NBA reportedly ‘found no evidence’ Clippers, Ballmer funneled money to Kawhi Leonard

The investigation into whether the LA Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer circumvented the NBA salary cap using sponsors to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard “found no evidence” to prove the allegations, according to a new report at ESPN. The league office quickly pushed back hard on that report.

The investigation and report from the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz are essentially done, both the Clippers and the league office have them, and the sides had started settlement talks, a league source told NBC Sports, something published in the ESPN report.

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The core of ESPN’s report is that sources told them no hard evidence was found.

The NBA has found no evidence showing LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through team sponsors to pay Kawhi Leonard in order to circumvent the salary cap… Instead, the NBA is focused on whether the team’s introduction of Leonard to team sponsors constitutes a violation of the league’s rules prohibiting salary cap circumvention, two of the sources said. The league is examining whether the Clippers are guilty of “failure to supervise” employees, though it’s unclear what specific rule the team would have violated or what the penalties would be, two of the sources said.

The league office pushed back fast and hard on this.

What is the evidence?

At the very least, there is a mountain of oddly timed, circumstantial evidence — plus comments from employees at Aspiration — about the questionable endorsement deals. In practice, the contracts appear to be no-shows Leonard had with multiple endorsers who also had ties to the Clippers.

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The Clippers and Ballmer have vehemently denied any wrongdoing from the start.

It started with Aspiration, a former Clippers sponsor and green bank company that has since gone bankrupt, something made public on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast (which has continued to push and drive this story). Aspiration’s founder, Joe Sanberg, was convicted of defrauding investors and sentenced to 14 months in prison. Clippers owner Ballmer made a $50 million investment in Aspiration not long before Leonard signed a $28 million endorsement…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nba-reportedly-found-no-evidence-192909136.html

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Publish date : 2026-08-17 19:29:00

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