12:28 pm: The NBA has put out the following statement, via spokesperson Mike Bass (Twitter link):
“ESPN’s article regarding the L.A. Clippers investigation – for which the NBA declined to cooperate – contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded.”
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12:15 pm**: The NBA presented the initial findings of the Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz investigation into possible salary cap circumvention to the Clippers in late July and have since engaged in negotiations to resolve the matter, sources with knowledge of the situation tell Don Van Natta Jr., Baxter Holmes, and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.
According to ESPN’s reporting, the league has found no evidence showing that the Clippers and team owner Steve Ballmer funneled money to star forward Kawhi Leonard through team sponsors.
The probe into potential cap circumvention began during the 2025 offseason after podcaster and investigator journalist Pablo Torre alleged that the Clippers used the now-defunct green banking company Aspiration – a team sponsor that counted Ballmer among its investors – to pay Leonard additional money beyond his NBA salary via a “no-show” endorsement deal worth $28MM.
The Wachtell investigation, which initially focused on Aspiration, subsequently expanded to look into at least three other companies with ties to Leonard and the Clippers, per ESPN, including Daktronics and Boingo Wireless, which was an Intuit Dome wireless provider.
However, with no proof that Ballmer was funneling money to Leonard via those companies, the NBA has focused on whether the Clippers are guilty of a “failure to supervise” employees and is weighing whether the team introducing Kawhi to its various sponsors constitutes a violation of league rules. It’s unclear what rules the Clippers may have violated or what the penalties would be, according to Van Natta, Holmes, and Shelburne, who say that initial discussions between lawyers for the team and the league have become “spirited” at times.
“(We) introduced players, including Kawhi Leonard, to companies with which we had business relationships,” the Clippers said in a statement to ESPN. “Making introductions between players and team partners is both an ordinary practice by NBA teams and a common request of players and representatives. From there, Kawhi and his representatives handled their own negotiations. The Clippers did not negotiate or dictate the terms of Kawhi’s endorsement agreements or determine what he would be paid.
“Our commercial relationships stood on their own merits. We chose sponsors, vendors, and other business partners based on normal business considerations, including the value they provided, the quality of their products and services, and their ability to meet our business needs. We did not overpay any vendor or provide any sponsor, vendor, or business partner with discounts or other favorable terms in order to funnel money to Kawhi.
“The fact that a player has an endorsement relationship with a company that also does business with his team is not evidence of salary-cap circumvention.
“After nearly a year of scrutiny, the central fact remains true and unchanged: the Clippers did not funnel money to Kawhi Leonard, arrange for others to compensate him on our behalf, or otherwise provide him with undisclosed compensation outside of his NBA contract.”
According to ESPN’s trio, owners and executives around the NBA say that introductions between players and team sponsors are indeed common and have even been encouraged by the league. Although team representatives are prohibited from recommending a player to a sponsor for an endorsement deal, they can provide contact information if those parties seek an introduction.
As Holmes reported in late July, if the NBA, Clippers, and NBPA don’t agree on a resolution to the investigation and the league attempts to unilaterally impose a punishment on the Clippers and/or Leonard, the team and/or the players’ union could take the matter to arbitration. It sounds like that possibility remains on the table if the parties can’t negotiate a settlement.
Two sources with knowledge of the NBPA’s thinking told ESPN that an argument that a sponsor introduction constitutes cap circumvention wouldn’t hold up and would be “dead on arrival.” A separate source with knowledge of league business agreed, telling ESPN that it would be “an outrageous overreach” if the league attempted to come down hard on the Clippers simply for introducing Leonard to sponsors.
“It’s the job of players’ agents to ask for introductions to sponsors and potential endorsers,” that source said, adding that if the Clippers are punished by the NBA simply based on those grounds, “(It) will be felt across the league — and players and their management won’t stand for it.”
According to Van Natta, Holmes, and Shelburne, Leonard and his agent Harrison Gaines have been in contact with the NBPA in recent weeks and are operating as if the trade sending him to the Raptors will be completed as planned.
Leonard may face some sort of penalty for receiving potential improper benefits from the Clippers – including travel and lodging – for his uncle Dennis Robertson, who handled some of his business affairs. However, ESPN’s trio suggests there has been no indication that the league is considering anything as serious as voiding the 35-year-old’s contract. Leonard has consistently insisted to the league, the union, and Wachtell investigators that he had no involvement in salary cap circumvention, per ESPN.