The Big Lead

Clippers owner gave Kawhi Leonard a phony $28 million job to elude salary cap: report

The Clippers refuted Pablo Torre's assertion, backed by seven former employees of the FinTech company Aspiration, that Leonard was paid to endorse a product he never endorsed.

By J.P. Hoornstra

Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) warms up before the game against the Denver Nuggets during game seven of first round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Ball Arena on May 3.
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) warms up before the game against the Denver Nuggets during game seven of first round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Ball Arena on May 3. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
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Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard entered into a $28 million endorsement deal with a now-defunct FinTech company that he never endorsed, according to Pablo Torre.

The revelation, according to seven former Aspiration employees cited by the podcaster Wednesday on "Pablo Torre Finds Out," suggests that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer used the phony endorsement deal to lure Leonard to the Clippers on a nine-figure contract that has paid him more than $243 million against the NBA salary cap since 2019.

Torre said today on his eponymous podcast that suspicions arose in March 2025, when the Ballmer-backed Aspiration, a FinTech company with an environmental-focused mission, filed for bankruptcy.

Former Clippers coach Doc Rivers as well as several other celebrity backers — actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Cindy Crawford, and Robert Downey Jr., the musician Drake, the Skoll Foundation’s Jeffrey Skoll — were reported at the time to be among Aspiration's investors.

Leonard was not named among them until Wednesday, when Aspiration's bankruptcy filing came to light via Torre.

"There's a list of creditors ... to which Aspiration still owes the most money," he said. "On that list of creditors, above the Boston Red Sox, is a tiny little company to which Aspiration owes $7 million" — KL2Aspire, whose sole manager is one Kawhi Leonard of Moreno Valley, California.

Torre quoted an anonymous former employee of the company who admitted that the purpose of Leonard's endorsement deal was "to circumvent the (NBA) salary cap."

Although Torre couldn't find an example of Leonard endorsing Aspiration, and neither could the former employees, the Clippers provided a statement to Torre that this assertion was "provably false."

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