Los Angeles Clippers chairman Steve Ballmer denied that his team circumvented the NBA’s salary-cap rules in an ESPN interview Thursday night, offering a direct response to a report by the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast. Ballmer also said he welcomed the league’s investigation into the arrangements.
Ballmer sat down with ESPN reporter Ramona Shelburne for a 16-minute interview and said he did not know anything about star forward Kawhi Leonard’s reported endorsement deal with Aspiration, a now-bankrupt environmental company the Clippers signed a massive sponsorship deal with in 2021. Ballmer added that Leonard’s 2021 contract with the Clippers was not related to the team’s association with Aspiration and that the Clippers “have abided by the salary-cap circumvention rules because that’s the right thing to do.”
“Pablo’s podcast, I don’t know anything about the court documents on this,” Ballmer said Thursday night. “I haven’t seen them, and I don’t know. I don’t know why they did what they did, and I don’t know how different it is. I really don’t. And frankly, any speculation would be crazy.
“These are guys who committed fraud. How would I be able — look, they conned me. They conned me. I made an investment in these guys, thinking it was on the up and up, and they con me. At this stage, I have no ability to predict why they might have done anything they did, let alone the specific contract with Kawhi.”
Ballmer suggested he made a poor decision to invest in Aspiration, four years after sitting next to Joe Sanberg, one of the company’s co-founders, during a Clippers media day. Last month, Sanberg pleaded guilty to defrauding investors of $248 million.
“I reviewed — my staff reviewed primarily — fraudulent financials,” Ballmer said. “Now, should I have sniffed it out? Maybe. I feel embarrassed and kind of silly that I didn’t sniff it out. But I didn’t. I made the investment. A lot of other smart investors didn’t sniff it out, either.
“It’s also true that I’ve made a bunch of bad business deals and investments in my life, and I’ve made some good ones. This was fraud and a bad investment. And I’m embarrassed by that.”
This is not the first time the Clippers have been under investigation for benefits related to Leonard. In 2019, the league formally investigated complaints that Leonard’s uncle and advisor, Dennis Robertson, asked for improper benefits as part of Leonard’s unrestricted free agency. The Clippers were cleared of that investigation. Ballmer said Leonard and his uncle “know the rules.”
“If anything is not clear, we remind ourselves what the rules are, and we make absolutely clear we’re going to abide by those rules, and they understand them as well,” Ballmer said, referring to Leonard and Robertson. “And it’s important for them to abide by them, which they have.”
Ballmer added that he has not spoken to Leonard about any of the allegations from Torre’s podcast, and he has no plans to do so.
“It’s really his business with Aspiration,” Ballmer said. “So I wouldn’t ask about it, no.”
Ballmer said if another team were accused of these same allegations, he would want the league to take it seriously and investigate. After Torre’s episode, the NBA said it will open a new investigation into the Clippers. Ballmer said the Clippers “welcome the league investigation” and “have nothing to hide,” while expressing remorse for the situation fans and Clippers employees are in.
“I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about what we’ve done and express, I guess, some of the anger I’m feeling about what’s going on,” Ballmer said. “And I also feel some sadness for our employees. I’m mad, but I’m also sad that they’re going through this, as well as our staff and our fans.”
— “Pablo Torre Finds Out” is an independently produced show licensed by The Athletic and distributed on its podcast network. The Torre podcast signed a licensing agreement with The Athletic Podcast Network last month, and the episode released on Wednesday is the first under the new partnership.
(Photo of Steve Ballmer: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
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