A new report alleges that Kawhi Leonard secured an undisclosed multimillion-dollar sponsorship with Daktronics, the company that designed the Clippers’ signature Halo Board videoboard at Intuit Dome, in what some have described as another potential effort to skirt the NBA’s salary-cap rules.
According to Pablo Torre on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, produced with Hunterbrook Media, an “anonymous high-level source” involved with the arena claimed the deal funneled money from the Clippers through Daktronics and back to Leonard.
“This Kawhi deal was not just talked about by higher-ups with the Clippers to circumvent the salary cap… This second source was also told that Kawhi’s Daktronics sponsorship was a multimillion-dollar deal,” Torre said.
A Daktronics spokesperson confirmed that Leonard does not currently have an active contract with the company but declined further comment because of the ongoing league investigation led by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
The Clippers had not responded to requests for comment as of Friday morning.
The report expands an existing NBA probe into Leonard’s earlier $28 million endorsement agreement with Aspiration, a now-bankrupt environmental firm.
In 2021, the Clippers signed a 23-year, $300 million partnership with Aspiration, and owner Steve Ballmer personally invested $50 million in the company. Ballmer later said he had been “conned” after Aspiration’s co-founder was sentenced to prison for defrauding investors. He has maintained that the franchise only arranged an introduction between Aspiration and Leonard’s representatives and played no further role in structuring the endorsement.
Former Aspiration employees and internal documents have indicated that Leonard performed little to no promotional work under the deal.
The Clippers have consistently denied any wrongdoing or salary-cap circumvention. The Daktronics allegation now draws scrutiny to a second sponsor with direct ties to the team’s arena.
