Steve Ballmer, the owner of the LA Clippers who is in hot water right now. Now, accusations have recently come out alleging that his franchise defrauded the NBA’s salary cap regulations. These claims are serious, but the league has thus far exonerated the Clippers from any wrongdoing. They promised to reopen the investigation if any further evidence is found. Ballmer is not only navigating these allegations but is addressing his relationship with star player Kawhi Leonard and a significant investment in Aspiration.
The Clippers fury kicked up a notch when it seemed they were bending salary cap rules to their will. Since the suit, Ballmer has more publicly shared his belief that the league should be held accountable. Further, he said that he would like the league to investigate whether another team and its owner were accused of similar things. “Salary cap circumvention rules are important to the league and I’d want the league to investigate,” said Ballmer.
The NBA did some serious due diligence and at the end of the day, decided that the Clippers did nothing outside the rules. Despite this resolution, Ballmer continues to insist that he and his franchise have done nothing wrong.
“The allegations have not been true. But what’s most important to me is we’ve done the right thing in all those interactions,” said Ballmer.
In his response, Ballmer took the allegations to task. He revealed information about his $100 million investment in Aspiration, a financial services company focused on sustainable banking. His investment was really only $50 million, which is not even a three percent ownership share of the company. The collaboration reached a thrilling inflection point when Aspiration requested an introduction to Kawhi Leonard. That’s how in early November 2021, Ballmer brought that introduction to fruition.
When Leonard joined, he was still in the process of recovering from a career-threatening knee injury. This injury had sidelined him for the whole of the last season. Only three months before the launch, the Clippers locked up the All-Star point guard with a big $228 million four-year contract extension. The agreement amounted to an astounding $173 million. Ballmer emphasized that he had nothing to do with the details of any deal that may have been struck between Aspiration and Leonard. This happened in the context of ongoing conversations about endorsements with Aspiration.
“I made the investment. A lot of other smart investors didn’t sniff it out either,” Ballmer commented regarding his decision to invest in Aspiration.
Ballmer explained that his relationship with Leonard was transcendent and candid. What makes these Executives most effective is that they are continuously and iteratively evaluating the team’s performance and pace. He noted, “I’ve had a great relationship with Kawhi. We sit down a couple of times a year and just kind of talk about how the team’s doing.”
For his part, he readily volunteered that he did not tell Aspiration to go after an endorsement deal with Leonard. “We were done. We were done with Kawhi, we were done with Aspiration. The deals were all locked and loaded,” he explained.
“Then they did request to be introduced to Kawhi, and under the rules we can introduce our sponsors to our athletes. We just can’t be involved,” Ballmer added.
Ballmer invested in Aspiration and facilitated high-level introductions. He has been adamant that he never knew of any particular endorsement deals being worked out. He expressed confusion over why certain actions were taken by others involved, stating, “I don’t know why they did what they did, and I don’t know how different it is compared to other endorsement deals.”
Ballmer’s comments come as Leonard finds himself enduring one of the most difficult stretches of his career, to which he has been deeply plagued by various injuries. His knee ligament was torn as he joined the Clippers’ historic playoff run of 2021. Consequently, he sat out the whole next season while he turned his attention to recuperation. Accordingly, both Ballmer and the Clippers’ leadership are still publicly behind their All-Star guard.
“They know the rules. They meaning, Kawhi and his representatives, including his uncle. We know the rules. And if anything’s not clear, we remind ourselves what the rules are and we make absolutely clear we’re gonna abide by those rules,” said Ballmer.
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