Kawhi Leonard greets Toronto Raptors legend Kyle Lowry, who announced his retirement from the NBA signing a one-day contract with the team last month.
Kawhi Leonard greets Toronto Raptors legend Kyle Lowry, who announced his retirement from the NBA signing a one-day contract with the team last month.
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Just when it appeared the Kawhi Leonard-Los Angeles Clippers alleged salary cap circumvention scandal might mercifully be nearing an end, Pablo Torre dropped another bombshell.
The podcaster, who had stunned the sports world with his initial investigative work nearly a year ago — alleging Leonard, the Clippers superstar forward, had received financial incentives through a now disgraced company called Aspiration that was formerly a sponsor — has followed with further allegations.
The latest alleges Leonard had a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with Daktronics, the Clippers’ Intuit Dome scoreboard builder. Daktronics is based in South Dakota and “designs, manufactures, sells, and services video displays, scoreboards, digital billboards, dynamic message signs, sound systems, and related products.”
The latest Pablo Torre Finds Out episode cited an “anonymous high-level source under contract for Intuit Dome” who alleged that the sponsorship deal “was 1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap. It was funneling money from the Clippers through Daktronics back to Kawhi.”
A PR spokesperson for Daktronics told Torre’s co-investigator Sam Koppelman: “My understanding is Daktronics doesn’t have a deal with Kawhi right now. I don’t know what the company wants to say, or can say, given the Wachtell investigation (the NBA’s investigation into alleged salary cap circumvention) and all that.”
Torre also cited in the latest report an anonymous ex-Clippers official who alleged they knew that Leonard had a sponsorship deal with Daktronics.
What other allegations have been made?
Leonard had previously allegedly been connected by Torre to Aspiration, an environmental bank that went under and saw its founder land in prison. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer maintains that he was “flagrantly defrauded” by Joseph Sanberg and there was no wrongdoing involving Leonard.
Last month, Torre reported that Leonard was a minority owner with Rhode Island FC, a United Soccer League team.
The Clippers and Raptors agreed on a deal headlined by Leonard and Brandon Ingram earlier this summer, but it remains on hold after Toronto decided to wait and see if the NBA hands out any punishment related to the saga.
Training camp begins with media day in Toronto on Sept. 28 and the Clippers and Raptors will actually meet in an exhibition game in Vancouver not long after. Who will be in the lineup for either side? Good question.