Basketball Operations Brief

Gregory spicer – 09/08/2025 – nba /law

Following my Malik Beasley examination, I didn’t think I would get to keep covering law in the NBA. 

That was until this weekend when reporter Pablo Torre dropped a bomb on the entire Clippers organization, exposing millions of dollars worth of suspicious endorsement payments to superstar Kawhi Leonard. 

The story has now turned into an investigation by the NBA to find out what exactly is going on in Los Angeles. 

It all started when Kawhi inked a 3 year / $155 million dollar contract extension with the Clippers. That deal takes up 32.33% of the salary cap, which is 2.77% less than the maximum allowed for a player of his caliber (35%). 

Along with the Kawhi extension, the Clippers also signed a deal for Aspiration to be one of the “founders” of their new arena, Intuit Dome. The 2021 agreement was reportedly in the $300 million dollar range for over 20 years. 

Everything has fallen apart for Aspiration since that contract. The “climate/sustainability services” organization filed for bankruptcy in 2025, and one of their co-founders, Joseph Sanburg, has already pled guilty to wire fraud in a different case. They also still owe the Clippers $30 million dollars, but the specifics of that money are still under investigation. 

According to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, he introduced Kawhi to Aspiration so they could organize their own endorsement deal. Ballmer has also admitted to individually investing roughly $50 million dollars into Aspiration. 

Kawhi’s deal with the brand has paid him at least $28 million dollars. What’s suspicious is that Kawhi never did any sort of promotion, event, branding or ANYTHING else for the company. Thier collaboration wasn’t even announced to the public. 

That information all leads to the ultimate question. Did Steve Ballmer “invest” in Aspiration to pay for their endorsement deal with Kawhi as a way for him to offer him more money without destroying the team’s salary cap?  

That’s for the NBA to decide, but we can look at what will happen if this sneaky move is proven to be true. A similar case happened with the Timberwolves and Joe Smith in 2000. The investigation resulted in a $3.5 million dollar fine, three first round picks lost, and one year suspensions for the GM and owner. 

Here are the potential repercussions for Los Angeles:

Clippers

• $4.5 – $7.5 million in fines
• At least one first round draft pick taken away
• Voided contract with Kawhi
• Prohibit’s any future contract with Kawhi

Steve Ballmer

• Minimum one-year suspension
• Personal fine up to $1,000,000

Kawhi Leonard

• Voided contract with the Clippers
• Personal fine up to 350,000
• Prohibit’s any future contract with the Clippers
• Disgorgement of anything received in the deal

Aspiration

• They can’t be regulated by the NBA, but are currently bankrupt with a founder in jail. They will continue to be investigated by the Department of Justice. 

There’s only one way it can all can be worth it for the Clippers: Win a championship with Kawhi Leonard.

They certainly project to be competitors, but can the Clippers go all the way? Only if everything goes right, and that starts with a healthy, dominant season from Kawhi.

In 2024/25 he produced just:

• 37 GP
• 21.5 PPG
• 5.9 TRB
• 3.1 AST

While his standard numbers have dropped with health and age, the advanced metrics show he’s still one of the NBA’s best two-way players. Kawhi, along with a revamped Clippers lineup could make some noise:

• James Harden
• Bradley Beal
• John Collins
• Ivica Zubac
• Chris Paul
• Brook Lopez
• Bojan Bogdanovic

With the future looking bleak, this will likely be the Clippers last chance to win a championship. Los Angeles made a deal with the Devil, it’s time to see what the punishment is and whether it will pay off.