The Los Angeles Clippers and team owner Steve Ballmer are in hot water as journalist Pablo Torre unravels new information on the murky Kawhi Leonard controversy.
In his latest act, Torre produced new evidence and reported the Clippers made a $21 million payment to Aspiration, the now-defunct company Ballmer invested in.
What raised eyebrows was that it was made two weeks before the two-time NBA champion’s first paycheck from Aspiration was due.
Los Angeles Clippers Release Statement After Pablo Torre’s Latest Revelations
Earlier, the Clippers released a statement explaining the carbon credits, one of the talking points from Torere’s newfound evidence.
The journalist revealed that the team made three installments of prepaid carbon credit purchases in 2022, well before their home arena, the Intuit Dome, opened. The purchases totaled $56 million and were made between April 1 and June 17, 2022, closely aligning with Leonard’s deal with Aspiration.
The LA Clippers have released a new statement. pic.twitter.com/3uaKwVpgSi
— Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth) September 18, 2025
The timing also marked the due date of his first quarterly payment. Torre also noted that $32 million was paid for carbon credits on April 4 — the same day the superstar inked his endorsement deal. The details of the deal were not public information.
“Steve and his family are focused on sustainability, which is why Intuit Dome was designed to be a carbon-neutral building from its inception and to achieve LEED Zero status over time,” the statement read.
It further added: “Our development agreements for the arena included mandates to buy carbon credits, but after studying the issue of neutrality, we went far beyond those requirements, exploring ways to address emissions from our fans and contracting with Aspiration to directly purchase carbon offsets, as well as broker the acquisition of additional offsets.
“Some of those commitments were built into the sponsorship deal with Aspiration — totally separate from the investment in the company — and we made payments to Aspiration until the company was unable to fulfill its responsibilities.”
The new developments put the spotlight firmly back on Ballmer after the team owner claimed he was defrauded. There have already been discussions on the penalty if Ballmer were to be punished by the NBA.
At the time of writing, the NBA’s investigation of the alleged salary cap circumvention is ongoing. The latest will surely be in their records as they continue to see if the Clippers and Ballmer are guilty of breaching the cap rules. The findings, though, are not expected until the end of the NBA 2026 All-Star Weekend, slated to be held in Los Angeles
