG Capital, made a big investment. So did Frank Yeary, who ran Citigroup’s global mergers and acquisitions group. There are top businessmen. All of them lost big by having stock options in a company that got targeted by the Feds last year and filed Chapter 11 six months ago.

The Kawhi stuff, even if 100% true and bad, is small stuff. First, I think the Ballmer is angle is—nothing. What I’m supposed to get out of this is Ballmer lost a huge chunk of money because it was a way of avoiding cap penalties. Doesn’t make sense. If “This company is shady because of a $28 million deal with Kawhi Leonard!” is how you’re framing this, you’re missing out. Aspiration had a valuation of close to $2 billion in 2021, before the house of cards started to collapse. Kawhi’s deal was .014 of that.

And, yes, Ballmer was a backer, like all those other guys and groups. Did Aspitation offer a deal to Kawhi to get Ballmer’s (much larger) investment? Probably. Did Ballmer have anything beyond his investment to do or say about Kawhi’s deal? Unlikely. (Leonardo DiCaprio may have.) Did Kawhi get a deal for which he did little to nothing beyond being a name on a website? Probably. Is that illegal or uncommon? No. Was the company legit? No. Would Kawhi or Ballmer have known that? No. My .02.

This.

[Roscoe Sheed]

of course I'm biased in favor of the Clippers, but Rosenberg makes some good points in this article- they paid Kawhi more than any team could pay him, gave him a generous contract coming off a knee injury, and that Aspiration was a dysfunctional and fraudulent company- hence, perhaps they had some odd business plan in mind with the Kawhi endorsement that never came to fruition and now are trying to blame others once the house of cards fell down:

https://www.si.com/nba/steve-ballmer-role-alleged-kawhi-leonard-scandal-doesnt-add-up

[MartinToVaught]

I am beyond done with Kawhi. I don't know how anyone isn't. It's been nothing but drama with him and nowhere near enough success to make it worth it.

To me Kawhi ranks #2 all time when it comes causing destruction to this franchise. I think you already know who ranks #1.

If you are insinuating Sterling destroyed the franchise, I think you are looking at it emotionally and not logically. Sterling was told not to move the team to L.A. because it would never work. Sterling was told to go to Orange County or the Clips would fail. Sterling was told not to move into Staples Center. He had to fight to build the practice facility in Playa Del Rey.

He took a $12.5M purchase and turned it into $2B while defying all the doubters that L.A. could support a 2nd team. He is the only reason the Clippers exist in Los Angeles. Not liking him as a person or how he operated the Clippers is separate issue. He destroyed himself and brought the worst publicity to the franchise, but he certainly didn't destroy the franchise.

Yeah, no, whitewashing the Sterling tenure is just being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. He wasted decades of our time because of his cheapness, racism, and overall scumbag behavior that made this team the pariah of the NBA. Nobody wanted to play here or work here because of him. The on-court product and overall team culture was abysmal. I don't think it's possible for anyone to outdo him in sheer destruction to the franchise. A shiny practice facility is nothing in the grand scheme of things compared to all the negatives he brought to the table.

The team selling for $2 billion had nothing to do with him and everything to do with the league's growth since he bought it, which he never personally contributed to and just leeched off of with his extreme penny-pinching ways. It's ridiculous to pretend like this was some shrewd business dealing on his part - remember, he didn't even want to sell the team, his wife took over the family trust and sold it in spite of his objections. You might as well pretend that Shelly is the Warren Buffett of the NBA. Also, the team probably would have sold for even more than that if we had owned our own arena at the time instead of being the third-priority tenant at Staples because that was cheaper.

[Roscoe Sheed]

I just really hope Kawhi's contract isn't voided or that he isn't suspended for a long time (like a season). I really like the roster the FO put together this season. It is very unlikely they will win the championship, but they have the potential to be very good- I am looking forward to the season and obviously voiding or a long suspension would ruin it all.

[madmaxmedia]

And, yes, Ballmer was a backer, like all those other guys and groups. Did Aspitation offer a deal to Kawhi to get Ballmer’s (much larger) investment? Probably. Did Ballmer have anything beyond his investment to do or say about Kawhi’s deal? Unlikely. (Leonardo DiCaprio may have.) Did Kawhi get a deal for which he did little to nothing beyond being a name on a website? Probably. Is that illegal or uncommon? No. Was the company legit? No. Would Kawhi or Ballmer have known that? No. My .02.

If Aspiration offered a deal to Kawhi to get Ballmer's investment, there's no way they wouldn't have made it known to Ballmer because otherwise that defeats the purpose. And in that scenario, the moment Ballmer learns about it is the moment he should have consulted with lawyers, his FO, whoever because at the absolute minimum it looks really suspect and could very well be construed as cap circumvention by the league. I'm saying that with the benefit of hindsight, but at the very least this looks like really sloppy work by the Clipper ownership/FO.

I'm not saying this is what I thought happened though, the whole situation is crazy (summarized pretty well here). None of the motivations/incentives seem to line up or make sense:

of course I'm biased in favor of the Clippers, but Rosenberg makes some good points in this article- they paid Kawhi more than any team could pay him, gave him a generous contract coming off a knee injury, and that Aspiration was a dysfunctional and fraudulent company- hence, perhaps they had some odd business plan in mind with the Kawhi endorsement that never came to fruition and now are trying to blame others once the house of cards fell down:

https://www.si.com/nba/steve-ballmer-role-alleged-kawhi-leonard-scandal-doesnt-add-up

[madmaxmedia]

I just really hope Kawhi's contract isn't voided or that he is suspended for a long time (like a season). I really like the roster the FO put together this season. It is very unlikely they will win the championship, but they have the potential to be very good- I am looking forward to the season and obviously voiding or a long suspension would ruin it all.

Yeah and we thought Bogey's injury was the rain on the parade going into the season...

[og15]

I just really hope Kawhi's contract isn't voided or that he isn't suspended for a long time (like a season). I really like the roster the FO put together this season. It is very unlikely they will win the championship, but they have the potential to be very good- I am looking forward to the season and obviously voiding or a long suspension would ruin it all.

They won't void the contract, that's extremely unlikely.

What else might be done, I have no clue, depends on what is uncovered when the emails and texts and such are combed through.

[wco81]

Zach Lowe thinks light slap on the wrist.

[esqtvd]

Zach Lowe thinks light slap on the wrist.

I see no provable crime at all. Looks like these guys ripped Ballmer off for $50M.

[DutchCanuck]

Part of the problem is that there's this incredibly mistaken idea that Super Wealthy People Are Super Smart About Money. And to be super nice about, that’s not true a lot of the time. FTX is a perfect example. You don’t hear stories about Curry or Brady or other FTX investors getting blamed. They got ripped off. Their business people made bad decisions—which, rich or poor, people do.

I don’t know what Kawhi did. His Uncle was clearly looking for money and I think he or, by proxy, Kawhi may have taken a shady deal from a company that was ripping people off—even Steve Ballmer. It doesn’t excuse Kawhi and his team, but it makes their actions a whole lot less questionable. They didn’t know about this company

They weren't the only ones. Aspiration got over a quarter of a billion dollars in funding beyond Ballmer’s stake, and then more after that. Renren Chinese Media Conglomerate put in a huge amount. Leonardo DiCaprio is/was on the Board of Directors. David Bonderman, a founder and partner of TPG Capital, made a big investment. So did Frank Yeary, who ran Citigroup’s global mergers and acquisitions group. There are top businessmen. All of them lost big by having stock options in a company that got targeted by the Feds last year and filed Chapter 11 six months ago.

The Kawhi stuff, even if 100% true and bad, is small stuff. First, I think the Ballmer is angle is—nothing. What I’m supposed to get out of this is Ballmer lost a huge chunk of money because it was a way of avoiding cap penalties. Doesn’t make sense. If “This company is shady because of a $28 million deal with Kawhi Leonard!” is how you’re framing this, you’re missing out. Aspiration had a valuation of close to $2 billion in 2021, before the house of cards started to collapse. Kawhi’s deal was .014 of that.

And, yes, Ballmer was a backer, like all those other guys and groups. Did Aspitation offer a deal to Kawhi to get Ballmer’s (much larger) investment? Probably. Did Ballmer have anything beyond his investment to do or say about Kawhi’s deal? Unlikely. (Leonardo DiCaprio may have.) Did Kawhi get a deal for which he did little to nothing beyond being a name on a website? Probably. Is that illegal or uncommon? No. Was the company legit? No. Would Kawhi or Ballmer have known that? No. My .02.

This.

Mostly smart post but insinuating that Kawhi or Balmer not knowing the company was not legitimate is a dumb thing to say. A no show deal with a startup they would have done at least a little bit of a homework. This is about as obvious as it get's but I would assume many teams have done this on a smaller scale without getting caught. You would think a man as Rich and Powerful as Ballmer would have been a little more prudent(maybe not him personally but staff), enjoy your **** franchise.

[donemilio21]

Part of the problem is that there's this incredibly mistaken idea that Super Wealthy People Are Super Smart About Money. And to be super nice about it, that’s not true a lot of the time. FTX is a perfect example. You don’t hear stories about Curry or Brady or other FTX investors getting blamed. They got ripped off. Their business people made bad decisions—which, rich or poor, people do.

I don’t know what Kawhi did. His Uncle was clearly looking for money and I think he or, by proxy, Kawhi may have taken a shady deal from a company that was ripping people off—even Steve Ballmer. It doesn’t excuse Kawhi and his team, but it makes their actions a whole lot less questionable. They didn’t know about this company

They weren't the only ones. Aspiration got over a quarter of a billion dollars in funding beyond Ballmer’s stake, and then more after that. Renren Chinese Media Conglomerate put in a huge amount. Leonardo DiCaprio is/was on the Board of Directors. David Bonderman, a founder and partner of TPG Capital, made a big investment. So did Frank Yeary, who ran Citigroup’s global mergers and acquisitions group. There are top businessmen. All of them lost big by having stock options in a company that got targeted by the Feds last year and filed Chapter 11 six months ago.

The Kawhi stuff, even if 100% true and bad, is small stuff. First, I think the Ballmer is angle is—nothing. What I’m supposed to get out of this is Ballmer lost a huge chunk of money because it was a way of avoiding cap penalties. Doesn’t make sense. If “This company is shady because of a $28 million deal with Kawhi Leonard!” is how you’re framing this, you’re missing out. Aspiration had a valuation of close to $2 billion in 2021, before the house of cards started to collapse. Kawhi’s deal was .014 of that.

And, yes, Ballmer was a backer, like all those other guys and groups. Did Aspitation offer a deal to Kawhi to get Ballmer’s (much larger) investment? Probably. Did Ballmer have anything beyond his investment to do or say about Kawhi’s deal? Unlikely. (Leonardo DiCaprio may have.) Did Kawhi get a deal for which he did little to nothing beyond being a name on a website? Probably. Is that illegal or uncommon? No. Was the company legit? No. Would Kawhi or Ballmer have known that? No. My .02.

Because Ballmer is very rich people tend to think he must be a genius. He became rich because he happened to know the right people and those people created a product that controlled 90% worlds business software use. Beyond that his tenure at Microsoft was average, company was stagnating and losing market share rapidly and had lots of failed endeavors. He became really rich after he was no longer in charge of Microsoft and the company's revenue, profits and subsequently it stock price skyrocketed. Remember, Ballmer thought Zune would be in everyone's pocket.

[madmaxmedia]

I wonder if significant information is going to come to light during investigation of co-founder Joe Sanberg and the company. Any statements by Sandberg or other Aspiration execs during that process regarding sponsorship deals are going to be much more significant than a few ex-employees commenting off the record.

I think in a situation like this where so much money was lost, all significant expenditures are going to be scrutinized. It may be relevant to ask Sandberg why he would sign a $28M no-show endorsement deal with an NBA player, and the answer may shed significant info on what Ballmer did or didn't know.

[og15]

Zach Lowe thinks light slap on the wrist.

I see no provable crime at all. Looks like these guys ripped Ballmer off for $50M.

NBA doesn't have the requirement of having to prove a crime. Now, they might "slap on the wrist" because they don't get enough information, but they can still scrutinize a lot of aspects, not doing due diligence, deal not being announced, team not pushing to know the details of the deal, Kawhi and co not sharing the details of the deal.

All the denials about intent can be done, but there's still a reality of a lot of negligence, and the NBA isn't in a situation where it has to prove you committed a crime for there to be a punishment.

[wco81]

Zach Lowe thinks light slap on the wrist.

I see no provable crime at all. Looks like these guys ripped Ballmer off for $50M.

Remember, the NBA rules do not require the kind of standards required in a court of law. Supposedly circumstantial evidence would meet the bar.

Lowe just thinks the NBA wouldn't want to come down too hard on Ballmer for whatever reason.

Otherwise, you would have to believe that this company decided on its own to throw a huge amount of money at KL to do nothing, that the "investment" Ballmer made had NOTHING to do with them giving KL almost the same amount of money.

I don't know the background of the people who ran this company, what kind of track record they had. Maybe they will cooperate with the NBA investigators and explain why they decided to give KL almost $50 million, without him having to do anything other than continuing to be on the Clippers.