NBA owners are raising eyebrows over why Kawhi Leonard signed a below-max contract extension with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2024, according to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated.
The 3-year, $149.5 million deal came after reports that Leonard allegedly received a “no-work” contract from a now-bankrupt environmental company called Aspiration. The setup supposedly allowed him to earn more money from the Clippers without it counting against the NBA’s salary cap.
“The board of governors meeting is in New York next week,” Mannix said. “And I’m guessing this is going to come up very early. Ownership sources want to know about the money. In 2021, Kawhi signed a full max contract. No issue. In 2024, he took less than the max. The story then was that he did it to help the team. But if he was getting compensated another way, that’s a different story because the Clippers are a taxpaying team. Extra millions multiply in tax penalties that get dispersed to other teams.”
On the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, seven anonymous former Aspiration employees claimed Leonard was paid $48 million for a “no-show job” allegedly designed to skirt the NBA salary rules.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who invested $50 million in the now-bankrupt green banking company, told ESPN that Aspiration asked him to introduce the company to Leonard, but he denied knowing about the eventual endorsement deal or directing the company to pursue it.
Ballmer said the introduction happened in November 2021, three months after the Clippers agreed to a four-year, $173 million extension with Leonard. Interestingly, two months before that, in September 2021, the Clippers announced a $300 million partnership with Aspiration.
Now, all eyes are on the upcoming board meeting to see whether NBA owners push for answers—and what it could mean for salary cap rules moving forward.
