NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Wednesday pulled back as allegations swirled about the Clippers circumventing the salary cap by orchestrating an endorsement deal for star forward Kawhi Leonard.
Silver, speaking to the media after a previously scheduled meeting of all 30 team owners in New York, said an NBA investigation would need to uncover clear evidence of wrongdoing for Clippers owner Steve Ballmer to be punished.
“The burden is on the league if we are going to discipline a team, an owner, a player or any constituent members of the league,” Silver said. “I think, as with any process that requires a fundamental sense of fairness, the burden should be on the party that is, in essence, bringing those charges.
“I think as a matter of fundamental fairness, I would be reluctant to act if there was sort of a mere appearance of impropriety.”
The Clippers and Ballmer are under league investigation after it was alleged last week on Pablo Torre’s podcast that Leonard was paid $28 million for a no-show endorsement role by Aspiration, a sustainability firm that had agreed to a $330 million sponsorship deal with the Clippers and had offered $1 billion for naming rights to the arena that became the Intuit Dome.
Aspiration turned out to be fraudulent. Co-founder Joseph Sanberg has agreed to plead guilty to defrauding multiple investors and lenders.
Silver said he would hesitate to act against the Clippers if even a shred of doubt remains following the investigation, which will be handled by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, experienced in probing wrongdoing by sports franchises.
“Bringing in a firm that specializes in internal investigations adds a level of expertise and creates separation between the league and the investigation of a team,” said Michael McCann, a sports law expert and visiting professor at Harvard. “The investigators have a background in prosecutorial work, insight into what documents to request and questions to ask.”
McCann and other legal experts said the probe will center on whether Ballmer’s $50 million investment into Aspiration was a quid pro quo for the firm to pay Leonard $28 million in cash and $20 million in stock for essentially doing nothing.
Ballmer told ESPN he was embarrassed by the allegations and his apparent infatuation with Aspiration, which entered into a $330 million sponsorship arrangement with the Clippers and nearly secured naming rights to what became the Intuit Dome before being exposed as a fraud.
McCann said investigators would need to find concrete evidence that Ballmer or someone from the Clippers directed Aspiration to make the deal with Leonard. Much of what surfaced on Torre’s podcast was hearsay - including an audio clip of an anonymous former Aspiration employee saying someone else in the company told them the endorsement deal “was to circumvent the salary cap, LOL. There was lots of LOL when things were shared.”
Because “LOL” is typically used in writing, investigators would need to track down the email or text where it appeared, then question the author to determine whether Ballmer was involved.
Torre revealed more alleged ties in his latest episode Thursday, citing documents that show Clippers co-owner and vice chairman Dennis Wong invested $1.99 million in Aspiration through a company called DEA 88 Investments in December 2022 - nine days before Leonard received a $1.75 million payment. Leonard’s deal called for $7 million a year in payments, distributed quarterly.
Did Wong, whom Torre reported was Ballmer’s Harvard roommate in 1975, know Aspiration was in financial trouble by then? Wong’s daughter was employed at the firm as a project manager.
One of two former employees who spoke to Torre believed so, saying: “It really looks like the Clippers, through Dennis Wong, put in $2 million in order for Aspiration to be able to make the $1.75-million payment to Kawhi. That’s what it looks like, to me.”
The Clippers did not respond to a request for comment on Wong’s investment, but the NBA investigation is expected to examine it. Silver, known for methodical probes, is likely to act only on evidence - not perception. Still, he must safeguard franchise values, and anything that damages league integrity would be a major concern.
“Silver has quite a few very interesting relationships to protect and to nurture: other owners, his corporate sponsors, the media networks that are distributing the content,” said David Carter, a USC professor of sports business and principal of the Sports Business Group. “Everybody attached to the league is interested in getting to the bottom of this. So, he has to balance different stakeholder interests, and he is very good at doing that.
“So, I have a feeling he will - working with the law firm - get to the bottom of it and then decide to what extent if any punishment is warranted. He’ll do that with the intent of making sure he’s protecting the interests of the other owners.”
Leonard joined the Clippers in July 2019 on a three-year, $103 million contract after leading the Toronto Raptors to the NBA title. The 6-foot-7 forward from Moreno Valley signed a four-year, $176.3 million extension in 2021, when Aspiration struck its sponsorship deal with the Clippers and Ballmer invested.
After signing a three-year, $153 million extension last year, Leonard will have been paid or is under contract for $375 million in salary over 14 years with three teams.
The NBA previously investigated allegations that the Clippers arranged a side deal with Leonard or his uncle, Dennis Robertson, when he joined the team in 2019. No wrongdoing was found, though the Toronto Star reported this week that Robertson made demands of the Raptors that “line up almost perfectly with what Leonard reportedly got from Aspiration.”
The Star said Robertson demanded $10 million a year in sponsorship income, though Leonard didn’t want to do anything for the money. The Raptors rejected the demand, and Leonard signed with the Clippers.
If the Clippers are found guilty of circumventing the salary cap, they could be forced to forfeit draft picks, pay heavy fines and see Ballmer and executives suspended. Leonard’s contract could even be voided.
Silver will proceed carefully.
“The goal of a full investigation is to find out if there really was impropriety,” he said. “In a public-facing sport, the public at times reaches conclusions that later turn out to be completely false. I’d want anyone else in the situation Mr. Ballmer is in now, or Kawhi Leonard for that matter, to be treated the same way I would want to be treated if people were making allegations against me.”