The Los Angeles Clippers issued a statement denying allegations of bypassing the NBA's salary cap by paying All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard $28 million for a "no-show job."

An anonymous former employee of the financial department for the bankrupt company Aspiration, which was financially backed by Clippers owner Steve Balmer, told podcaster Pablo Torre that employees were told not to ask questions about Leonard's deal, which was intended to "circumvent the salary cap," with Balmer paying Leonard for work purportedly for Aspiration without actually doing any marketing or endorsements for the company.

"Neither the Clippers nor Steve Ballmer circumvented the salary cap," the team said in its statement. "The notion that Steve invested in Aspiration in order to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard is absurd. Steve invested because Aspiration's co-founders presented themselves as committed to doing right by their customers while protecting the environment.

"After a long campaign of market manipulation, which defrauded not only Steve but numerous other investors and sports teams, Aspiration filed for bankruptcy. Its co-founder, Joseph Sanberg, recently pleaded guilty to a $243 million fraud. Neither Steve nor the Clippers had knowledge of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government initiated its investigation. Aspiration was a team sponsor for the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 seasons before defaulting on its contract.

"There is nothing unusual or untoward about team sponsors doing endorsement deals with players on the same team. Neither Steve nor the Clippers organization had any oversight of Kawhi's independent endorsement agreement with Aspiration. To say otherwise is flat-out wrong.

"The Clippers take NBA compliance extremely seriously, fully respect the league's rules, and welcome its investigation related to Aspiration. The Clippers will also continue to cooperate with law enforcement in its investigation into Aspiration's blatantly fraudulent activity."

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