As Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers insist they did not attempt any salary-cap circumvention related to Kawhi Leonard’s endorsement contract, the details around the organization’s involvement in Aspiration continue to pile up.
On the latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, Pablo Torre reported Ballmer and the Clippers invested $118 million in Aspiration in an 18-month period from September 2021 to March 2023.
Torre also noted that the Clippers chief financial officer signed off on a $21 million payment from the team to fund various “carbon projects” for Aspiration in June 2022.
According to Torre, the $21 million sum was enough for Leonard’s first quarterly payment as part of his no-show endorsement deal with Aspiration and hit Aspiration’s fund-raising target.
Even before that $21 million investment was made (starts at 31:30 mark), Torre uncovered documents that showed the Clippers made a $3 million prepayment for carbon credits on April 1, 2022, and made another prepayment of $32.4 million three days later on April 4.
Torre also noted that April 4 date is the same day that Leonard signed his KL2 Aspire contract worth $28 million.
In a statement to Torre, the Clippers once again denied any wrongdoing and explained the investments in carbon credits from Aspiration:
“Our development agreements for the arena included mandates to buy carbon credits, but after studying the issue of neutrality, we went far beyond those requirements, exploring ways to address emissions from our fans and contracting with Aspiration to directly purchase carbon offsets, as well as broker the acquisition of additional offsets. Some of those commitments were built into the sponsorship deal with Aspiration—totally separate of the investment in the company — and we made payments to Aspiration until the company was unable to fulfill their responsibilities.
“This effort reflects Steve wanting to set a positive example and raise awareness of the growing and important role of voluntary carbon markets. Unfortunately, he was duped on the investment and on some parts of this agreement, as were many other investors and employees.”
Torre’s reporting also includes a screenshot of a February 2022 text message purportedly sent by Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle and designated representative on his primary Aspiration contract, to Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg.
The text reads, “Good morning Joe, hope you had a wonderful weekend. Just a heads up things are still dragging. Mike has the cont[r]act for about 14 days now, haven’t heard back. Thanks Just keeping you informed.”
According to Torre, the text is referring to Leonard’s $20 million equity deal with Aspiration that was on top of his endorsement contract.
Several people involved in the situation have denied any wrongdoing. Ballmer told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne on Sept. 5 his only involvement was introducing Leonard to Aspiration executives who requested a meet-up, but that he would “want the league to investigate” any allegations about a team attempting to circumvent the salary cap.
Andrei Cherny, former Aspiration CEO, said in a statement posted on X on Sept. 12 he didn’t “remember conversations about the NBA salary cap” before putting his signature on Leonard’s endorsement contract and “there were numerous internal conversations about the various things Aspiration was planning to do with Leonard once the 2022-23 season began.”
The NBA confirmed on Sept. 3, the same day Torre’s initial podcast about Leonard and Aspiration dropped, it was investigating the Clippers for any attempted cap circumvention.
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