In December 2022, Kawhi Leonard reportedly received a quarterly payment for his endorsement deal with Aspiration days after Los Angeles Clippers vice chairman Dennis J. Wong made an investment as the company was heading toward bankruptcy.
On the latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out (starts at 22:05 mark), newly obtained documents obtained by Pablo Torre showed Leonard received a $1.75 million payment from Aspiration nine days after a company registered to Wong made a $1.99 million wire transfer to Aspiration.
According to a company bank statement obtained by Torre, the investment in Aspiration from Wong’s DEA 88 Investments LLP occurred on Dec. 6, 2022. Leonard’s payment from aspiration was transferred on Dec. 15.
In the original reporting from Torre released last week, Leonard—through his KL2 Aspire LLC—agreed to a four-year, $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration in April 2022. The deal came eight months after he signed a four-year, $176.3 million contract to remain with the Clippers in free agency.
Torre reported there’s no evidence that Leonard did any promotion for Aspiration, which received an initial $50 million investment from Clippers governor Steve Ballmer, and one anonymous employee who worked for the company said the endorsement deal was done to “circumvent the salary cap.”
In the new report released on Thursday, Torre, citing sources and a review of Aspiration’s cap table and bank statements, noted there’s no public evidence indicating Wong or his company had ever invested in Aspiration prior to December 2022.
It was also pointed out by Torre that Wong’s investor agreement with Aspiration presented him with detailed formal disclosures that the company was in default, was being sued for millions of dollars and facing inquiries from government agencies.
According to Torre’s reporting, documents from the agreed-upon deal between KL2 and Aspiration required quarterly payments of $1.75 million. The reported investment from Wong came after Aspiration had failed to satisfy the third quarter payment owed no later than Sept. 30, 2022.
Per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, the Clippers announced in September 2021 a $300 million partnership with Aspiration. The deal came with a sponsorship in their new arena and a patch on the jerseys.
Aspiration filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 31, 2025.
In response to Thursday’s report, Wong did not respond to Torre’s questions about the investment, while the Clippers provided a statement.
“The details of our relationship with Aspiration are under NBA investigation, but it is clear the company was a house of cards that defrauded Steve and many others,” the Clippers said. “We look forward to sharing the facts with the league and providing them with all the information they need.”
In an interview with Shelburne on Sept. 5, Ballmer denied allegations that the Clippers did anything to try circumventing the NBA salary cap and accused Aspiration of fraud.
“These were guys who committed fraud,” Ballmer added. “…They conned me. I made an investment in these guys thinking it was on the up and up and they conned me.”
The Clippers issued a statement denying that anyone in the organization, including Ballmer, were involved in any attempt to circumvent the salary cap.
Ballmer did say he set up in the introduction between Aspiration and Leonard, but that was as far as his involvement went.The NBA did confirm on Sept. 3 it had opened an investigation into the situation.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver told reporters on Wednesday he “never heard a whiff of anything” about Leonard, the Clippers and potential cap circumvention.
The NBA previously investigated the Clippers in 2020 over allegations that they violated league rules in recruiting Leonard when he was a free agent in the summer of 2019. They were ultimately cleared, as the league found no evidence of any wrongdoing.
Source link
