The NBA offseason is always full of drama, but usually, that drama stays within the bounds of team transactions. Big trades, influential signings, and coaching hires keep fans engaged during a time when basketball isn’t even being played. This offseason, though, the scandal surrounding Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers went far beyond simple transactions. Things have gotten so bad that commissioner Adam Silver now regrets not being tougher on sponsors because of it.
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On September 3rd, journalist Pablo Torre reported that Leonard had received a $28 million no-show endorsement deal with a now-bankrupt green-banking company called Aspiration. However, Leonard signed the endorsement deal with the company in April of 2022. This came just nine months after he re-signed with the Clippers. That was when an unnamed employee told Torre that this was to circumvent the NBA salary cap, which is a big “no-no.”
The fact that Clippers minority shareholder Dennis Wong invested $2 million in Aspiration just nine days before Kawhi received $1.75 million from the company raised eyebrows. On top of that, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer personally contributed $50 million, along with another $315 million through Oaktree Capital, an investment affiliate of Ballmer. Talk about something smelling fishy.
Heading into the new season, the story seems to be dying down. It had the potential to be one of the biggest scandals in NBA history if the Clippers were found guilty of paying Leonard more than what the salary cap permitted. So, did they get away with it? Will they be punished?
These are questions the NBA and Silver will have to answer through an investigation.
“This was not something that was on our radar to even be thinking about,” Silver told Front Office Sports. “When this concludes, we’ll take a fresh look at our rules in terms of companies that players are investing in, and owners.”
That’s all well and good, but Silver later admitted that it’s nearly impossible to look into every sponsorship in the NBA because there are simply too many. According to him, the league has thousands of them, which makes it almost impossible to spot any shady deals.
“There are literally thousands of deals that cover all our teams,” Silver continued. “And these are brands that have major investors, major funds… And so, yes, there’s a league approval process, but it doesn’t go deep into interviewing executives for every deal that comes through the league office.”
Regardless, a $300 million investment with any company linked to an NBA franchise should have been thoroughly reviewed by the league beforehand. Maybe Silver just took his eye off the ball for a moment and didn’t consider this as a possibility. But now, it’s front-page news, and he needs to get to the bottom of it and put a stop to it.
What’s worrying is that this scheme could easily be happening elsewhere. Why should it start and end with Kawhi and the Clippers? It seems like a pretty simple loophole to exploit. Who’s to say other star athletes aren’t doing the same thing in the NBA or even in other sports?
That’s why Silver needs to determine whether the Clippers and Kawhi intentionally orchestrated this. And if they did, the punishment has to be severe. We’re talking stripped draft picks and massive fines for everyone involved.
Paying players less under the salary cap while funneling extra money through endorsement deals gives teams an unfair advantage, and that’s not acceptable. It may not have started with this case, but hopefully, it ends here.
