“This is a huge deal,” one Eastern Conference executive told reporters as per Sports Illustrated when asked about the growing storm around Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Ever since journalist Pablo Torre shook the NBA landscape on his “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast, claiming that the Clippers owner Steve Ballmer allegedly arranged a “no-show job” for Leonard at the company Aspiration, to sidestep the league’s strict salary-cap rules, the story has snowballed.
With fresh revelations surfacing daily, even outspoken voices like former Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban have weighed in. Now, new details from insiders are only deepening the intrigue.
What Was NBA Insider’s Latest Revelation Regarding the Kawhi Leonard Case?
In the recent segment of Sports Illustrated’s “Open Floor”, veteran NBA insider Chris Mannix confirmed that the league is not taking this lightly. According to Mannix, the NBA’s Board of Governors will convene in New York this week to specifically address the Clippers’ alleged salary-cap violations.
“I think Mark Cuban has his own reasons perhaps to be supporting Steve Ballmer, but the board of governors meeting is in New York next week, and I’m guessing this is going to come up very early in that meeting.”
“I’ve seen it suggested that the owners don’t want any part of an investigation here because that could open them up to a world of legal problems. They don’t want to wind up on the wrong side of their own investigation,” said Mannix during the segment.
The timing is critical. During Leonard’s four-year, $176.3 million extension with Los Angeles, the setup allegedly gave the Clippers an unfair advantage by evading the NBA’s punitive luxury-tax system.
Even more concerning, Mannix noted that Leonard’s January 2024, three-year, $149.5 million contract extension is also under the microscope.
“But I will tell you what ownership sources have told me over the last few days is that they want to know about the money. In 2021, Kawhi Leonard signed at the time what was a full max contract. No issue there. In 2024, he took less than the max. Now, the narrative back then was that he did it to help the team.”
“Great. But if he was getting compensated another way, that’s a different story because the Clippers are a taxpaying team. An extra few million dollars per year that gets multiplied in tax penalties and that gets dispersed to other teams,” added Mannix during the segment.
But perhaps the most shocking revelation has come from John Karalis of the “Boston Sports Journal”.
Karalis reported that Leonard’s business entity, KL2 Aspire, LLC, initially received $28 million through scheduled quarterly payments over four years. However the payouts didn’t stop there. Leonard allegedly pocketed an additional $20 million, raising the total to $48 million.
On top of that, Ballmer himself reportedly invested $50 million into Aspiration, raising red flags within league offices about possible improper financial ties between the owner and his star player. These claims, if proven accurate, could redefine the boundaries of what constitutes circumvention of NBA financial rules.
“At this point, the $48 million commitment by Aspiration to Leonard and Ballmer’s $50 million investment stand as two separate transactions. The league is currently investigating whether there is a connection that circumvented salary cap rules,” read a part of Karalis’ report.
BSJ Exclusive: Kawhi Leonard’s reported side-deal with Aspiration is nearly twice what was originally reported, which put the questionable commitment to him closer to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s $50 million investment … which itself has a curious twist.
— John Karalis 🇬🇷 (@John_Karalis) September 4, 2025
The NBA has precedent for dealing with such scandals. Back in 2000, the Minnesota Timberwolves were caught secretly arranging under-the-table contracts with forward Joe Smith to keep him on the roster while ducking salary-cap restrictions.
The league’s response was ruthless. The then-commissioner David Stern stripped Minnesota of multiple first-round draft picks, fined the franchise and owner Glen Taylor $3.5 million, and banned both Taylor and general manager Kevin McHale from team operations for an entire year.
That punishment set the tone for how seriously the NBA treats financial misconduct. If investigators can establish direct links between Ballmer’s investments, Leonard’s company, and the questionable extensions, the fallout could be catastrophic for both men.
