The Kawhi Leonard contract saga is spiraling into one of the weirdest NBA stories in recent memory. A two-time Finals MVP and one of the greatest two-way players of his generation could end up having his near-$150 million contract voided. However, the league may not be ready for the drastic penalty.
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Kawhi’s contract is under fire because Clippers owner Steve Ballmer allegedly funneled him extra money through his organization, Aspiration, which claimed to be planting trees. That’s a massive no-no under the NBA’s salary cap rules, and if it is proven true, the league could dish out penalties ranging from loss of FRPs, mass firings at the executive level, and Kawhi being ousted from the Clippers.
It’s a shell-shocking story, especially since other teams like the New York Knicks are also being investigated now. But Kawhi pretty much is the eye of the storm for now. NBA writer and analytics expert Tom Haberstroh brought attention to just how peculiar the scenario has become.
“In the scenario of Leonard’s contract being voided, no teams currently have $50 million of cap space with which to offer Leonard… Getting a player of Leonard’s caliber for, say, the mid-level exception would launch a bizarre sweepstakes the likes of which the NBA has never seen,” wrote Haberstroh on X.
Tom Haberstroh: “In the scenario of Leonard’s contract being voided, no teams currently have $50 million of cap space with which to offer Leonard… Getting a player of Leonard’s caliber for, say, the mid-level exception would launch a bizarre sweepstakes the likes of which the…
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) September 4, 2025
Leonard is on a max-level deal, with 2 years and $100.3M left on his deal. He’s set to make $50M next year. If that suddenly gets ripped up, no team is sitting on that type of space. So what happens? The market becomes chaotic.
And a part of that chaos is a potential lawsuit involving the NBPA, at least according to Haberstroh. “Ripping up Leonard’s current contract would almost certainly draw the ire of the players’ union and potentially ignite a drawn-out legal battle that could hang over the league for months [years?],” Added Haberstroh.
The whole thing sounds like an incredible problem that could have been avoided in the first place. Perhaps this will now make commissioner Adam Silver reconsider the new CBA and figure out a way to ensure that a scandal of this magnitude doesn’t happen again.
And that’s not including Kawhi potentially joining another squad to form a super team on the cheap. “You thought the Warriors getting Durant in 2016 because of a cap spike was unfair? Imagine if the Oklahoma City Thunder get Leonard for $8.5 million, what remains of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception, per Keith Smith’s cap analysis. How ‘bout them apples?” added Haberstroh.
Leonard joining OKC would be a cheat code of massive proportions. The defending champs are already locked in their big three in SGA, Chet, and Jalen. They were No. 1 in the West for basically the entire 2024-2025 season, won the West, and won the title.
The OKC did that without Kawhi. Imagine if the six-time All-Star played with them.
In a wild NBA summer that included LeBron James potentially starting a rival league and the WNBA dealing with “objects” on the court, this Kawhi scandal is more than just a big story. The league will take time to recover from this one.
