{"id":796122,"date":"2026-07-26T07:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T07:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/796122\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T07:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T07:55:15","slug":"kawhi-leonard-trade-put-on-hold-until-nba-probe-into-clippers-concludes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/796122\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard trade put on hold until NBA probe into Clippers concludes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Toronto Raptors put the brakes on acquiring Kawhi Leonard<\/a> from the Clippers, announcing Thursday that the trade is on hold until the NBA investigation<\/a> into whether the Clippers circumvented salary cap rules is complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NBA league office informed us that as a result of the ongoing investigation involving the Clippers, we would assume the risk of any potential outcome of the investigation impacting Kawhi,\u201d the Raptors said. \u201cIn light of this, we will wait until the league\u2019s investigation is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teams last month finalized a trade to send Leonard to Toronto for forward Brandon Ingram, shooting guard Gradey Dick, two first-round draft picks, a pick swap and two second-round picks. Leonard spent the last seven seasons with the Clippers after leading the Raptors to the 2019 NBA championship.<\/p>\n

The probe was triggered in September when the \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d podcast aired an episode detailing a contract Leonard received from Aspiration, a self-described \u201csocially-conscious and sustainable banking services and investment products\u201d firm. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested $60 million in the now-defunct company that in turn agreed to pay Leonard $28 million for endorsements he allegedly never fulfilled.<\/p>\n

The investigation is being conducted by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a high-powered New York law firm the NBA frequently uses when trying to determine off-the-court wrongdoing by team owners, players or referees. There is no timetable for its conclusion, and the league had no comment Thursday.<\/p>\n

However, last month NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he communicated to Wachtell Lipton that the investigation needed to conclude in a timely fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately we\u2019re paying their bills, but they are doing the work independent of the league office, and my instruction to them is we can\u2019t be investigating forever, but at some point, we have to wrap it up,\u201d Silver said June 3. \u201cBut at the same time, the most important thing is that we get it right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s clear they\u2019re far along. But I think we\u2019re close to the point now where I think we need to wrap this up because you also need finality. Their team has to understand what the situation is they\u2019re going to be operating under, and so do the other 29 teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballmer invested $50 million in Aspiration in September 2021. A month later, the Clippers announced a $300-million sponsorship deal with the company. Ballmer nearly granted Aspiration naming rights<\/a> to the team\u2019s new $2-billion arena, but instead chose financial services firm Intuit.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Two years later when Aspiration was experiencing severe financial difficulties, Ballmer made an additional $10-million investment, and Clippers co-owner Dennis Wong \u2014 Ballmer\u2019s former college roommate \u2014 invested $1.99 million in Aspiration nine days before Leonard received a $1.75-million payment from the company. Leonard was paid $21 million of the $28 million agreed upon in his contract with Aspiration.<\/p>\n

Players are allowed to have endorsement and business deals, but at issue is whether the Clippers participated in arranging the side deal<\/a> beyond simply introducing Aspiration executives to Leonard. Doing so would be a violation of Article 13 of the NBA collective bargaining agreement,<\/a> punishable by a $7.5-million fine, the loss of a first-round draft pick and the voiding of Leonard\u2019s contract. Any team personnel found to have willfully engaged in such violation could be suspended for one year.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether Leonard could be punished. He has one year remaining on a three-year, $149-million contract. He is owed a base salary of $50.3 million for next season. <\/p>\n

The Clippers again denied any wrongdoing Thursday in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize the uncertainty this has created and the impact it has had on our team, our fans, the Raptors organization, their fans, and the players whose futures remain affected while this process continues,\u201d the Clippers said. \u201cWe remain confident that, when the facts are evaluated fairly and thoroughly, the NBA will confirm exactly what we have said from the beginning: We have not done what we are accused of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard, a seven-time All-NBA forward, averaged 25.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.7 steals over six seasons with the Clippers; he sat out 2021-22 because of an injury. Leonard played on championship teams with the Raptors and San Antonio Spurs, but the Clippers never have reached the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

He averaged a career-high 27.9 points while playing 65 games last season, and Raptors fans welcomed his return. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Raptors remain eager to bring Kawhi back to Toronto and look forward to a swift resolution for our players, our organization, and our fans,\u201d the Raptors said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Raptors put the brakes on acquiring Kawhi Leonard from the Clippers, announcing Thursday that the trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[18068,3676,7,559,1656,96062,26760,4034,192,4032,2501,851,251,135,4033,4031,6,44410,96061,18,2084,5888,184,476],"class_list":["post-796122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-aspiration","tag-ballmer","tag-basketball","tag-clippers","tag-hold","tag-investment-product","tag-kawhi-leonard-trade","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-league","tag-leonard","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-nba","tag-nba-investigation","tag-now-defunct-company","tag-player","tag-season","tag-team-owner","tag-thursday","tag-toronto-raptors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116985208702564953","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796122","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=796122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}