The Los Angeles Clippers have been accused of circumventing the salary cap in order to make payments to Kawhi Leonard, and the team looks even worse after some new evidence was uncovered.
Sports journalist Pablo Torre originally reported on Sept. 3 that the Clippers used a phony endorsement deal with a tree-planting company called Aspiration in order to funnel additional money to Leonard. The former NBA Finals MVP appears to have had a $28 million endorsement deal with the organization despite never doing any marketing or actual endorsing.
On Thursday, Torre shared new documents that he uncovered in his investigation. Among the documents are statements showing that Leonard’s company, KL2Aspire LLC, received a payment of $1.75 million from Aspiration on Dec. 15, 2022. A former Aspiration employee told Torre that Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle and manager, was one of many people looking to be paid at the time but there was “no money to be spent.”
According to the records that Torre obtained, the payment to Leonard was made nine days after Aspiration received a wire transfer payment of just under $2 million from a company called DEA 88 Investments L.P. That company, Torre learned, is registered to Dennis Wong, who is the vice chairman of the Clippers and team owner Steve Ballmer’s former college roommate.
Wong owns roughly 1% of the Clippers, with Ballmer owning the other 99%. Wong had not previously invested in Aspiration prior to DEA 88 Investments L.P. making the $2 million payment, which a former Aspiration employee says was a massive red flag.
“It is beyond shocking. I will tell you, I knew that the board had put money in in December to make payroll and make rent and all that, material. It is not a rational investment that someone would make,” the former employee told Torre. “So, it is very shocking to me that $2 million was made as an investment by Dennis Wong, Steve Ballmer’s partner, a week before $1.75 million was paid to Kawhi.”
The Clippers responded to Torre’s latest reporting with a new statement calling Aspiration a “house of cards that defrauded Steve and many others.”
EXCLUSIVE: Kawhi Leonard's $1.75M "no-show" payday was running late.
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) September 11, 2025
Then, per new documents obtained by @PabloTorre, the Clippers' co-owner invested $1.99M in the team's broke sponsor.
Nine days later, Kawhi got paid.
"It is beyond shocking," an Aspiration executive says. pic.twitter.com/yxOYGfo3dZ
Ballmer and the Clippers entered into a $300 million partnership with Aspiration in September 2021. The deal included an arena sponsorship and a jersey patch. Two months later, Ballmer said Aspiration asked him to introduce the company to Leonard, which is permissible by NBA rules. The introduction came three months after Leonard signed a four-year, $173 million extension with L.A.
Aspiration filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Co-founder Joe Sanberg pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud for defrauding investors of more than $248 million. Ballmer says he was among those victimized by the fraud.
The NBA is investigating the allegations against the Clippers. Many fans are already convinced that the Clippers are guilty, and the latest details only make the team look worse.
