Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks
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Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban weighed in on the Kawhi Leonard endorsement scandal brought to light by Pablo Torre in the NBA offseason. He did his best to dismiss the recent report.
Cuban provided his reasoning as to why Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is not to blame. Aspiration’s “scammers” are the real villains.
Torre broke a story alluding to the team’s supposedly shady recruiting tactics when landing the All-Star. He used bankruptcy filings from a fraudulent tree-planting company, Aspiration, as evidence.
The investigative journalist alleges that the Clippers used a fake marketing sponsorship with Leonard to circumvent the salary cap. He had a former employee of the company provide interview testimony to further back his claims.
In his report, Torre showed an agreement between Leonard and Aspiration worth $28 million. The company, which was funded by Ballmer, paid him for a “no-show job.”
Leonard never publicly promoted the brand. He still received $21 million of his deal prior to the bankruptcy filing.
Mark Cuban dismissed the Kawhi Leonard scandal.
The news was only discovered due to the bankruptcy filing. Cuban insists that if Ballmer was truly involved, he would not be dumb enough to let the information get out.
I’m on Team Ballmer. As much as I wish they circumvented the salary cap, First Steve isn’t that dumb. If he did try to feed KL money, knowing what was at stake for him personally, and his team, do you think he would let the company go bankrupt? Knowing all creditors would be visible to the world?
They got scammed by Aspiration, along with many others. Crimes for which they pleaded guilty last week.
Scammers do scammy things. They did a $300m sponsorship deal with the clippers in 2021. That’s a HUGE deal. The better the team does, the more value the sponsorship has. It actually makes perfect sense that if they stole money from investors and want the Clippers to succeed, why not give stolen money to help keep their best player?
It’s sad that Pablo Torre didn’t take the time to find out how these scammers pulled off their scam. The idea that the default is Ballmer is the bad guy is going to backfire on him.
-Mark Cuban / X: @mcuban
Cuban notes a $300 million agreement the company had with the Clippers. He suggests it was incentive to make the deal with Kawhi Leonard without the team’s involvement.
Did the Clippers know?
Cuban says, “No.” The team also released a statement refuting the claims. An NBA investigation into Leonard’s initial deal with Los Angeles turned up no wrongdoing.
Still, Torre insists that they had knowledge. He pointed to a clause in the Aspiration agreement that stated Leonard would only be paid if he remained with the Clippers. The deal was void if he left.
Aspiration filed for bankruptcy in March of this year. The company admitted to defrauding investors. Its co-founder pleaded guilty to federal charges last week.
The league’s collective bargaining agreement prohibits teams or affiliated companies from arranging outside compensation to circumvent the salary cap. Steve Ballmer’s support of Aspiration raised questions.
Mark Cuban believes that Ballmer was simply another duped investor. Torre disagrees. After a short back and forth between the pair, Cuban agreed to further debate the topic on Torre’s podcast.
Just sent you a dm. Happy to https://t.co/DqkaCVOVS8
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 3, 2025
At this point in time, the Clippers are in the clear.