The Los Angeles Clippers–Aspiration saga has already turned into one of the most bizarre scandals the NBA has faced in recent years, and Mark Cuban is making sure his voice is part of the debate.
With Pablo Torre’s podcast Pablo Finds Out publishing explosive details about Kawhi Leonard’s $28 million endorsement contract with the failed “green bank” Aspiration, Cuban has not only challenged Torre’s reporting but also called on him to drop what he calls the “smoking gun.”
It all began when Torre revealed internal documents suggesting Leonard’s endorsement deal was rushed through despite objections from Aspiration executives. In fact, a joint statement signed by Aspiration’s former CFO, COO/CLO, and CTO claimed the deal was never properly vetted and was “strategically difficult to justify.”
They insisted the contract was driven forward by CEO Andrei Cherny and later subsidized by co-founder Joe Sanberg’s personal stock contributions.
Cuban immediately pushed back. Quoting an email obtained by The Athletic, he highlighted Sanberg’s admission that Aspiration’s CEO didn’t want the Kawhi deal and that he personally supplied his equity to make it happen.
“Did TheAthletic get it wrong ?”
“‘I am personally contributing stock to Kawhi to make this partnership possible,’ Sanberg wrote members of his leadership team in a May 2022 email obtained by The Athletic.”
“‘Aspiration’s CEO judged the deal to be not worth doing. For avoidance of doubt, any and all benefit to Aspiration from the Kawhi deal is being subsidized by my contributing my equity to make this happen.’”
For Cuban, the contradiction is key. If even the CEO objected, then the idea that Leonard’s deal represented some coordinated cap-circumvention scheme between the Clippers and Aspiration is shaky. Instead, Cuban has painted Sanberg as a conman, likening him to Bernie Madoff: a scammer running a fraudulent company who managed to rope in everyone from NBA stars to venture capitalists.
“Here is the crazy thing, Pablo Torre.”
“The crook says the ceo didn’t want the KL deal. The CEO says there were months of discussion with executives, and your 3 guys confirm they didn’t want it.”
“So NO ONE wanted it, except for the obvious exception of Sanberg, who in the email The Athletic got, said he was giving his own, personal stock to KL. That to me is confirmation that he is the guy who made Kl happen.”
“The “why” is the question. We don’t know. You think you know. But what you are missing is how the business side works. He had control of the BOD. He could tell anyone what to do. If they disagreed, he could fire them. And he did.”
Cuban’s point is clear: if even senior executives couldn’t identify Sanberg’s financial fraud while it was happening, how can anyone be so certain that Leonard’s deal was a backdoor payment to help the Clippers?
That led to Cuban’s biggest challenge yet: asking Torre to release the so-called smoking gun.
“But I have some questions for you, since you have all the docs and internal connects. Would you publish a smoking gun right now if you had one?”
“Why not publish the docs you have? The emails from Sanberg? You showed us some docs. Why not show the ones you reference? That we have to take your word on? Particularly since other media said they had seen internal docs as well, none have come out with anything relevant to the CBA since your reporting.”
“And did you ask you internal sources if they said anything to KPMG before they resigned because of suspected revenue fraud? Or the internal committee they put together to investigate the fraud, but apparently, shockingly, found nothing ?”
“If the Ballmer 50/12 was directed to KL, as your sources said, why was he only paid 3.5m and then not paid again till after the next raise in Dec 22? And never got his last 7. Will you correct your attached reporting, which implied the 50 was for his 28? (“Some might say)”
“And btw, they actually paid 29m in carbon credits for the World Cup. One of your execs asked for cash escrow. Sanberg got an email from the other side, and Sanberg overruled the exec and did no cash escrow.”
“Crazily enough, the company got sued and the judge ruled they should get the 29m back. Why does this matter? It further shows that Sanberg ran everything. He was in charge of everything.”
“I’ll say it again, the only people who know what happened are Sanberg and KL2. And if they have collected the 29.5m judgment, none of it went to KL2.”
He even poked holes in Torre’s reporting timeline, noting that Leonard was only paid $3.5 million initially and then not again until Aspiration received a new round of investment in December 2022.
According to Cuban, if Steve Ballmer’s infamous $50 million investment was meant to secretly pay Kawhi, the timeline makes no sense. Leonard never even received his full $28 million, Cuban said, a fact that undermines the suggestion that the contract was a hidden Clippers salary top-up.
In fairness, Cuban admitted that “neither Pablo or I know who is right. Joe Sanberg and Uncle Dennis probably are the only two who truly know.” But he has been adamant that Torre’s suggestion of a CBA violation is unproven at best and misleading at worst.
Torre, for his part, hasn’t backed down. After Cuban claimed he was too busy to appear on Torre’s show, Torre accused him of spending the weekend obsessively tweeting rebuttals.
Their spat has become its own subplot in a saga that already includes bankrupt startups, secret endorsement deals, and the NBA’s ongoing investigation into whether the Clippers circumvented salary rules.
The controversy deepened when records showed that Leonard was owed a $1.75 million quarterly payment in late 2022, but Aspiration had no cash. According to Torre, Leonard’s uncle and business manager, Dennis Robertson, was furious about the delay.
Then, suddenly, the money appeared. On December 6, 2022, Clippers minority owner Dennis J. Wong wired $1.99 million into Aspiration. Nine days later, on December 15, Leonard’s company, KL2 Aspire, received its overdue $1.75 million. The timing was eyebrow-raising, especially since Aspiration laid off 20 percent of its workforce that same day.
Layered on top of this is Leonard’s playing timeline that season. Before that $1.75 million payment, Kawhi had appeared in just 2 of the Clippers’ first 15 games. After the money came through, however, he played in 50 of the next 67 games.
Nobody is accusing Leonard of faking an injury or intentionally sitting out, his health history is well-documented, and he has always taken a cautious approach. Still, the timing between the payment, his return to consistent action, and the behind-the-scenes financial maneuvering has become a major talking point.
The situation grew even murkier when The Athletic reported that Ballmer himself had invested another $10 million into Aspiration in 2022, months after his initial $50 million buy-in. That fresh investment tightened Ballmer’s financial ties to a company that simultaneously owed tens of millions to Leonard.
Cuban, for his part, has stepped in as one of the loudest defenders of the Clippers. On social media, he repeatedly challenged Torre’s reporting, insisting that Aspiration’s financial dealings were the work of Sanberg alone.
Cuban compared him to Bernie Madoff, a scammer who duped everyone in sight. In Cuban’s view, Leonard’s payments were incidental fallout from a failing company, not an orchestrated plan by Ballmer or the Clippers to circumvent the salary cap.
At its core, Cuba’s challenge, “publish the smoking gun” reflects how high the stakes have become. If Torre really does have airtight evidence that Leonard’s Aspiration deal was tied directly to Clippers ownership, it could lead to catastrophic punishments: fines, lost draft picks, or even Leonard’s contract being voided.
For now, the NBA is still investigating, Ballmer continues to deny wrongdoing, and Torre insists there’s more to uncover. But thanks to Cuban, the debate has shifted: the story may no longer just be about Kawhi and Aspiration, but whether Torre can back up his biggest claims with undeniable proof.
