The Los Angeles Clippers agreed to trade Kawhi Leonard back to the Toronto Raptors on June 30. Yet, over a month later, the two-time NBA champion is still a member of the Clippers. Toronto won’t be adding Leonard until the NBA’s ongoing investigation into salary cap circumvention concludes.
When that will be remains to be seen. Yet, now another breakthrough has emerged.
Kawhi Leonard Reportedly Had Hidden Sponsorship
Investigative journalist Pablo Torre has been following along in the case, alleging that Aspiration was paying Leonard off the books. Now, Torre has uncovered a bombshell.
Torre reports that Leonard “had a hidden, multimillion-dollar sponsorship” with the Clippers. He adds that it was “1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap.”
“BREAKING: Kawhi Leonard had a hidden, multimillion-dollar ‘sponsorship’ with Clippers’ scoreboard-maker, sources tell @PabloTorre. ‘It was 1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap,’ insider says. In our investigation, Daktronics’ Ballmer-linked crisis firm raises NBA probe.”
Torre said he heard about that bombshell 11 months ago when he first received the information from a “high-level source.”
Here’s what that source had to say: “This was talked about just openly within the organization and from people working on the project that Kawhi was a spokesperson for Daktronics.”
“It was just the biggest thing that was openly joked about within people working on the project that knew about this, as it was 1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap.”
BREAKING: Kawhi Leonard had a hidden, multimillion-dollar “sponsorship” with Clippers’ scoreboard-maker, sources tell @PabloTorre.
“It was 1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap,” insider says.
In our investigation, Daktronics’ Ballmer-linked crisis firm raises NBA probe ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/LU1AeBAF44
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) August 7, 2026
Another former high-level Clippers official added, with 100% certainty, “I know Kawhi had a sponsorship deal with Daktronics.”
That was reportedly a multi-million dollar deal.
“People at Daktronics, people within the organization themselves had told me about this multi-million dollar deal with Kawhi and Daktronics,” the ex-Clippers official added.
“They’re not a company that you would see a celebrity endorser for. It wasn’t coming out of their end, that the Clippers were technically kind of funding it. That it was funneling money from the Clippers through Daktronics back to Kawhi.”
Over 10 months ago, the NBA began investigating a report by Torre, who alleged on his “Pablo Torre Finds Out” show that Leonard signed a $28 million no-show deal with Aspiration in 2022.
The Clippers were included in the investigation for their alleged role in funding Aspiration to circumvent the salary cap to sign Leonard. Team governor Steve Ballmer welcomed the inquiry and said that the Clippers’ transactions were all aboveboard.
As the investigation continued, the Clippers agreed to trade Leonard to the Raptors for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks, two second-round picks, and a first-round swap.
However, the trade has since been put on hold after the league reportedly told the Raptors they would receive part of any potential punishment for Leonard.
Surely, if Torre was able to obtain this information as an independent investigator, then the NBA has been able to recover it too, right?
Perhaps this latest reveal will help the league wrap up its investigation sooner rather than later, but past warnings have suggested it could take a while.
