The Kawhi Leonard–Aspiration saga has only gotten darker, and now Pablo Torre has laid out perhaps the most damning numbers yet. On his Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, Torre reported that the Los Angeles Clippers and figures tied to Steve Ballmer poured $118 million into Aspiration between September 2021 and March 2023, often right when Leonard’s scheduled payments were due.
The most striking example came in June 2022. Two weeks before Leonard’s first $1.75 million “no-show” paycheck was due, the Clippers’ CFO signed off on a $21 million carbon credit purchase from Aspiration.
According to Torre’s sources, the deal was pushed through unusually fast, and the timing was no coincidence. That money not only covered Leonard’s check but also kept Aspiration afloat during a shaky financial period. Torre described the pattern bluntly:
“Board Man must get paid, on time for doing nothing.”
The timeline is littered with red flags.
In April 2022, the Clippers sent $3 million to Aspiration for credits on April 1, followed by another $32 million on April 4, the very same day Leonard signed his $28 million endorsement deal with the company.
In December 2022, Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong wired $1.99 million, just nine days before Aspiration issued Leonard another $1.75 million payment.
And in March 2023, even as the company spiraled toward bankruptcy, Ballmer LLC invested another $10 million.
Altogether, Torre argued, “each new payment was less defensible than the last.”
These revelations cast serious doubt on Ballmer’s repeated insistence that he was “duped” by Aspiration. The Clippers have maintained that their investments were tied to carbon neutrality goals for their new Intuit Dome arena, not to Leonard’s contract. In a statement, the team said:
“Steve and his family are focused on sustainability, which is why Intuit Dome was designed to be a carbon neutral building from its inception and to achieve LEED Zero status over time.”
“Our development agreements for the arena included mandates to buy carbon credits, but after studying the issue of neutrality, we went far beyond those requirements, exploring ways to address emissions from our fans and contracting with Aspiration to directly purchase carbon offsets, as well as broker the acquisition of additional offsets.”
“Some of those commitments were built into the sponsorship deal with Aspiration – totally separate of the investment in the company – and we made payments to Aspiration until the company was unable to fulfill their responsibilities.”
“This effort reflects Steve wanting to set a positive example and raise awareness of the growing and important role of voluntary carbon markets. Unfortunately, he was duped on the investment and on some parts of this agreement, as were many other investors and employees.”
But the optics are brutal. Torre even surfaced a February 2022 text from Leonard’s uncle and representative, Dennis Robertson, to Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg, inquiring about contract delays.
That message referenced a separate $20 million equity deal, raising further questions about just how intertwined Leonard, Aspiration, and the Clippers really were.
Critics see the entire arrangement as a blatant attempt at salary-cap circumvention, essentially funneling outside money to Leonard while keeping his official salary within NBA limits.
The NBA has already reopened its probe into the Clippers after Torre’s first round of reporting. Now, with a clearer money trail linking Ballmer’s circle to Leonard’s Aspiration payouts, the stakes are even higher.
If the league concludes this was a cap-avoidance scheme, Leonard’s deal could be voided, Ballmer could face sanctions, and the Clippers could be hit with one of the harshest punishments in NBA history.
For now, Ballmer insists his intentions were pure and that he was misled. But with $118 million in transactions now tied to Kawhi Leonard’s controversial contract, the evidence is beginning to outweigh the excuses.
This scandal is no longer just about Aspiration’s bankruptcy, it’s about whether one of the NBA’s richest owners crossed the league’s most sacred line.
