Kawhi Leonard had a hidden, “multi-million” dollar endorsement deal with Daktronics, the company that manufactured the Clippers‘ ‘Halo Board’ scoreboard in Intuit Dome, a pair of sources tell podcaster and investigative journalist Pablo Torre and Sam Koppelman of Hunterbrook Media (YouTube link).
Torre and Koppelman weren’t able to find evidence that Leonard actually did any endorsement work for Daktronics as part of the agreement, and a source noted that Daktronics hasn’t historically employed celebrity spokespeople, since it’s a B2B (“business-to-business”) company rather than one that sells product to consumers.
The agreement with Daktronics is separate from the one that Leonard had with Aspiration, a now-defunct green banking company that also had a sponsorship deal with the Clippers. Leonard’s contract with Aspiration, described by Torre as a “no-show” endorsement deal, prompted the NBA to launch an investigation into whether the Clippers circumvented the salary cap to pay the star forward beyond his NBA salary.
That investigation, led by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, has taken over 11 months and has yet to wrap up. A July report from The Athletic indicated that the probe had expanded to take into account a potential second undisclosed endorsement deal for Leonard — it’s unclear whether this newly reported agreement with Daktronics is the deal in question, but it would make sense if it is.
Although Leonard’s deal with Daktronics wasn’t made public, a source who worked for Intuit Dome told Torre it was “talked about openly within the organization.”
“It was openly joked about, within people working on the project that knew about this, as it was 1,000 percent a way to circumvent the salary cap,” the source said.
Asked about Leonard’s relationship with Daktronics, a spokesperson representing the company told Torre and Koppelman that the two-time Finals MVP doesn’t have an active contract in place. However, that spokesperson added, “I don’t know what the company wants to say, or can say, given the Wachtell investigation and all that.”
The Clippers and team owner Steve Ballmer have repeatedly denied that they circumvented the NBA salary cap to funnel money to Leonard via endorsement contracts, but they could face penalties – including a sizable fine, the forfeiture of draft picks, and suspensions for executives or Ballmer himself – if the league believes otherwise.
If the NBA looks to levy penalties on the Clippers and/or Leonard based on strong circumstantial evidence without hard proof, Ballmer and the NBPA are likely to push back and seek arbitration, which could delay a resolution on the case until 2027.
That resolution has become all the more crucial after the Raptors reached an agreement this offseason to acquire Leonard from the Clippers in a trade that will send Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, and draft assets to Los Angeles. That deal is on hold while the Raptors wait to see if Leonard faces any repercussions as a result of the investigation, such as a suspension or even the voiding of his contract.
It’s possible Toronto would decide to move forward on the trade before the case is fully resolved if an arbitration battle focuses more on penalties for the Clippers rather than for Leonard himself.