In the week since Pablo Torre first released his report revealing Kawhi Leonard’s alleged no-show endorsement deal, many have cited the lack of a “smoking gun” regarding a link between the agreement and claims that the Los Angeles Clippers were using it to circumvent the NBA salary cap.
Torre now believes he’s found it.
In a new episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out released on Wednesday, the Meadowlark Media host provided new evidence strengthening the connection between Leonard’s curious agreement with Aspiration and Clippers ownership. According to documents obtained by Torre, as the company faced financial troubles, it found itself running behind on payments, including to Leonard. Aspiration did, however, ultimately issue the $1.75 million payment it owed to the 2-time NBA Finals MVP in December 2022 — nine days after it received a $1.99 million payment from a company registered to Dennis Wong, the Clippers’ vice chairman and longtime friend of the franchise’s majority owner, Steve Ballmer.
Torre notes in his reporting that the only two people to own stakes in the Clippers are Ballmer (99 percent) and Wong (1 percent). Wong was also Ballmer’s college roommate at Harvard.
The timing of the payment was especially curious, not just because of the connection to Clippers ownership, but also because of the struggles Aspiration was facing at the time. Asked by Torre how strange it was for somebody to invest nearly $2 million into Aspiration in December 2022, an anonymous former employee called it “beyond shocking” and “not a rational investment that someone would make.”
“So the game is, is this a smoking gun?” Torre says of the evidence in the episode. “I don’t know how much you need in podcast court or frankly others.”
EXCLUSIVE: Kawhi Leonard’s $1.75M “no-show” payday was running late.
Then, per new documents obtained by @PabloTorre, the Clippers’ co-owner invested $1.99M in the team’s broke sponsor.
Nine days later, Kawhi got paid.
“It is beyond shocking,” an Aspiration executive says. pic.twitter.com/yxOYGfo3dZ
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) September 11, 2025
Wong didn’t return any requests for comment from Pablo Torre Finds Out. Meanwhile, the Clippers released a new statement noting that the matter is under NBA investigation whil calling Aspiration “a house of cards that defrauded Steve and many others.”
“We look forward to sharing the facts with the league and providing them with all the information they need,” the team said.
Taken in totality with Torre’s initial report, which first revealed the alleged $28 million no-show endorsement deal between Aspiration and Kawhi Leonard, this is certainly emerging as one of the biggest stories in not just the NBA, but all of sports. Despite objections from the likes of Mark Cuban, the evidence linking the Clippers to the alleged no-show agreement is only continuing to mount in what many would consider to be one of the bigger scandals in NBA history.
As for Torre, it’s a hell of a start to his one-week-old partnership with The Athletic. And it’s also yet another high mark in what has already proven to be a banner year for his investigative show.