Clippers star Kawhi Leonard
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The dust is still settling in the wake of the bombshell investigation that seemingly revealed the Clippers circumvented the NBA’s salary cap with the endorsement deal that netted Kawhi Leonard close to $50 million. Now, the plot has thickened courtesy of a report that says the Raptors rejected a request to get the same treatment before he took his talents to Los Angeles.
Last week, Pablo Torre blew the lid off what has the potential to be one of the biggest scandals in NBA history after following the paper trail that seemed to show Kawhi Leonard had signed an endorsement deal that required him to do nothing in exchange for payments totaling $48 million.
It was a highly suspect arrangement that strongly suggested the superstar had been given some extra incentive to re-up his contract with the Clippers before he agreed to ink a four-year extension worth over $176 million in 2021. That transpired the same year the franchise announced it had partnered with the now-bankrupt tree-planting charity Aspiration, which offered him an endorsement deal totaling $48 million that required him to remain with the Clippers to be paid—and, as far as anyone can tell—did not require him to do any actual work or promotion in return.
The NBA is currently investigating the matter, and while Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has proclaimed his innocence, the information that’s come out so far is not a good look for the franchise—and it’s only gotten worse thanks to some new revelations to come out of Toronto.
The Reports reportedly rejected multiple unconventional demands from Kawhi Leonard’s camp—including a “no-show” endorsement—before he signed with the Clippers.
Leonard arrived in Los Angeles after his one and only season with the Raptors, and there was little doubt Toronto was interested in retaining the talents of a man who’d led the franchise to its first-ever championship in 2019 after being obtained in a trade with the Spurs.
However, the forward opted to sign with the Clippers, and according to a report from The Toronto Star, the Raptors turned down some demands that Leonard eventually got from the team he opted for.
If you’ve been following this saga (and Leonard’s career), you probably won’t be shocked to learn the report largely revolves around Dennis Robertson—a.k.a. “Uncle Dennis”—the generational hanger-on who has somewhat infamously leveraged his relationship with his nephew for his own benefit through his role as a manager and adviser.
According to The Star, Robertson told the Raptors that any contract needed to be accompanied by an ownership stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs in an attempt to get around NBA rules that prohibit teams from offering equity in a franchise as part of a contract. However, he was apparently unaware that the same entity, MLSE, owns the NBA and NHL teams based in Toronto, which made that request impossible to grant.
The more notable smoking gun involves Robertson telling the Raptors that Leonard not only needed “at least $10 million per year in extra sponsorship income” but informed the team “We don’t want to do anything” when they told him they could connect him with corporate sponsors who would presumably expect some return on their investment.
That wish was not granted in Toronto, but all signs point to it coming to fruition in the City of Angels.