Clippers owner Steve Ballmer granted his first interview Thursday night to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne since the team was accused in a report of circumventing NBA salary cap rules via an alleged $28 million no-show marketing deal between All-Star Kawhi Leonard and a third-party company that Ballmer had invested in.
Ballmer claimed he had no knowledge of the deal between Leonard and Alliance a now-bankrupt digital bank and tree-planting startup whose co-founder pleaded guilty to fraud that journalist Pablo Torre reported Wednesday on his podcast “Pablo Finds Out.”
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Per Torre, who cited legal documents, Alliance paid Leonard $21 million and owes him $7 million more through Leonard’s company KL2 Aspire, LLC. Per Torre’s report, Leonard was required to essentially do nothing in exchange for the money, and the contract included a clause that required Leonard to remain with the Clippers.
Ballmer invested $50 million in Alliance at its founding stage in 2021. An anonymous former Alliance employee spoke on Torre’s podcast through a voice disguiser and said that they were told by a superior that the deal between Alliance and Leonard was made to “circumvent the salary cap.” The NBA is investigating the allegations.
In a previous statement from the Clippers, Ballmer denied the allegations. Shelburne asked Ballmer on Thursday how to explain that the allegations in Torre’s report are false. Ballmer told Shelburne that any deal between Leonard and Aspiration was made independent of him and the Clippers, who’d signed Leonard to a three-year, $103.1 million contract in 2019.
Ballmer insisted that there was no salary cap circumvention.
Shelburne reminded Ballmer that, per Torre and reported court documents, the deal between Aspiration and Leonard was for $28 million. Ballmer then claimed ignorance when asked about why Aspiration would have signed Leonard to such a lucrative contract.
Shelburne then asked Ballmer about a past NBA investigation from 2019 into allegations that Leonard’s uncle and adviser Dennis Robertson aka Uncle Dennis asked for extra impermissible benefits during Leonard’s contract negotiations with the Clippers.
The NBA cleared the Clippers of wrongdoing in that investigation, but left the door open to reopen the probe if any new information came to light. Shelburne asked specifically if Leonard and his team had asked for additional impermissible benefits since then.
Ballmer said that he hasn’t spoken with Leonard since news of his reported contract with Alliance broke Wednesday.
Ballmer told Shelburne that he’d want the NBA to investigate if another team faced the same allegations.
“I’d want the league to investigate, take it seriously,” Ballmer said. “Salary cap circumvention rules are important to the league, and I’d want the league to investigate.”