{"id":468691,"date":"2025-09-03T22:18:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T22:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=468691"},"modified":"2025-09-03T23:17:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T23:17:51","slug":"nba-rocked-by-alleged-43m-salary-cap-breach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=468691","title":{"rendered":"NBA rocked by alleged $43m salary cap breach"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA<\/a> said it will investigate if a $42.7 million ($28 million USD) endorsement contract between Kawhi Leonard<\/a> and a California-based sustainability services company allowed the Los Angeles Clippers to circumvent salary cap rules, following a report by ESPN.<\/p>\n

The probe will focus on ties between Leonard, the Clippers and a company called Aspiration Fund Adviser, LLC, which filed for bankruptcy this year. It listed several creditors at that time, among them the Clippers (who were owed about $45.9 million) and a company called KL2 Aspire LLC that was owed $10.7 million.<\/p>\n

Leonard is listed as the manager of that company in California filings. KL is his initials, and 2 is his jersey number. Emails sent to his listed representatives seeking comment Wednesday were not immediately returned.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are aware of this morning\u2019s media report regarding the LA Clippers and are commencing an investigation,\u201d NBA spokesman Mike Bass said.<\/p>\n

\"Kawhi<\/p>\n

The Clippers denied that any league rules were broken. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer made a $76.4 million AUD investment in Aspiration, and the company and the team announced a $459 million partnership in September 2021. That was about a month after Leonard signed a four-year, $269 million extension with the Clippers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration,\u201d the Clippers said in a statement released to several media outlets, including The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny contrary assertion is provably false: The team ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago, during the 2022-23 season, when Aspiration defaulted on its obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspiration\u2019s co-founder, Joseph Sanberg, agreed to plead guilty last month after facing federal charges of wire fraud. Prosecutors said he defrauded investors and lenders out of $US248 million, adding that \u201cAspiration\u2019s financial statements were inaccurate and reflected much higher revenue than the company in fact received.\u201d<\/p>\n

An ESPN report obtained a copy of the endorsement agreement between Aspiration and KL2 Aspire, one that called for Leonard to be paid $10.7 million AUD annually for four years. Given that timetable, Leonard still would have been owed the final $10.7 million at the time of Aspiration\u2019s bankruptcy filing.<\/p>\n

There is no evidence that Leonard did anything to publicly endorse Aspiration.<\/p>\n

\"Kawhi<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither the Clippers nor Mr. Ballmer was aware of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation,\u201d the Clippers said. \u201cThe team and Mr. Ballmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league \u2014 which previously looked into claims that Leonard's representatives asked for certain things that would be considered cap circumventions when he was a free agent several years ago \u2014 can issue stiff penalties if cap rules are found to have been broken by a team, including a fine of up to $11.5 million AUD, the voiding of contracts and the forfeiture of future draft picks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NBA said it will investigate if a $42.7 million ($28 million USD) endorsement contract between Kawhi Leonard and a California-based sustainability services company allowed […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":468693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=468691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468696,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468691\/revisions\/468696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/468693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=468691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=468691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=468691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}