Kawhi Leonard finds himself at the center of one of the biggest scandals to hit the NBA in recent years, and the situation is getting murkier. The Toronto Star’s Bruce Arthur reports that Leonard’s uncle and representative, Dennis Robertson, wanted a $10 million no-show endorsement deal to stay with the Toronto Raptors in 2019.
“One, Robertson asked for ownership stakes in outside companies: not just the Leafs, which he seemed to believe was separate, but with other companies with whom MLSE had a relationship. And two, the Raptors were told they needed to match at least $10 million per year in extra sponsorship income. Teams are allowed to introduce players to team sponsors; teams cannot negotiate deals, and MLSE was aware of that fact.
“But it didn’t end there. As one source put it, when told about all the corporate sponsors in Toronto who would be happy to have Leonard as a pitchman, his camp said, ‘We don’t want to do anything.’ Raptors representatives said any sponsor would want to shoot ads or arrange appearances; Robertson reiterated Leonard didn’t want to do anything for the money.”
If that sounds familiar to you, well, it should. It has been alleged that the Los Angeles Clippers gave Leonard a $28 million no-show endorsement deal via Aspiration. Team owner Steve Ballmer had invested $50 million in the now-bankrupt environmental company, and it has been claimed this was all a ploy to circumvent the cap.
The Clippers shut down the allegations, but this latest report isn’t helping their cause one bit. A figure as high as $28 million is bad enough, but to make matters worse, it has also been reported by Boston Sports Journal that Aspiration gave Leonard $20 million in company stock.
As for the other nugget here, it was previously claimed that Robertson wanted an ownership stake in the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs. He was told it wouldn’t be possible as the Leafs and Raptors came under the Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) umbrella. Arthur now states that Robertson wanted a stake in other companies as well.
The Raptors desperately wanted to keep Leonard, who had led them to their first NBA title in 2019, but they weren’t interested in such dealings. Arthur reports they rejected both the requests, and the star forward joined the Clippers in 2019 on a three-year, $103 million deal as a result.
That isn’t the deal in question here, though. It’s the four-year, $176 million extension Leonard signed with the Clippers in August 2021 that’s in the spotlight. Ballmer invested in Aspiration a month later, and Leonard would register his KL2 Aspire LLC two months after that.
Leonard then signed a deal with Aspiration that would pay him $7 million a year over four years, starting from April 2022. He didn’t have to engage in any sort of promotional activity as part of the contract, but the initial story that came out from Pablo Torre revealed the deal would be voided if he left the Clippers.
The NBA has employed the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate this matter. This is the same firm that the league used to investigate two high-profile cases of misconduct by team owners. Both of them were forced to sell their teams, and only time will tell if Ballmer faces any kind of punishment here.
