This seems really bad (Kawhi cap circumvention)

[madmaxmedia]

heh

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He should have used ChatGPT reasoning mode, might have come up with a better scheme,

[esqtvd]

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[Clemenza]

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[esqtvd]

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With the draft picks gone and no needle-mover UFAs on tap--AND the BallmerDome opening--re-signing Kawhi for another couple years instead of letting him go for nothing [while letting fan UNfavorite PG walk to Philly] doesn't seem all that stupid.

But THIS is the key graf:

"This last investigation is different," a former Clippers staffer said of the league's inquiry into a sponsorship deal with a company that Ballmer invested in. "This one directly calls into question Steve Ballmer's character.

[Clemenza]

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With the draft picks gone and no needle-mover UFAs on tap--AND the BallmerDome opening--re-signing Kawhi for another couple years instead of letting him go for nothing [while letting fan UNfavorite PG walk to Philly] doesn't seem all that stupid.

But THIS is the key graf:

"This last investigation is different," a former Clippers staffer said of the league's inquiry into a sponsorship deal with a company that Ballmer invested in. "This one directly calls into question Steve Ballmer's character.

Some are saying this could be a Ballmer sponsored hit piece on Kawhi & Uncle Dennis.. Oh my!

[KL2]

So there is no smoking gun? Huh. Imagine that.

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Mark Cuban keeps shredding this guy too,

[Ballings7]

So there is no smoking gun? Huh. Imagine that.

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Mark Cuban keeps shredding this guy too,

Ah such a bummer for Torre..

I think sportac is being sarcastic there though.

Add: On further review, maybe actually not out of the realm of reality.. league may just do the long delay to give themselves their own time, and then also to best-effort things to die down.

Under that situation (investigation goes the long game) :::

Torre better hold anything else he has tight, otherwise it'll just get put into bottom transfer of the NBA news cycle.

Once the season starts, this story will usually be on the backburner in the mainstream. It'll of course get recycled in different ways when there are "slow" or "down" periods, in combination with more speculation and hot takes by various folks.

[esqtvd]

Intuit Dome burns electricity like Las Vegas, so Ballmer's "carbon neutrality" was all a green scam. Aspiration was the dodge, creating "carbon credits" by planting trees, which I'm sure it never got around to doing. As Ballmer was an investor, he was buying carbon credits from himself!



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ADD: As I said...

LA Clippers say Steve Ballmer was 'duped' in latest twist in Kawhi Leonard case

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/clippers/2025/09/18/kawhi-leonard-case-clippers-steve-ballmer-duped/86221062007/

[Caneman786]

Looks like things have cooled down on this front. Time to get this ring!

[TrueLAfan]

I think people are coming to the realization that there are a lot of unconnected things here. I think what the Clippers did and what Ballmer did was legal, but probably not super ethical. (Yes, there’s a difference.) And I absolutely think that Kawhi’s camp was trying to squeeze extra money out of any and everybody. Uncle Dennis is a shady and grasping guy. I get it.

But I just don’t get this whole “plan” that is supposedly the core of this issue. Like I said, the dots don't connect. So—the idea was get Kawhi more money by using Aspiration, and having Steve Ballmer invest—what, $50 million? $70 million? For a company that got close to a billion in investments from all sorts of other equity firms and investors? And had a valuation of over $2 Billion around the time of Ballmer’s investment? In a deal that was made almost a year after Kawhi signed his contract? So Ballmer lost $60-70 million to be a (very) minority owner in a business that was fraudulent and screwed all of its investors and it was reported on at the time (see https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-15/oaktree-ballmer-bet-315-million-on-aspiration-before-spac-deal?embedded-checkout=true for an article from 2021) and nobody thought anything of it because ... lots and lots of people invested. And the investment was meant to be secret and to get Kawhi an extra $28 million over four years? Make it make sense for me. There are dozens of better ways to circumvent the cap than this.

[madmaxmedia]

I think people are coming to the realization that there are a lot of unconnected things here. I think what the Clippers did and what Ballmer did was legal, but probably not super ethical. (Yes, there’s a difference.) And I absolutely think that Kawhi’s camp was trying to squeeze extra money out of any and everybody. Uncle Dennis is a shady and grasping guy. I get it.

But I just don’t get this whole “plan” that is supposedly the core of this issue. Like I said, the dots don't connect. So—the idea was get Kawhi more money by using Aspiration, and having Steve Ballmer invest—what, $50 million? $70 million? For a company that got close to a billion in investments from all sorts of other equity firms and investors? And had a valuation of over $2 Billion around the time of Ballmer’s investment? In a deal that was made almost a year after Kawhi signed his contract? So Ballmer lost $60-70 million to be a (very) minority owner in a business that was fraudulent and screwed all of its investors and it was reported on at the time (see https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-15/oaktree-ballmer-bet-315-million-on-aspiration-before-spac-deal?embedded-checkout=true for an article from 2021) and nobody thought anything of it because ... lots and lots of people invested. And the investment was meant to be secret and to get Kawhi an extra $28 million over four years? Make it make sense for me. There are dozens of better ways to circumvent the cap than this.

You don't think the timing around Dennis Wong's $2M investment and Kawhi's $1.75 late payment being made at a time when the company was absolutely cratering, is not pretty eyebrow-raising? This at a time when the company's struggles was well known, and Uncle Dennis making numerous calls to Aspiration about the late due payment.

If this was all a make good scheme for Kawhi signing with the Clippers in the first place, they came up with a reasonable plan. The problems started when Aspiration started going belly up, financial details are publicly exposed, and employees start talking.

I guess there are actually 2 questions here. The first is what one believes actually happened, and the second what one anticipates the NBA will do about it based on the findings of their investigation. There's a lot of possibilities.

EDIT- I forgot to add that almost an entire year after Bloomberg reported that the US government was investigating Aspiration and the whole scheme was falling apart, Ballmer reportedly made a ~$1.8M donation to Aspiration co-founder and arrestee Joe Sandberg's charity (according of course to Pablo Torre.)

[esqtvd]

Kawhi to Media: fk off

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[PhillyNj]

Kawhi to Media: fk off

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Richard Nixon, “ I am not a crook.”

[esqtvd]

Kawhi to Media: fk off

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Richard Nixon, “ I am not a crook.”

OTOH, I guess you can say that about anybody accused of anything. Do you remember those celebrity Super Bowl ads for crypto in 2022? Shohei Ohtani, Stephen Curry, Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Shaquille O’Neal and Naomi Osaka, among others. Yes, there was fraud but they were not implicated.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/larry-david-crypto-ftx-lawsuit-1236211276

What WAS shady was Ballmer buying "carbon credits" for the Intuit Dome from Aspiration, a company he was a part-owner of. Shady, although not illegal. And comical. Intuit burns energy like a Vegas casino but Ballmer was going to "offset" that by having Aspiration plant 15000 saplings for a few cents each, lol.

The man is so incredibly full of shtt.

Carbon neutral? Only if you count a $100M pledge to a partner with no verified offset program, ignore the 8-year absorption delay, and call 2040 a solution.

Our net-zero commitment
Intuit is committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its value chain by FY2040, which is in line with the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and achieving net-zero global emissions before 2050.



As part of this commitment, Intuit’s science-based near-term and long-term emissions reduction targets have been validated and approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a global body that enables businesses to set ambitious emissions reductions targets in line with the latest climate science. Intuit is committed to achieving these targets by prioritizing direct emissions reductions, or decarbonization, across our value chain. Any residual emissions will be neutralized, if applicable, in line with SBTi criteria before reaching net-zero emissions.



Our science-based targets include near-term targets of reducing absolute Scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 42% by FY2030, from a FY2022 base year. We also commit that 80% of our suppliers, measured by emissions covering purchased goods and services, will have science-based targets by FY2027.



Our commitment also includes long-term targets which commits to reducing absolute Scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 90% by FY2040, from a FY2022 base year. Additionally, Intuit has also committed to reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions by 97% per million USD value added (gross profit) by FY2040 from a FY2022 base year.



Our net-zero commitment is a huge step forward for Intuit, and we’re laying the groundwork to meet our goals across our Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

[wco81]

They could have put solar panels on the roof but not sure if it would be structurally sound. They'd need a lot of batteries. But it still wouldn't be enough.

Maybe it would generate enough electricity in peak summer days. But the NBA plays in the fall and winter.

[esqtvd]

They could have put solar panels on the roof but not sure if it would be structurally sound. They'd need a lot of batteries. But it still wouldn't be enough.

Maybe it would generate enough electricity in peak summer days. But the NBA plays in the fall and winter.

Yes. There are solar panels and batteries, supposedly accounting for 40% of Intuit's needs. I figured that in when I used AI to try to account for the rest. Basically, it smells very fishy to me, and to the AI. Ballmer was going to buy carbon credits from a company he part-owned. Planting trees was a last-minute pivot as Aspiration began to fail and it would have taken 15,000 trees on 20 football fields and 7 years before the trees were big enough to offset the fossil fuel energy Ballmer needs to buy [and as much as 30 to make back years 0-6].

Further, Ballmer's eco-mission statement for Intuit is a total fraud. Carbon neutral by 2040? What a joke. And the AI says as long as gross profits go up, so can emissions. This

Our commitment also includes long-term targets which commits to reducing absolute Scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 90% by FY2040, from a FY2022 base year. Additionally, Intuit has also committed to reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions by 97% per million USD value added (gross profit) by FY2040 from a FY2022 base year.

is complete legalistic and accounting gibberish, not ecology. Asperation never planted a single tree and now never will. Intuit will burn energy like a Vegas casino, but the only carbon mitigation will be theoretical, on a spreadsheet. The NBA has no subpoena power for Asperation's books, and Ballmer's claim for Intuit's "net zero," even if a total lie, is not judiciable.

[esqtvd]

ADD: It appears Ballmer "bought" PHONY carbon credits. From himself, since he was an investor. Carbon credits are heavily monitored and certified, but it appears Aspiration did none of that. It was all hot air.

Evidence on Aspiration's Carbon Credits Certification

Based on a deep dive into recent reporting (primarily from Pablo Torre's "Pablo Torre Finds Out" podcast series, which has driven the NBA investigation, along with corroborating articles from ESPN, The Athletic, and others), there is no publicly available evidence that the carbon credits sold to the Clippers—including the $32 million payment on April 4, 2022—were certified by any recognized NGO or third-party body. This lack of certification evidence is particularly damning given the strict standards you mentioned, enforced by organizations like:Verra (Verified Carbon Standard): The largest voluntary carbon registry, requiring rigorous verification of additionality (projects must prove they wouldn't happen without funding), permanence (emissions reductions must last 40+ years), and no leakage (avoiding displaced emissions).
Gold Standard: Focuses on UN Sustainable Development Goals, mandating community benefits, biodiversity safeguards, and independent audits.
American Carbon Registry (ACR): Emphasizes scientific validation and double-counting prevention.
Climate Action Reserve (CAR): U.S.-focused, with protocols for forestation and avoidance projects.

These bodies issue unique serial numbers for each credit, track them via registries, and require annual reporting. Certifications aren't optional for credible credits; they're the gold standard to avoid "greenwashing." Aspiration's model—selling offsets tied to tree-planting (e.g., their "Plant Your Phone" or "Oak Tree" programs)—could have qualified for certification if properly executed, but the evidence points to the opposite.Key Findings from ReportsNo Mention of Certification in Transactions: Across detailed timelines and bank records cited in Torre's episodes (e.g., Episodes 3 and 4, released September 11 and 18, 2025), the $32 million April 4 payment (plus a $3 million prepayment on April 1) is described solely as "prepayment for carbon credits" or "carbon offsets." A June 14, 2022, letter from Clippers CFO Eric Chan (redacted name in docs) to East West Bank specifies the purpose as "carbon credits and a $10 million reforestation project development," but includes zero reference to verification, serial numbers, or certifying bodies.

Similarly, a June 17, 2022, confirmation letter for a $21 million wire (totaling $56 million in 2022 prepayments) promises Aspiration would "transfer 400,000 carbon credits" by June 30—but again, no certification details.

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Aspiration's Broader Fraud Context: The company's March 2025 bankruptcy exposed systemic issues that undermine any claim of certification. Former employees (seven interviewed by Torre) described fabricated Letters of Intent (LOIs)—90% allegedly fake—to inflate fundraising, and "cooked books" that misrepresented offset projects.

Co-founder Joe Sanberg pleaded guilty in 2025 to defrauding investors of $248 million, including misleading claims about environmental impact.

A January 2024 DOJ/CFTC probe (pre-dating the NBA scandal) specifically targeted Aspiration for "misleading customers about the quality of carbon offsets" sold to the Clippers for Intuit Dome neutrality, including unverified tree-planting claims.

2 sources

Ex-CEO Andrei Cherny (who signed the Kawhi contract) defended the deals in a statement but pivoted to calling for more industry regulation—implying Aspiration's offsets weren't up to snuff.

Clippers' Defense and the "Duped" Narrative: The team claims these were legitimate prepayments for Intuit Dome offsets (e.g., fan travel emissions via a "Planet Protection Fund" ticket fee), exceeding local mandates for LEED Zero status.

They stopped payments when Aspiration "defaulted" in 2022-23 and say Ballmer was "duped" like other investors.

However, no response addresses certification—focusing instead on "voluntary carbon markets" and Ballmer's sustainability goals. Critics (e.g., Mark Cuban on X) note the markup (Aspiration charged ~$1 per credit vs. 10-20 cents market cost) smells like a profit funnel, not a verified offset program.

Why This Matters in the Kawhi ContextThe $32 million timing (same day as Kawhi's $28 million contract signing) already fuels cap-circumvention suspicions, as the funds allegedly propped up Aspiration to make Kawhi's quarterly $1.75 million payments.

Uncertified credits amplify this: If the offsets were bogus, the Clippers' "sustainability" rationale crumbles, making the payments look even more like a sham to launder money to Kawhi. The NBA's probe (via Wachtell Lipton) is ongoing, but Torre's sources suggest internal Aspiration docs show execs knew the credits weren't verifiable.

In short, while Aspiration claimed eco-credentials (e.g., a 2021 press release hyping "climate positive" partnerships),

the evidence screams greenwashing over genuine certification. No serial numbers, no audits, no NGO stamps—just a bankrupt firm's word. If new docs emerge from the investigation, this could flip, but as of September 30, 2025, it's a red flag for the whole saga.

[wco81]

The carbon neutral thing was probably aspirational -- no pun intended -- and good PR given where the arena is, something meant to appeal to local sentiments.

[esqtvd]

The carbon neutral thing was probably aspirational -- no pun intended -- and good PR given where the arena is, something meant to appeal to local sentiments.

As near as I can get from AI, Ballmer could have purchased the necessary CERTIFIED carbon credits for maybe $100K a year. Instead he put 10s or even 100s of millions into a grift that at best makes him the dumbest man in sports.

But I find it hard to believe he could have fallen for something where the math is off by a factor of 100.

[KDRE]

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