No ‘No-Show Deal’ Ever In Place For LA Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard, Says Disgraced CEO | Sports News

LA Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard (X)

Andrei Cherny, the ex-chief executive of fintech firm Aspiration, has pushed back against media reports that the company signed an endorsement deal with Kawhi Leonard to help the Los Angeles Clippers get around NBA salary-cap rules.

Cherny, who left Aspiration in 2022, posted a statement on X on Friday saying the published accounts were inaccurate and stressing that Leonard’s agreement included clear obligations.

“The contract contained three pages of extensive obligations that Leonard had to perform,” Cherny wrote. “And the contract clearly said that if Leonard did not meet those obligations, Aspiration could terminate the contract.”

Cherny also said he signed the agreement with Leonard shortly before resigning and that, during the months of internal discussions leading up to Aspiration’s sponsorship arrangement with the Clippers, he does not recall conversations focused on NBA cap mechanics. “I can’t speak to what was done or not done after I left — or why,” he added.

What’s alleged

Journalist Pablo Torre reported that Leonard had a four-year endorsement deal — reportedly worth $28 million starting in 2021 — with Aspiration, and that some insiders described the payment as intended to allow the Clippers to effectively skirt salary-cap rules. The NBA has opened an investigation into those claims.

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who invested $50 million in Aspiration in 2021 and whose club announced a $300 million partnership with the company soon after, and the franchise itself have strongly denied any wrongdoing. Ballmer told ESPN this week he felt he had been “conned” by Aspiration, saying other investors were similarly misled.

Legal and financial backdrop

Aspiration filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Co-founder Joe Sanberg pleaded guilty in August to wire-fraud charges; U.S. prosecutors say he defrauded investors and lenders of more than $248 million. Those developments have added urgency to the NBA’s fact-finding process.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said the league will rely on its own investigators to determine whether any rules were violated. “It will be up to the investigators we hire to determine whether there was impropriety,” Silver said this week.

If the probe finds salary-cap circumvention, the NBA has a range of penalties available in past cases — from fines and voided contracts to draft-pick sanctions — though no conclusions have been reached and the Clippers maintain there was no intent to breach rules.

(with agency inputs)