September 7, 2025

Kawhi Leonard, the quiet superstar of the Los Angeles Clippers, showed up in public on Friday night at the 2025 US Open tennis semifinals in New York. He was enjoying the match between Jannik Sinner and Felix Auger-Aliassime. This moment comes at a tense time because Leonard is in the middle of a serious NBA investigation. The league is looking into a $28 million endorsement deal Leonard had with Aspiration, a now-bankrupt company in the green finance field, suspecting it might have been used to break salary cap rules. The NBA confirmed they are checking if Leonard’s deal with Aspiration, which was supposed to pay him $28 million over four years, followed the league's rules. Pablo Torre’s report revealed the contract had strange parts. One allowed Leonard’s company, KL2 Aspire LLC, to refuse doing promotions but still get paid. Another part tied payments to Leonard staying as a Clippers player. Aspiration was once a popular green finance company but went bankrupt earlier this year. The co-founder, Joseph Sanberg, has pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges for deceiving investors out of more than $248 million. Although Leonard is not involved in that fraud case, people are asking if his endorsement was just a fake deal to add money to his Clippers salary. The Clippers team strongly says no to these claims. They called the idea that owner Steve Ballmer sent money to Leonard through Aspiration “absurd.” They said instead that Aspiration lied and cheated investors. The team explained, “There is nothing unusual or untoward about team sponsors doing endorsement deals with players on the same team.” They also said Steve Ballmer and the Clippers had no control over Leonard’s deal with Aspiration. “To say otherwise is flat-out wrong.” Steve Ballmer, who invested $50 million in Aspiration but owns less than 3%, supports the NBA’s investigation. He told ESPN, “Salary cap circumvention rules are important to the league, and I’d want the league to investigate.” Ballmer admitted he introduced Aspiration’s bosses to Leonard in 2021 but said the endorsement was Leonard’s own choice. He said, “These were guys who committed fraud. Look, they conned me. They conned me. I made an investment in these guys thinking it was on the up-and-up, and they conned me.” If the NBA finds out rules were broken, Leonard or the Clippers could face big fines, lose draft choices, or have contracts cancelled. For now, Kawhi’s public appearance at the US Open offered fans a rare glimpse of the star during a stormy time.

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Tags: Kawhi leonard, Nba investigation, Aspiration bankruptcy, Endorsement deal, Salary cap, La clippers,