INGLEWOOD — Kawhi Leonard said that he doesn’t “think it’s accurate” that he performed no actual services for Aspiration, the now-bankrupt green banking company and LA Clippers team sponsor that he signed a lucrative endorsement contract with.
“I understand the full contract and the services that I had to do. I don’t deal with the conspiracies or the clickbait analysts or journalism that’s going on,” Leonard said Monday in his first public comments about the scandal, first reported by the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast.
Asked specifically by ESPN if he ever performed any services for what Torre reported was a four-year, $28 million contract, Leonard said, “I don’t think it’s accurate. But it’s old. This is all new to you guys. The company went bankrupt a while ago.”
The NBA has launched an investigation into whether owner Steve Ballmer and the Clippers violated league rules or circumvented the league’s salary cap because Ballmer and minority owner Dennis Wong were both investors in the company.
Earlier this month, Ballmer told ESPN that he did introduce Leonard and Aspiration in November of 2021, three months after the Clippers had agreed to a four-year, $173 million extension with Leonard, who had torn a knee ligament during the team’s first ever Western Conference finals run.
Two months earlier, in September of 2021, the Clippers announced a $300 million partnership with Aspiration, which included sponsorship in the team’s new arena and on its jersey patch.
NBA rules do not prohibit teams from introducing team sponsors or companies to players. They just can’t be involved in subsequent negotiations.
Ballmer told ESPN that he did not know details of the endorsement contract that Leonard subsequently agreed to with Aspiration. The Boston Sports Journal and Torre have subsequently reported Leonard was also awarded $20 million in company stock.
Leonard was listed among Aspiration’s biggest creditors in bankruptcy documents. On Monday at Clippers media day, ESPN asked Leonard how much of that contract he was actually paid, as he was listed as being owed $7 million.
“I’m not sure, I’ve got to look back at the books. It was more than that for sure,” Leonard said. Asked if he collected what he was owed by Aspiration, Leonard said, “No, but the company went belly up. It was fraud, as everybody knows. If you want to know more details about that company you need to ask that company or the owner or whoever else is involved.”
In his interview with ESPN, Ballmer also said that he did not have an explanation for why Aspiration would pay Leonard such a lucrative endorsement deal.
“These were guys who committed fraud,” Ballmer said. “Look, they conned me. They conned me. I made an investment in these guys thinking they were on the up and up, and they conned me. I have no ability to predict why they might have done anything they did, let alone the specific contract with Kawhi.”
Leonard said Monday that he welcomes the NBA investigation and is confident its findings will exonerate him.
“The NBA is going to do their job,” Leonard said. “None of us did no wrongdoing. That’s it. We invite the investigations. It’s not going to be a distraction for me or the rest of the team.”