The NBA’s investigation into the Clippers has become an absolute mess

It’s been 11 months since the NBA opened a formal investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers for salary cap circumvention, and somehow Adam Silver has only made it worse. We are no closer to knowing what exactly happened, there’s backbiting occurring between the NBA and the media — but more concerning is a pervasive opacity shrouding the process, pronounced enough that it feels less like the league is leading an investigation and more like it’s trying to navigate a balancing act that will satiate the public’s need for answers while not angering Clippers’ owner Steve Ballmer.

Pablo Torre initially broke the story last year, which alleged that the Clippers used a now-defunct sponsor to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard as a fake employee, allowing the team to exceed his max-level contract. The Torre report initially got the ball rolling and led to the NBA investigation — which is ongoing now.

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Since that point, the NBA has largely been quiet, Torre has continued to gather more details, expanding on his reporting, and on Monday ESPN dropped a story that intimated the investigation was coming to a close, functionally absolving Ballmer of responsibility as a result — which the NBA then refuted. It’s all a mess, so let’s try to make sense of this from all angles right now.

Pablo Torre’s reporting

In September of 2025 Torre reported that Leonard had a $28M no-show deal with Aspiration, a green energy company, which functionally listed Leonard as an employee and spokesperson — when in reality he didn’t do any work for Aspiration. This was sourced through numerous ex-employees of Aspiration, who spoke to Torre anonymously and said it was a known secret inside the company that Leonard was being paid under the table on behalf of the Clippers

In August of 2026 a new report from Torre noted that Leonard had a second undisclosed endorsement deal with Daktronics, the company that made the video board for the Clippers. The nature of this deal has not been disclosed, though Torre says it was also sourced through employees of Daktronics.

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ESPN’s reporting

Initially, ESPN was extremely quiet after Torre’s…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nba-investigation-clippers-become-absolute-163453283.html

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Publish date : 2026-08-18 16:34:00

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