EXCLUSIVE: @PabloTorre is back with more receipts — on Steve Ballmer, Uncle Dennis and more.

Grand total, per newly uncovered documents: The Clippers and their execs sent Aspiration $118M in 18 months, as Kawhi Leonard’s camp pushed for “no-show” payments. pic.twitter.com/wlE1QBK4g4

— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) September 18, 2025

More reporting from the hit podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” included a new piece of evidence in the ongoing investigation of Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers.

It is a text message sent from Leonard’s uncle Dennis Robertson. The text was sent to Joe Sanberg, the co-founder of the now bankrupt company Aspiration. That company is alleged to have given Leonard a “no-show job” through a lucrative endorsement deal as part of potential salary cap circumvention by Clippers governor Steve Ballmer.

Sanberg was arrested in March 2025 for conspiring to defraud an investment fund and in August, he agreed to plead guilty for defrauding investors of over $248 million. The NBA has retained the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct its investigation before issuing potential punishment.

No decision is expected before the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, which the Clippers will host at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

Potentially relevant to the NBA’s investigation is the text from Robertson’s number addressed to Sanberg that Torre obtained:

“Good morning Joe, hope you had a wonderful weekend. Just a heads up things are still dragging. Mike has the contract for about 14 days now, haven’t heard back.”

According to Torre’s reporting, the Mike mentioned above was Aspiration’s chief legal officer and chief compliance officer Michael Shuckerow.

Torre added that this text referred to the additional $20 million in equity stake, first reported by Boston Sports Journal, from Sanberg’s personal holdings. He also noted that Shuckerow, Sanberg, and Robertson all failed to respond to a request for comment.

Robertson is not able to negotiate deals with teams on behalf of Leonard following a turbulent free agency period in 2019. Leonard is represented for his basketball deals by Mitch Frankel.

As a reminder, according to reporting from Zach Lowe and Brian Windhorst in 2019, there was “frustration” at the NBA’s Board of Governors meeting that family members of players were asking for benefits outside of the scope of the collective bargaining agreement.

A few months later, the NBA’s Board of Governors unanimously passed stricter provisions and higher fines for unauthorized agreements. They also implemented a new rule, as explained by Amick:

“Sources say the NBA has asked the National Basketball Players Association to assist with this problem as well by re-emphasizing the rules of representation with its 400-plus players: Only certified agents are authorized to negotiate directly with teams. Translation: No more relatives leading the way, unless they’re also certified as an agent.”

Amick was told by one governor and one prominent agent that this was all because of Robertson.

NEW: The Clippers tried to keep Kawhi Leonard happy & healthy. What followed was fear, secrecy, lawsuits, fines & investigations — now leading to owner Steve Ballmer. “At some point,” an ex-staffer says, “Steve has got to get out of the Kawhi business.” https://t.co/Dx4UMBoVsE

— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) September 17, 2025

Baxter Holmes wrote about some of the other requests from Robertson that the Clippers have since approved (via ESPN):

“Robertson, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story, wanted Leonard to be able to initially live in San Diego rather than in Los Angeles. (Leonard would commute via helicopter. He later moved to Los Angeles.) The Clippers agreed. He wanted Leonard to be able to skip some media obligations and team community events. The Clippers agreed. He wanted the team to promise to market Leonard individually. The Clippers agreed. He wanted Leonard to be able to bring some of his own people into the organization. The Clippers agreed. (A team source disputes the existence of some of these requests and the tone of some others.)

Perhaps most importantly, Robertson said there would need to be a strict protocol about how to talk about Leonard publicly — and that was to say nothing unless absolutely necessary.”

It is unclear exactly what sorts of agreements Robertson made, if any of them were independent from Frankel, and if any of them were outside the scope of the collective bargaining agreement.

But if deals were negotiated directly between the Clippers and Robertson, as it seems Robertson did with Aspiration, it begs the question: How much did Robertson ask for and what did the Clippers provide?

If the Clippers did oblige to any of the requests that Robertson may have had that violated the CBA, it could spell trouble down the road.