“Board man gets paid.” That’s what Kawhi Leonard used to repeat when he would get rebounds as a San Diego State Aztec. Now it seems like the Board Man got paid for a job he didn’t have to show up for.
Kawhi Leonard got paid millions to not go to work? Are we talking about a shady, salary cap-circumventing deal with a now-bankrupt tree-planting startup that’s under federal investigation for fraud or his contract with the Los Angeles Clippers?!? It’s the first one, and I am the first person on the internet to ever connect Leonard’s fraudulent endorsement deal with all his missed NBA game.
Here’s what was initially uncovered, thanks to an episode of “Pablo Torre Finds Out.” In September of 2021, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, the wealthiest of all NBA owners, invested $50M in a company called Aspiration. They were a startup that sold carbon credits to large corporations like Meta. The way that works is that a company who is polluting and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere could pay Aspiration to offset that, by activities like planting trees, or what they referred to as “natural carbon capture,” though according to some former employees, Aspiration was falling well short of its arboreal responsibilities. Co-founder Joseph Sanberg recently pled guilty to fraud charges related to Aspiration and a massive personal loan.
Ballmer’s investment came one month after Leonard signed a four-year extension with the Clippers worth $176.3M. A few months after that, Leonard or one of his associates registered an LLC called “KL2 Aspire” — Leonard wears No. 2. That’s where Aspiration sent the money after they signed Leonard to a four-year endorsement deal worth $28M — and also gave him $20M in company stock.
That amounts to $48M, which is a suspiciously similar amount to the $50M that his team owner invested in the company. What’s further suspicious is that Ballmer paid $11 per share for his investment in Aspiration, which is more than the $10 per share that venture capital firm Oak Hill Capital Management paid for its own investment.
For the Clippers’ part, they called the accusations that they circumvented the salary cap “absurd,” because who would find anything questionable about an NBA owner giving millions of dollars to a company that that immediately gave almost the exact same number of millions to his team’s biggest star. It’s important to note that Leonard’s endorsement contract didn’t require him to do anything in conjunction with Aspiration that he objected to in any way, and the Board Man never appeared in promotional materials for Aspiration nor posted about them on social media.
It’s hard to argue that this was anything but a salary cap scam. The Clippers had a business relationship with Aspiration, who were their jersey patch sponsor through the 2022-23 season and part of their now-dubious claims that their new arena, the Intuit Dome, would be “climate-neutral.” It’s just mind-boggling that Aspiration would commit $48M — in a deal solely executed by co-founder Andrei Cherny, bypassing all other executive and the board of directors — for Leonard to do absolutely nothing at all. It’s not like Leonard has any charisma whatsoever, or talks to the media, or maintains a regular social media presence, or has ever communicated an interest in the environment.
It’s unclear what the penalties would be should the NBA’s investigation find wrongdoing, which honestly seems very likely right now. The Clips might have to forfeit draft picks, or pay a fine, or endure the NBA looking into some very team-friendly recent deals signed by James Harden, Brook Lopez and others. If nothing else, this puts a cloud over a Clippers team that looked poise to contend for supremacy in the Western Conference after adding Lopez, John Collins and Bradley Beal this summer.
There are some who say that all NBA teams do this, and for the Golden State Warriors, there have been a few red flags. Their players have been very active as investors, specifically angel investor Andre Iguodala and Kevin Durant, who is now “The Servant” to the world of venture capital through his firm, Thirty Five Ventures. David Lee founded his own re-insurance firm after his retirement.
But there’s a big difference between Joe Lacob introducing players to some of his friends in tech to actively paying a player tens of millions off the books. There wasn’t anything unethical about Klay Thompson doing ads for Kaiser Permanente, especially since he appeared in commercials where he played chess with Omar from “The Wire.” Plus, Klay had to get a major surgery after having a different major surgery — what could be more apt for Kaiser?
The Clippers may be in trouble. After dodging a bullet by not resigning Paul George, they may not be able to dodge the bullet coming from the league office.
