The Los Angeles Clippers and Steve Ballmer continue to gain attention for the team’s relationship with Aspiration, a company that reportedly paid Clippers star Kawhi Leonard $28 million for “no-show jobs.” On Thursday, reporter Pablo Torre, who has alleged the no-show payments appear to be a way for the Clippers to circumvent the salary cap, dropped more suspicious evidence linking the three entities that cast doubt on Ballmer’s claims that he was duped by Aspiration.
Torre’s reporting once again goes in-depth on the situation. He introduces new legal contracts, speaks with anonymous sources and even includes a court deposition from Aspiration’s co-founder. While the entire video is worth a watch to fully grasp those connections, two major themes stand out in Torre’s latest report.
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The first of which involves the amount of money sent to Aspiration from the Clippers and Ballmer and the timing of those investments. Over the course of 18 months, Ballmer or the Clippers reportedly invested $118 million in Aspiration. A number of those payments came with the company in an alarming or dire financial situation.
Many of those payments also occurred shortly before Leonard was set to receive a payment from Aspiration. Torre laid out some of the significant dates in his reporting:
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Sept. 14, 2021: Ballmer LLC invests $50M in Aspiration
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Sept. 27, 2021: Clippers announce deal with Aspiration
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April 1, 2022: Clippers send $3M to Aspiration for carbon credits
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April 4, 2022: Clippers send $32M to Aspiration for carbon credits
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April 4, 2022: Leonard signs his $28M deal with Aspiration
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June 17, 2022: Clippers send $21M to Aspiration for carbon credits
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July 6, 2022: Aspiration pays Leonard $1.75M
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Dec. 6, 2022: Clippers co-owner Dennis Wong invests $2M in Aspiration
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Dec. 15, 2022: Aspiration pays Leonard $1.75M
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March 9, 2023: Ballmer LLC invests $10M in Aspiration
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Late March 2023: Government starts to investigate Aspiration
The timeline paints a picture in which the Clippers invested significant money in Aspiration around the time Leonard either signed his deal or a payment was due. It also shows continued investments from Wong and Ballmer long after Aspiration was in dire financial trouble.
The second major theme that emerged from Torre’s reporting has to do with carbon credits. A carbon credit is purchased by a company as a way to offset carbon dioxide emissions. If a company is worried about its carbon footprint, it might buy carbon credits — which might then result in something like new trees being planted — as a way to offset the company’s carbon footprint.
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Aspiration sold carbon credits at an up-charge. If planting a tree only cost 10-20 cents, Aspiration would charge $1, instantly creating profit.
That’s where former Dallas Mavericks owner Marc Cuban entered the story. Cuban, who has been supportive of Ballmer on X, sent out a tweet asking why Torre hasn’t looked into the money being invested by Ballmer and the Clippers into carbon credits.
As Cuban put it, if Ballmer and the Clippers were looking to circumvent the salary cap, they would buy carbon credits as a way to instantly create profit so Leonard could be paid.
Torre’s reporting uncovered evidence that seems to suggest that’s exactly what happened.
It’s the third straight week in which Torre’s show has focused on the relationship between the Clippers, Ballmer, Aspiration and Leonard. After Torre’s first episode dropped, the NBA announced it would re-open its investigation into whether Leonard received impermissible benefits during his free-agent pursuit.
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The league originally looked into that situation in 2019, but found no wrongdoing.
Over the past few weeks, Torre has continued to build evidence highlighting the suspicious actions of all parties involved. Thursday’s report paints a picture that casts the Clippers and Ballmer in a worse light, but there’s still no smoking gun directly confirming the team or Ballmer paid Aspiration so it could pay Leonard as a way to circumvent the NBA salary cap.
When the NBA re-opened its investigation, commissioner Adam Silver suggested the league would need overwhelming evidence to issue punishments against the Clippers, Ballmer or Leonard.
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The Clippers’ and Ballmer’s actions, while suspicious, can still be explained away by the team’s partnership with Aspiration. It’s unclear if the connections made during Torre’s reporting will be enough to push the NBA into action.