LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer told ESPN that he would “want the league to investigate” if another owner and another team were accused of circumventing the NBA’s salary cap, as the Clippers were in a podcast by Pablo Torre on Wednesday.
“I’d want the league to investigate, take it seriously,” Ballmer said Thursday in his first interview since Torre’s report.
The NBA has since said it will launch an investigation into whether Ballmer and the Clippers violated league rules because Kawhi Leonard accepted a $28 million endorsement from Aspiration, a now-bankrupt green banking company in which Ballmer had invested.
“Salary cap circumvention rules are important to the league, and I’d want the league to investigate,” Ballmer said.
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Ballmer said Aspiration asked him to introduce it to Leonard, but denied he had knowledge of the endorsement contract the sides eventually signed, or that he directed the company to do so.
Ballmer said that introduction came in November 2021, three months after the Clippers had agreed to a four-year, $173 million extension with Leonard, who had torn a knee ligament during the team’s first Western Conference finals run earlier that year, leading him to miss the next season.
Two months earlier, in September 2021, the Clippers announced a $300 million partnership with Aspiration, which included sponsorship in the team’s new arena and on its jersey patch. Ballmer added that Aspiration also had wanted the naming rights to the arena and even offered more than Intuit, which was eventually selected.
“We were done. We were done with Kawhi, we were done with Aspiration. The deals were all locked and loaded,” Ballmer said. “Then, they did request to be introduced to Kawhi, and under the rules, we can introduce our sponsors to our athletes. We just can’t be involved.
“We made an introduction, that was in early November.”
Ballmer added that he had been reviewing his interaction with the company as part of his and the team’s cooperation with a Department of Justice investigation into Aspiration. Last month, co-founder Joe Sanberg pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud for defrauding investors and lenders of more than $248 million.
“We even found the email that makes the first introduction. It was early November,” Ballmer said. “The introduction got made and then they were off to the races on, on their own. We weren’t involved.
“I eventually learned that they had reached a deal. I have no idea what the deal was.”
Asked whether he was surprised by the amount of the deal or that, as Torre reported, Leonard essentially performed no services for the company, Ballmer said, “I don’t know why they did what they did, and I don’t know how different it is [compared with other endorsement deals].
“These were guys who committed fraud. Look, they conned me. They conned me. I made an investment in these guys thinking it was on the up-and-up, and they conned me at this stage. I have no ability to predict why they might have done anything they did, let alone the specific contract with Kawhi.”
Ballmer said his initial investment in Aspiration of $50 million, which was part of a much larger capital raise that helped legitimize the company to investors, amounted to less than 3% ownership.
“I had no control over this company. I owned less than 3% of the company,” said Ballmer, one of the richest men in America. “I had no board seat. I had no control. Heck, it was a fraudulent company. It’s possible nobody had any control.”
Asked if he detected any hint of trouble with the company after reviewing its financial statements and business plans, Ballmer said he was “embarrassed” that he didn’t.
“I reviewed, my staff reviewed primarily fraudulent financials,” he said. “Now, should I have sniffed it out? Maybe I feel embarrassed and kind of silly that I didn’t sniff it out, but I didn’t.
“These were guys who committed fraud. Look, they conned me. They conned me. I made an investment in these guys thinking it was on the up-and-up, and they conned me at this stage. I have no ability to predict why they might have done anything they did, let alone the specific contract with Kawhi.”
Steve Ballmer on since-bankrupt Aspiration
“I made the investment. A lot of other smart investors didn’t sniff it out either.”
This is the latest in a series of allegations about Leonard’s business dealings with the Clippers. The NBA investigated the team after allegations that Leonard and his camp, led by his uncle Dennis Robertson, made improper requests of teams during his free agency in summer 2019. Such requests, The Athletic reported at the time, included part-ownership of the team, access to a private plane, a house and guaranteed off-court endorsement money.
The league cleared the Clippers of any wrongdoing in the matter, but said it would reopen the investigation if new information surfaced.
The league further investigated the Clippers’ free agent pursuit of Leonard after a December 2020 lawsuit filed by Johnny Wilkes, who alleged that he helped the team acquire Leonard in exchange for a $2.5 million payment from Clippers consultant Jerry West. The Clippers denied the allegations, and the lawsuit was dismissed. The league did not issue a penalty.
Asked if Robertson had asked for any additional benefits that would not comply with league rules, Ballmer said, “They know the rules. They meaning Kawhi and his representatives, including his uncle. We know the rules. And if anything’s not clear, we remind ourselves what the rules are and we make absolutely clear we’re going to abide by those rules and they understand them as well. And it’s important for them to abide by them, which they have.”
Asked why there have been so many allegations about Leonard in the six years he has played for the franchise, Ballmer said, “I don’t know. I think because he, relatively doesn’t speak much, I think there’s a lot of mystery around Kawhi.
“That may be why fans kind of tell themselves, [or] you know, create a narrative, if you will. I’ve had a great relationship with Kawhi. We sit down a couple times a year and just kind of talk about how the team’s doing.
“The allegations have not been true. But what’s most important to me is we’ve done the right thing in all those interactions. You know Kawhi’s business is Kawhi’s business. But we’ve always done the right thing.”
