NBA reportedly probing another Kawhi Leonard endorsement deal amid nearly yearlong Aspiration investigation
The Toronto Raptors confirmed last week that their trade with the Los Angeles Clippers centered around Kawhi Leonard won’t be completed before the NBA wraps an investigation that’s captivated the basketball world. The league hired the law firm Wachtell Lipton to probe into a no-work, multi-million dollar endorsement deal the seven-time All-Star and two-time NBA Finals MVP signed with Aspiration, a now-bankrupt environmental company ensnared in a scandal that revolves around the Clippers potentially circumventing the salary cap.
The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov released a report on Tuesday that divulges more information about the ongoing investigation, which has seemingly grown since its inception. In it, Vorkunov reports that, along with looking into whether the Clippers manipulated the cap by striking a deal with Aspiration for Leonard, Wachtell has inspected if Leonard had a previously unreported endorsement deal with another company.
Plus, the firm has sifted to determine if the Clippers improperly covered expenses for Leonard and weren’t reimbursed for them, according to The Athletic.
If Leonard is punished as a result of the NBA’s investigation, Toronto could back out of its agreed-upon trade, which was first reported on June 30 and is supposed to deliver the 35-year-old Leonard back to the Raptors, with whom he won an NBA championship in 2019. In return, the Clippers have been poised to receive two-time All-Star Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick as well as first-round draft picks in 2031 and 2033, second-round selections in 2030 and 2033 and a first-round pick swap in 2027, per NBA insider Jake Fischer.
Early last month, at NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s annual news conference leading up to the NBA Finals, he didn’t specify when Wachtell Lipton’s investigation report will arrive on his desk, although he did say it was “close to the point now where I think we need to wrap this up.”
That was on June 3, and yet an investigation entering its 11th month wears on. Silver will ultimately administer the appropriate discipline, if any.
The Athletic’s Tuesday report notes that “some team executives around the league have increasingly come to expect that the league will punish the Clippers.”
ESPN’s Baxter Holmes reported last month that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, other team executives, Aspiration executives, Leonard and his business adviser, "Uncle Dennis" Robertson, have all been interviewed amid the NBA’s investigation.
Notably, Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg has spoken to investigators, per The Athletic. Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison on two counts of wire fraud that he pleaded guilty to, with prosecutors saying Sanberg defrauded investors and lenders out of $248 million.
News of the Aspiration controversy first emerged from the Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” (PTFO) in September. Leonard was due to be paid $28 million by Aspiration, a third-party company aiming to offset carbon footprints through tree planting that Ballmer invested in, according to Torre’s reporting. Since, Ballmer has consistently denied wrongdoing. Following PTFO's initial report, he said he had been "conned" by Aspiration.
In April, Ballmer’s representation wrote to the judge overseeing Sanberg’s sentencing. In that letter, they said Ballmer lost his entire $60 million investment in Aspiration, “an investment that was intended to promote sustainability and benefit charitable causes.”
While PTFO couldn’t pinpoint evidence of Leonard marketing or endorsing Aspiration, The Athletic, which has spoken to former Aspiration employees over the past 10 months, reported Tuesday that some of those employees have said Aspiration tried to market Leonard but failed, reportedly in part “because the NBA star was such a poor choice as a spokesman.”
One attempt to market Leonard reportedly focused on his apparent interest in comic books and superheroes, according to The Athletic’s Tuesday report, which included images Aspiration staff reportedly created that envisioned Leonard as a tree-like titan, similar to Marvel’s Groot.
The creative team was eventually told to quit, however, per The Athletic.
“Stop thinking about Kawhi,” an anonymous former Aspiration employee said they were told, via The Athletic. “This feels like a dead end.”
Reports continue to raise more questions during what’s been a nearly yearlong investigation. Meanwhile, NBA teams, particularly the Clippers and Raptors, await the outcome of a probe that’s designed to bring some sort of a finality to a vacuum of uncertainty surrounding one of the league’s more peculiar cases.
