The Clippers just got popped for paying Kawhi Leonard $28 million under the table to circumvent the salary cap.

[Larry Ellison]

Probably could have gotten away with it if they just had Kawhi come in and record a 30-second radio spot that never aired. Feels like it's way too easy to make a scheme like this work.

Exactly. I mean, deals could still be under FMV if only minimal commitment is asked of the athlete, but the NBA would have let it skate. The facts here are so egregious, NBA may be forced to act.

[Larry Ellison]

Someone on the General Board brought this to my attention. Article 13.1(b) of the CBA.

b. It shall constitute a violation of Section 1(a) above for a Team (or Team Affiliate) to enter into an agreement or understanding with any sponsor or business partner or third party under which such sponsor, business partner, or third party pays or agrees to pay compensation for basketball services (even if such compensation is ostensibly designated as being for non-basketball services) to a player under Contract to the Team. Such an agreement with a sponsor or business partner or third party may be inferred where: (i) such compensation from the sponsor or business partner or third party is substantially in excess of the fair market value of any services to be rendered by the player for such sponsor or business partner or third party; and (ii) the Compensation in the Player Contract between the player and the Team is substantially below the fair market value of such Contract.

This is worthy of discussion, I think. An example of lawyers drafting a provision that makes sense conceptually but I am not aware of it ever being enforced. Is NBA going to review the details of every endorsement contract to see if it meets a FMV test?

Old Blue, this provision codifies the inference of a cap violation based on a lopsided contract alone. I still wouldn't call it res ipsa loquitor, but it's a permissible inference. Silver can find a violation, if he wants. But does NBA want to go down this road?

Ballmer is certainly putting his nuts on the table with the public statements and ESPN appearance

He is. Because he knows what will be in Clips document production and that he is clean.

[thunderdunk]

Probably could have gotten away with it if they just had Kawhi come in and record a 30-second radio spot that never aired. Feels like it's way too easy to make a scheme like this work.

If he did that, there's still NO WAY his one hour in the studio equates to $28M of a startup company's money. Silver needs to come down on the Clips HARD. This is so obviously a quid pro quo deal.

[Larry Ellison]

Probably could have gotten away with it if they just had Kawhi come in and record a 30-second radio spot that never aired. Feels like it's way too easy to make a scheme like this work.

If he did that, there's still NO WAY his one hour in the studio equates to $28M of a startup company's money. Silver needs to come down on the Clips HARD. This is so obviously a quid pro quo deal.

They did it.

[Crazy-Canuck]

Lol, uncle dennis asked for an ownership stake in the Toronto maple leafs to circumvent the cap rules when negotiating with the raptors. Toronto said no.

But I will bet he came up with similar suggestions to the Clippers, spurs, and Lakers. Clippers might have been the only team dumb enough to do it.

[Senchu]

Ban Kawhi w/o pay for 1 year.
Remove clipper revenue and split to other owners (ballmer prolly doesnt car about this)
+ do something which actually hurts clippers now (not in 4 years, like picks)

[Larry Ellison]

I have come around to the opinion that the league will have no choice but to punish this. The CBA includes the FMV standard. The contract, on its face, is a violation. It is a situation Adam Silver did not want to deal with. Will be interesting to see the outcome.

[Senchu]

If Silver pussies out as we all think he will, Lacob better start setting up those tech startups for Giannis.

[HiRez]

If Silver pussies out as we all think he will, Lacob better start setting up those tech startups for Giannis.

For Giannis to the Warriors, I think the bigger problem is all his best teammates are likely about to retire and there's not much else on the team. Tough situation to make a long-term commitment to, and he's not at the vet ring-chasing mercenary stage yet.

[Old_Blue]

Attempts to minimize this issue and/or defend Ballmer are very likely to look asinine in retrospect...

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2025/09/nba-hires-law-firm-to-investigate-clippers-leonard.html

The NBA has hired law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate the allegations that the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard used an endorsement deal with fintech company Aspiration to circumvent the salary cap, a source tells Joe Vardon, Sam Amick and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.

While the New York-based firm will lead the investigation, the NBA also has its own investigator who will serve as a consultant, according to The Athletic.

The NBA previously used Wachtell Lipton in a pair of high-profile investigations of ownership misconduct, per The Athletic’s trio, and both resulted in the owners selling the teams. The first case was back in 2014 with former Clippers owner Donald Sterling, and the second occurred in 2022 with ex-Suns owner Robert Sarver.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2025/09/latest-on-kawhi-leonard-clippers.html

Although the Clippers asserted in a statement on Wednesday night that there’s “nothing unusual or untoward about team sponsors doing endorsement deals with players at the same time,” rival executives who spoke to Sam Amick of The Athletic pointed out that Ballmer’s investment in Aspiration and the size of Leonard’s endorsement deal are red flags on their own, even before taking into account the fact that the star forward did no promotional work for the company. “This (sort of endorsement deal) does not happen,” one general manager told Amick.

Executives who discussed the issue with Chris Mannix of SI.com conveyed a similar sentiment. “If this is what it looks like, I think (commissioner) Adam (Silver) has to make an example of them,” one team executive said.

[DevinVassell]

Seems those slippery Clipps can get around the salary cap. If they really wanted to circumvent, they could trade us all their future first round picks before Silver takes them away.

[HiRez]

Nothing is going to come of this, if anything the Clippers will get some joke of a fine, but I'm curious what happens if a team loses a draft pick. Is there just one fewer pick in the draft? Seems to me the player association and the players would have something to say about that since you're really punishing some guy who could have been a first round pick but ended up the first pick in the second round, or could have been a second round pick and went undrafted. That has a real effect on your career, and finances. Or is there some other fair way to redistribute the pick? I can't think of one since only one team could be the beneficiary.

[Larry Ellison]

Attempts to minimize this issue and/or defend Ballmer are very likely to look asinine in retrospect...

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2025/09/nba-hires-law-firm-to-investigate-clippers-leonard.html

The NBA has hired law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate the allegations that the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard used an endorsement deal with fintech company Aspiration to circumvent the salary cap, a source tells Joe Vardon, Sam Amick and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.

While the New York-based firm will lead the investigation, the NBA also has its own investigator who will serve as a consultant, according to The Athletic.

The NBA previously used Wachtell Lipton in a pair of high-profile investigations of ownership misconduct, per The Athletic’s trio, and both resulted in the owners selling the teams. The first case was back in 2014 with former Clippers owner Donald Sterling, and the second occurred in 2022 with ex-Suns owner Robert Sarver.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2025/09/latest-on-kawhi-leonard-clippers.html

Although the Clippers asserted in a statement on Wednesday night that there’s “nothing unusual or untoward about team sponsors doing endorsement deals with players at the same time,” rival executives who spoke to Sam Amick of The Athletic pointed out that Ballmer’s investment in Aspiration and the size of Leonard’s endorsement deal are red flags on their own, even before taking into account the fact that the star forward did no promotional work for the company. “This (sort of endorsement deal) does not happen,” one general manager told Amick.

Executives who discussed the issue with Chris Mannix of SI.com conveyed a similar sentiment. “If this is what it looks like, I think (commissioner) Adam (Silver) has to make an example of them,” one team executive said.

Wachtell is a top firm. It does seem to be setting up for discipline against the Clips. If what Amick says is true, then Silver has to make an example of the Clips otherwise it will open the door to similar abuses by other teams. i have been vocal in my opinion that it is unlikely any smoking gun evidence of Clips wrongdoing will be discovered. I still believe that. But Silver definitely has the authority under the CBA to discipline Clips based on the current evidence, even if only circumstantial. At first, I thought NBA would be reluctant to set a precedent that would require it to monitor the terms of every endorsement contract. I've come around to the belief that doing nothing would set an even worse precedent. Article 13.1(b) of the CBA is what changed my mind. What is the point of having that provision if it will not be enforced against Clips in this situation? The facts are so egregious. From now on, NBA teams will be forced to ask for copies of every endorsement contract to make sure they don't run afoul of Article 13.1(b). Maybe they already should have been doing that.

[vvoland]

Attempts to minimize this issue and/or defend Ballmer are very likely to look asinine in retrospect...

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2025/09/nba-hires-law-firm-to-investigate-clippers-leonard.html

The NBA has hired law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate the allegations that the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard used an endorsement deal with fintech company Aspiration to circumvent the salary cap, a source tells Joe Vardon, Sam Amick and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.

While the New York-based firm will lead the investigation, the NBA also has its own investigator who will serve as a consultant, according to The Athletic.

The NBA previously used Wachtell Lipton in a pair of high-profile investigations of ownership misconduct, per The Athletic’s trio, and both resulted in the owners selling the teams. The first case was back in 2014 with former Clippers owner Donald Sterling, and the second occurred in 2022 with ex-Suns owner Robert Sarver.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2025/09/latest-on-kawhi-leonard-clippers.html

Although the Clippers asserted in a statement on Wednesday night that there’s “nothing unusual or untoward about team sponsors doing endorsement deals with players at the same time,” rival executives who spoke to Sam Amick of The Athletic pointed out that Ballmer’s investment in Aspiration and the size of Leonard’s endorsement deal are red flags on their own, even before taking into account the fact that the star forward did no promotional work for the company. “This (sort of endorsement deal) does not happen,” one general manager told Amick.

Executives who discussed the issue with Chris Mannix of SI.com conveyed a similar sentiment. “If this is what it looks like, I think (commissioner) Adam (Silver) has to make an example of them,” one team executive said.

Wachtell is a top firm. It does seem to be setting up for discipline against the Clips. If what Amick says is true, then Silver has to make an example of the Clips otherwise it will open the door to similar abuses by other teams. i have been vocal in my opinion that it is unlikely any smoking gun evidence of Clips wrongdoing will be discovered. I still believe that. But Silver definitely has the authority under the CBA to discipline Clips based on the current evidence, even if only circumstantial. At first, I thought NBA would be reluctant to set a precedent that would require it to monitor the terms of every endorsement contract. I've come around to the belief that doing nothing would set an even worse precedent. Article 13.1(b) of the CBA is what changed my mind. What is the point of having that provision if it will not be enforced against Clips in this situation? The facts are so egregious. From now on, NBA teams will be forced to ask for copies of every endorsement contract to make sure they don't run afoul of Article 13.1(b). Maybe they already should have been doing that.

I heard some podcast, it may have been amick, where he says team representatives have already said this article is the reason they don't do ANY of this stuff as they're scared of the ambiguity and discretion that article gives t o the commish.

P.S. to me, the smoking gun is the fact that after signing Kawhi to a huge endorsement deal, aspiration didn't even ANNOUNCE the partnership, not even in a press release. That part, even more than the no-show aspect of the job, is what tells me this was a fraud from day 1. No one would ever commit 2M to a celebrity without, at the very least, announcing that the relationship between them and the celebrity exists. 28M? Aside from Ballmer, in print, saying "I am planning to circumvent the cap rules," this is as smoking of a gun as it's going to get. Written proof will be less of a 'gun' and more of a confession, to be honest and I wouldn't expect that from ballmer for a while longer.

[EvanZ]

The fix to all this is total transparency. The league should have to approve any deal over XX amount of dollars from "sponsors" like Aspiration. Make everything transparent and if you don't, when you get caught, you are ****.

[thunderdunk]

This is so ugly. If Silver doesn't come down hard, there's no reason to have a cap at all.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/nba/article/kawhi-leonard-reportedly-made-requests-to-raptors-in-2019-that-line-up-almost-perfectly-with-clippers-controversy-185454764.html

[AirP.]

In 2022, Clippers minority owner Dennis J. Wong made an almost $2M investment in Aspiration, which then paid Kawhi Leonard $1.75M — as required through his endorsement contract with the environmental company, according to the latest allegations made on the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast episode.

Read on Twitter

[HiRez]

Today Silver made some noise about the burden of proof being on the league, which to me sounds like he is doing the setup necessary to eventually sweep the whole thing under the rug after some performative "investigations" to make it look good.

[statsman]

Today Silver made some noise about the burden of proof being on the league, which to me sounds like he is doing the setup necessary to eventually sweep the whole thing under the rug after some performative "investigations" to make it look good.

Yep. No surprise, if true.

[thunderdunk]

Especially with the "smoking gun" revelation of the past 24 hours, Silver has no choice but to come down remarkably hard. Otherwise, he's part of the ruse. The British have an expression, "too clever by half". With the shell companies, etc., they thought that they had outsmarted the system. The bankruptcy is what got them caught.