Ghost man gets paid
The Clippers are in a world of hurt.
Back when the Clippers landed Kawhi Leonard in 2019, there were a lot of allegations floating around about Kawhi's consigliere Uncle Dennis seeking impermissible benefits from teams. The NBA investigated and found nothing.
We don't know if the NBA investigated Kawhi's 2021 extension with the Clippers. If they didn't, they are going to now.
The brilliant Pablo Torre just released an investigation into now-bankrupt green investment firm Aspiration, whose co-founder is in jail on fraud charges. This firm had huge celebrity endorsers like Robert Downey Jr., Drake and Leonardo DiCaprio, all of whom appeared in ads on behalf of the company. But the highest-paid endorser for Aspiration ended up being ... Kawhi Leonard, in a deal signed shortly after he signed the Clippers extension in 2021 ... and shortly after Clippers owner Steve Ballmer made a major investment in Aspiration just as the company was starting to fall apart.
From Pablo's investigation:
A former Aspiration employee, who worked in the company’s finance department and requested anonymity due to multiple federal investigations into the company, recalled to Torre: “We went through a litany of really, really top-tier name contracts. And then, ‘Oh, by the way, we also have a marketing deal with Kawhi Leonard’ — and that if I had any questions about it, essentially don’t, because it was to circumvent the salary cap.”
The language of Leonard’s signed endorsement contract, which was obtained by Torre, raised eyebrows inside Aspiration: It gave him “the exclusive right to control and approve all content and distribution.” And it gave Aspiration the right to terminate the contract “if Leonard is no longer an employee of the [Clippers] for any reason.”
Yes, Uncle Dennis was involved.
Even as Aspiration’s business collapsed, said the former employee in the finance department, “Uncle Dennis demanded payment. It was priority one. It was something that had to be done, and it was crucial to our relationships with Ballmer and the Clippers.”
As with all Pablo Torre Finds Out work, I strongly recommend watching the video podcast. Pablo isn't just an excellent investigative reporter, but a master storyteller. But the details are in the post linked above. Kawhi's camp didn't provide comment to Torre. The Clippers and Ballmer denied the allegations.
Assuming this all checks out – and it always checks out when Pablo publishes something – the Clippers are in a world of hurt.
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