Steve Ballmer LA Clippers Kawhi Leonard
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The Los Angeles Clippers and superstar Kawhi Leonard find themselves under a microscope after reports that owner Steve Ballmer funded a shell company to pay Leonard off the books and circumvent the NBA salary cap.
And Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft and one of the world’s richest men, did little to help his case during an interview with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
Steve Ballmer Refuses To Deny That Kawhi Leonard Sought Improper Benefits
The initial report, which came from former ESPN employee Pablo Torre, alleges that Ballmer funneled $28 million to Leonard via a no-show job with a local tree-planting company called Aspiration.
Ballmer now claims that he and the Clippers organization were conned by Aspiration, who ran some sort of scam. He said that the organization believed it had a deal with a legit green company — the Clippers and Aspiration had a $300 million partnership tied to making the then-under-construction Intuit Dome carbon neutral — and that they broke off that deal in 2023 when Aspiration didn’t live up to the contract.
I’d want the league to investigate, take it seriously…. Salary cap circumvention rules are important to the league, and I’d want the league to investigate,” Ballmer said.
But here’s where things get really weird.
Shellburne then asked Ballmer if Leonard’s advisor, “Uncle Dennis” (Dennis Robertson), ever asked the Clippers organization for improper benefits in order to sign with the team. Ballmer did not say “no.” In fact, he didn’t even half deny it.
“They know what the rules are (Kawhi’s representatives)… we know what the rules are, and if anything’s not clear, we remind ourselves what the rules are.”
Fellow NBA owner Mark Cuban, who now holds a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks, went on Torre’s podcast and argued that Ballmer is telling the truth.
“I’ve been scammed. Everybody’s scammable. But in order for this to work, in my opinion, he has to trust that whole company,” Cuban argued. “And at that point in time he trusted them enough to give them an investment at some level. But I don’t see how he would trust that company to keep probably his darkest secret as an NBA owner so that it wouldn’t get out. I just don’t see in any way, shape, or form that all those things could happen.”
So Ballmer is too smart to trust this company to run a scam on his behalf. But he’s not too smart to be scammed by them?
Seems fishy.
Many fans suggested that Cuban is defending Ballmer in order to hide his own dirty laundry. Those claims rest on the fact that Dallas paid former superstar Dirk Nowitzki well below market value for several years.
That may be true. Maybe it’s commonplace in the NBA, and now owners are working together to ensure fans don’t find out. After all, James Harden took a discount to sign with the 76ers in 2022. At the time, Fanatics founder and CEO Michael Rubin owned a minority stake in the team. Rubin later divested, but did partner with Harden on other ventures.
One way or another, Ballmer did little to help his cause with his answers to Shelburne.