Bobby Marks Baxter Holmes Close Baxter Holmes ESPN Senior Writer Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) is a senior writer for ESPN Digital and Print, focusing on the NBA. He has covered the Lakers, the Celtics and previously worked for The Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times. Oct 13, 2025, 02:39 PM ET The NBA vetted and approved a $300 million sponsorship deal …
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INGLEWOOD, Calif. — LA Clippers star forward Kawhi Leonard dismissed allegations that the team participated in activities that circumvented the NBA salary cap Monday when he met with the press as part of media day, repeatedly referring to news reports as “conspiracies.” Leonard, the Clippers, team chairman Steve Ballmer and Aspiration, a now-bankrupt environmental company and former team sponsor, are …
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It’s going to be hard for the Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer to explain their way out of the latest evidence against them in the Kawhi Leonard Aspiration scandal. Pablo Torre revealed a letter from the Clippers with their team logo on it confirming a nearly $21 million withdrawal from an escrow account to be used to fund carbon projects …
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Pablo Torre continues to find out things about the convoluted relationship between Kawhi Leonard, Steve Ballmer, the Los Angeles Clippers and the now-bankrupt green bank Aspiration. In the latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, the host tells Dan Le Batard about even more investments made by the Clippers into Aspiration at some very curious times. Torre has bank records …
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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 …
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Pablo Torre is on a generational run with his offseason reporting of the Clippers’ alleged endorsement deal with Aspiration, one that Torre claims funneled millions of dollars to Kawhi Leonard outside of the NBA salary cap. Rather than drop all his evidence and information at once, Torre has rather cleverly sprinkled pieces of his reporting week by week to counter …
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Andrei Cherny, who co-founded Aspiration and served as its CEO until 2022, has provided his perspective on the nature of the company’s relationship with Clippers star Kawhi Leonard. In a Twitter post relaying comments he made to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, Cherny claims Leonard’s responsibilities with Aspiration have been incorrectly portrayed. “The claim that the contract with Kawhi Leonard …
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Steve Ballmer invested nearly $10 million into Aspiration in March 2023, which followed his initial $50 million investment 18 months earlier, according to legal filings reviewed by The Athletic and corroborated by a former executive with the company. Ballmer’s $10 million investment came as Aspiration was quickly losing cash, laying off employees and struggling to raise funds. The March 2023 …
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Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested nearly $10 million in March 2023 into the company Aspiration, which allegedly gave Kawhi Leonard a no-show deal that the NBA is now investigating, The Athletic reported Friday. This investment came 18 months following Ballmer’s $50 million investment in Aspiration, which is behind the league’s probe into the Clippers to see if Leonard was given …
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On Wednesday, after a meeting with all the NBA owners, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver sounded cautious, patient and a little bit zen about the investigation into the Clippers trying to circumvent the salary cap with team sponsor Aspiration. “I’m a big believer in due process and fairness, and we need to now let the investigation run its course,” Silver said. …
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