Getting a bona fide superstar to sign on the dotted line to play in the NBA is tricky. No franchise knew this better than the Los Angeles Clippers. This team had earned a loser’s reputation and was always known as the other team in the City of Angels.
However, all that changed in the summer of 2019 when the Clippers, under the leadership of new team owner Steve Ballmer, pursued Kawhi Leonard and succeeded in getting him to play for the team.
Advertisement
Fast forward six years, and the partnership between a two-time NBA Finals MVP and the Clippers hasn’t been that fruitful. In addition, despite being one of the highest-paid players in the league, he has played in a little over half of his team’s games.
Worse, his time with the Clippers has been marked by lawsuits, including a recent one in which the team was accused of circumventing the salary cap by paying Leonard an additional $28 million through an endorsement deal with a now-bankrupt company.
Things have gotten so bad on the Clippers that a former staff member of the team has said it’s about time they get rid of the enigmatic and controversial two-way superstar.
Advertisement
Kawhi is now compromising Steve’s character
Ballmer is a highly respected businessman who served as CEO of Microsoft for an impressive 14 years, leading one of the world’s most influential companies. It’s safe to say he’s well-respected in business circles. However, according to an anonymous former staffer of the Clippers, the latest drama involving Leonard is chipping away at Ballmer’s reputation.
“This last investigation is different,” this staffer told ESPN, referring to the highly controversial deal with Aspiration, a company that Ballmer reportedly invested $50 million in. “This one directly calls into question Steve Ballmer’s character.”
Advertisement
While Ballmer has expressed confidence that he and the Clippers will be exonerated once the investigation concludes, the unnamed staffer asserted that the businessman must rid the franchise of Leonard and start over.
“At some point, Steve has got to get out of the Kawhi business,” this anonymous source stressed.
A disaster of a deal
When healthy and engaged, Kawhi is undeniably a player unlike any other in the league today. An elite three-level scorer with no compunctions about locking the opposing team’s best players, he’s a rarity in a league with superstars who are more concerned with putting the ball in the basket.
Advertisement
So, it was no surprise that the Clippers wanted to get in on the Kawhi sweepstakes after he led the Toronto Raptors to the 2019 championship. However, the team was first made to jump through hoops by Leonard and his representatives, primarily Dennis Robertson, who’s more known as Uncle Dennis.
Leonard’s significant demand was to acquire fellow All-Star Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Eager to please and create a dynamic duo that they hoped would propel the Clippers to the top of the West, they agreed to send a package headlined by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and five first-round picks to OKC for PG.
Although Ballmer and then-head coach Doc Rivers were skeptical of signing off on the deal, given the sheer number of draft picks they were giving up, they ultimately had no choice.
Advertisement
“Looking back, the deal was a f—ing disaster,” a rival team’s exec shared in the same ESPN report.
A disaster is a strong word, but it’s hard to argue with the sentiment, especially since PG, as an unrestricted free agent, left the Clippers in the 2024 offseason and signed with the Philadelphia 76ers. Meanwhile, SGA has since blossomed into one of the league’s premier players. He was named the MVP this past season and led the Thunder to its first championship.
This brings everything back to Kawhi. The Clippers have a loaded squad this season, with James Harden and Ivica Zubac joined by veterans Chris Paul, Bradley Beal and Brook Lopez. However, the dark cloud of Kawhi’s controversy still looms over the franchise. It threatens to derail their campaign long before the ball gets tipped off.
Advertisement
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 18, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.