Each day that the sun rises, someone tries to wash their hands off of the Kawhi Leonard ‘no-show’ scandal. Following Pablo Torre’s explosive report accusing LA Clippers billionaire owner Steve Ballmer of essentially paying Leonard under the table in order to circumvent the NBA salary gap, pretty much everyone has denied having any knowledge of the deal. And now, Aspiration, the company that gave Leonard a four-year, $28 million endorsement deal in 2022, has executives emerging from the shadows to claim confusion.
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According to a report, before Torre accused all concerned parties of wrongdoing, aspersions had been cast over Aspiration’s deal with Leonard. As a matter of fact, a former executive, who spoke to The Athletic, said the deal materialized out of thin air, and nobody had any clue about it ever happening.
Aspiration co-owner Joe Sanberg had reportedly written an email to the company’s leadership group in May 2022, enlightening them about personally contributing stock to Leonard to make the deal possible.
“Aspiration’s CEO judged the deal to be not worth doing. For avoidance of doubt, any and all benefit to Aspiration from the Kawhi deal is being subsidized by my contributing my equity to make this happen,” he had written. Following the mail, the company’s executives began brainstorming about how to include Leonard in their marketing plans.
As part of the deal, Leonard also received $20 million in equity via Aspiration shares that came directly from Sanberg.
If reports are to be believed, they even had the idea of a collaboration with Canadian rapper Drake in mind. That obviously never came to fruition as they began scratching their heads over how a typically reserved, possibly introverted Leonard, with a very limited social media presence, fit into the idea.
According to the contract he signed, Leonard was expected to be part of one 8-hour a day production, one 4-hour a day PR, and two 1-hour community service events, among other things. Of course, he could deny anything that was not consistent with his beliefs. Furthermore, the contract was subject to Leonard being continually signed to the Clippers; a failure to do so would have resulted in it being null and void.
According to reports, the emails obtained reveal confusion and frustration with Leonard’s contract, with one executive noting that it had “pretty big flags.” It should also be noted that Leonard’s deal was far richer than anything Aspiration had with other A-list clients. According to an executive, Oscar winners like Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey Jr. had received $2 million and $4 million in equity, far less than what Leonard had signed for.
Interestingly enough, in the 3 years since signing the deal, Leonard has never once publicly endorsed the company.
