The Kawhi Leonard Situation

Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers have been in the news quite a bit recently, and not for a good reason.

Allow me to explain:

Aspiration is a company that sponsored Kawhi Leonard, but here is why it looks suspicious:

• The sponsorship came shortly after Kawhi decided to re-sign with the Clippers

• Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested $50M into the company, and Kawhi’s sponsorship deal with the company was worth about $48M

• Kawhi never did any promotion for the company

• Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong invested $2M into the company right around the time when they were late on a  $1.75M payment to Kawhi

Basically, people think the Aspiration sponsorship was really a hidden way to pay Kawhi extra for staying with the Clippers, without going over the salary cap.

This is obviously not allowed. The NBA salary cap is designed to level the playing field, making sure that all teams can operate financially with the same restrictions. Any side deal to pay Kawhi beyond that breaks this important rule.

Do we know for sure that this is what happened? It seems very suspicious, but it would be hard to 100% prove.

Aspiration and the Clippers have denied the allegations.

The NBA is currently investigating this, and if they come to the conclusion that the evidence has no other explanation, then Kawhi and the Clippers could be in serious trouble.

That's all for now, folks! ✌️