{"id":323153,"date":"2025-10-05T16:28:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T16:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/323153\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T16:28:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T16:28:23","slug":"los-angeles-clippers-kawhi-leonard-denies-wrongdoing-as-nba-investigates-his-endorsement-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/323153\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 Kawhi Leonard denies wrongdoing as NBA investigates his endorsement deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kawhi Leonard said the allegation that he signed up for a no-show job with a now-bankrupt company to help the Los Angeles Clippers circumvent the salary cap is nothing but a conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n

At the team\u2019s preseason media day on Monday, Leonard spoke publicly for the first time since a report by the podcast \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d linked an endorsement deal Leonard had with sustainability services company Aspiration to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funnelling him an extra $28 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy for me (not to be distracted),\u201d Leonard said. <\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t read headlines or do conspiracy theories or anything like that. It\u2019s about the season and what we\u2019ve got ahead of us right now. Tomorrow we\u2019ll start camp, and see what we\u2019ve got,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The NBA is now probing the deal, which Ballmer has claimed he had no knowledge of, despite initially introducing Leonard to Aspiration in 2021. In September 2021, the Clippers announced a $300 million partnership with Aspiration, around the same time Leonard signed a four-year, $173 million extension with the Clippers.<\/p>\n

Among the questions Leonard faced at his press conference on Monday was whether he knew what the endorsement deal required him to do.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ | NBA: Lakers extends contract of coach JJ Redick after one season<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the full contract and the services I have to do. Like I said, I don\u2019t deal with the conspiracies or clickbait analysts or journalism that\u2019s going on. So that\u2019s what it is,\u201d Leonard said.<\/p>\n

He then stated he disagreed with the notion he was not asked to do anything as part of the contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s accurate. But, it\u2019s old,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cThis is all new to you guys. The company went bankrupt a while ago, so we already knew this was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspiration filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March, and its co-founder, Joe Sanberg, was arrested on charges of defrauding investors.<\/p>\n

Leonard confirmed not only that the deal with Aspiration existed, but that he was owed \u201cmore than\u201d $7 million by the now-bankrupt group.<\/p>\n

Like Ballmer earlier this month, Leonard said he welcomed the NBA\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NBA\u2019s gonna do their job. None of us did any wrongdoing. And, yeah, that\u2019s it. We invite the investigations. It\u2019s not gonna be a distraction for me or the rest of the team,\u201d Leonard said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard said the allegation that he signed up for a no-show job with a now-bankrupt company to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,529,52007,44338,44227,52008,44335,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-323153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-clippers","10":"tag-kawhi-leonard","11":"tag-kawhi-leonard-denies-wrongdoing","12":"tag-kawhi-leonard-investigation","13":"tag-kawhi-leonard-news","14":"tag-kawhi-leonard-salary-cap-rules","15":"tag-kawhi-leonard-updates","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-clippers","18":"tag-laclippers","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-losangelesclippers","23":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115322506896215004","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}