Dealing with allegations that he and his workforce circumvented the wage cap with star participant Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers proprietor Steve Ballmer is doubling down on his denial. In an interview with “SportsCenter,” Ballmer disputed the accusation that he organized a “no-show” endorsement deal for Leonard.
Investigative journalist Pablo Torre just lately reported that Ballmer used a $50 million funding in an organization, Aspiration, to facilitate a $28 million “no-show” deal for Leonard. Such an association would violate the NBA’s cap circumvention guidelines, and the league has launched an investigation into the matter.
Nevertheless, Ballmer refutes Torre’s reporting, saying he and the Clippers had no function in greasing the wheels on a deal between Leonard and Aspiration, which is within the midst of a fraud investigation.
Ballmer and the workforce did put money into Aspiration in 2021, however he claims to have had no management over any decision-making.
“We made an funding within the firm,” Ballmer informed ESPN. “All effective. I had no management over this firm. That is necessary below the wage cap guidelines. I owned lower than three % of the corporate. There have been traders who put in much more cash than I did. I had no board seat. I had no management. Heck, it was a fraudulent firm. It is attainable no one had management.”
Ballmer additionally acknowledged Leonard and Aspiration weren’t launched till months after the six-time All-Star signed his four-year max contract in August of 2021. The Clippers proprietor stated paperwork supplied to the Division of Justice, as a part of their investigation into Aspiration, show Leonard did not meet anybody inside the firm till November of that yr.
“At the moment, we hadn’t launched Kawhi to Aspiration,” Ballmer stated of Leonard’s four-year contract. “We had been achieved with Kawhi. We had been achieved with Aspiration. The offers had been all locked and loaded. Then they did ask to be launched to Kawhi. Below the foundations, we will introduce our sponsors to our athletes. We simply cannot be concerned. We made an introduction. … The place might any of this circumvention have occurred? It did not. It could not have.”
Requested why an organization like Aspiration would pay Leonard $28 million and anticipate nothing in return, Ballmer pointed to the corporate’s misdeeds and admitted he was “embarrassed” by the state of affairs.
“I do not know why they did what they did,” Ballmer informed ESPN. “I actually do not. Any hypothesis could be loopy. These are guys who dedicated fraud. They conned me. I made an funding in these guys pondering it was on the up-and-up, they usually conned me. At this stage, I’ve no means to foretell what they may have achieved something they did, not to mention the contract with Kawhi.”
Again in 2019, Leonard’s uncle and adviser, Dennis Robertson, was investigated by the NBA for allegedly searching for impermissible advantages throughout the free company course of. In the end, the league stated it did not discover any proof to assist the accusations, however questions round Leonard and his camp are again because of the Aspiration scandal.
Offered with that connection, Ballmer dismissed it and stated the Clippers have at all times performed their enterprise in a authorized method.
“I believe as a result of he would not communicate a lot, comparatively, there’s a whole lot of thriller round Kawhi,” Ballmer stated. “That could be why followers create a story, if you’ll. … The allegations haven’t been true. What’s most necessary to me is we have achieved the proper factor in all these interactions. Kawhi’s enterprise is Kawhi’s enterprise, however we have at all times achieved the proper factor.”
In response to paperwork obtained by Torre, court docket filings present that Leonard continues to be owed $7 million from Aspiration. By way of his standing with the Clippers, Leonard is within the second yr of a three-year extension he signed in January of 2024, and he’s set to make $50 million.
