The most expensive fake trees ever

Steve Ballmer went in for another $10 million as the fake tree folks went under. Plus: there's another private equity team owner in the NBA. Good morning. Let's basketball.

Just after Pablo Torre revealed the oddly-timed investment by Clippers limited partner Dennis Wong into the fugazy tree organization Aspiration, The Athletic's Mike Vorkunov revealed something similar: Steve Ballmer himself put another $10 million into the company in March 2023 as Aspiration was circling the drain. That particular investment isn't tied to clearly to payments made to Kawhi Leonard, but it's really weird that Ballmer threw more money into a pit after contributing $50 million in 2021 and just months after Wong went in amid news the company was laying off staff and struggling to make payroll. Remember: Aspiration owed the Clippers hundreds of millions of dollars through their jersey sponsor patch agreement. It doesn't seem particularly prudent to give a company $50 million in hopes of getting some of that back to your corporation ...

... unless there was something else going on.