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Baxter Holmes
La clippers And the team owner Steve Balmer has been accused of allegedly bypassing the NBA’s salary cap by paying $ 28 million. Qui leonard For “no-show job”.
Pablo Torre, a podcaster and former ESPN contributor, Informed on Wednesday Cleepers paid Leonard through a bull-owned now-a-bunker company.
NBA spokesman Mike Bass later said in a statement on Wednesday that the league was aware of this morning’s media report about “La Clippers and [is] Start an inquiry. ,
In the latest episode of his “Pablo Torre Finds Out” Podcast, Tore cited a contingent of internal documents from the company’s aspiration, which Balmer has partially funded with his individual LLC on 14 September 2021 with an investment of $ 50 million.
Later that month, on September 27, 2021, the clippers announced a $ 300 million partnership with the aspiration of the team, including sponsorship in the new area and sponsoring the team’s jersey patch.
According to Tore, Leonard agreed to the support deal of $ 28 million for four years through his LLC, KL2 Aspire in April 2022. Support deal came after nine months Leonard signed a contract for four years, $ 176.3 million To stay with clippers – Maximum permission was given at that time under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.
In one of the documents obtained by the Tore, a section stated that if Leonard left the clippers, the deal between Akanksha and KL2 Aspire would be zero. According to Torre, Leonard can also decline and be paid by Akanksha “proceeding with the desired action with any action” with any action.
An anonymous employee, who worked for aspiration, told Tore that Leonard was paid “the pay cap was to be sidelined.”
The clippers said, “Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the clippers sidelined the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to the aspiration.” “Any contrasting claim is incorrectly wrong: the team had ended its relationship with Akanksha during the 2022-23 season, when Akanksha missed its obligations. Neither the clippers nor the Mr. Ball Know about the aspiration or its co-founder, until the government prepared to assist its investigation.”
In March 2025, the aspiration of bankruptcy was filed. The company is subject to federal investigation for fraud, and 46-year-old, Espiration’s co-founder Joe Senberg blamed investors and more than $ 248 million in two cases of wire fraud in late August for cheating lenders.
Under the circumference rules of the NBA’s 2023 collective bargaining agreement, teams may be punished to bypass the league salary cap. The penalty may include a fine of up to $ 7.5 million, directly seizing the draft pics, zeroing any player’s contract and a suspension – up to one year – is engaged in such a violation for any team personnel.
The clippers repeated many of the same points on Wednesday in a second statement, said, “Steve is absolutely absolutely absurd.
The team said, “The team sponsors have nothing unusual or untoward about the endorsement deal with the players of the same team.
“Clippers take NBA compliance very seriously, fully respect the rules of the league, and welcome its investigation related to aspirations.”
In 2000, it turned out that Minnesota timbervols Who signs a small contract with the team if he signs a small contract with the team if he is allegedly engaged in an illegal secret agreement with Smith, promising to pay him a future multimilian-dollar deal.
The NBA punished Timberwells by removing the five first -round draft pics, fined the team $ 3.5 million and banned the head coach Kevin Mcahel and owner Glenn Taylor for a season, as well as zero the contracts for Smith.
The NBA imposed a fine of $ 50,000 to the clippers in May 2019, when Dock River, the head coach of the then clips, made public comments compared to Leonard, who were then with Toronto rapterTo Michael Jordan.
The NBA investigated the clippers after the allegations emerged that Leonard and his camp led by his uncle Dennis Robertson, made improper requests to teams during their free agency in summer 2019. Such requests, the athletic reported that time, the team’s share ownership, a private aircraft, a house, a house, a guarantee of a house.
The NBA imposed a fine of $ 50,000 to the clippers in November 2019, for the comments that rivers were “inconsistent” with Leonard’s health.
The NBA investigated allegations related to the allegations of free agent of Leonard’s clippers after a December 2020 trial filed by a person named Johnny Wilks, who alleged that he helped receive Lyonard instead of paying $ 2.5 million from clippers consultant Jerry West. The clippers denied the allegations, and the case was dismissed. No fine was issued by the league.
Leonard, 34, recently signed a three-year, a $ 153 million deal in January 2024, which remained under a contract with clippers through 2026–27 season.
Clippers are also fighting the 2024 trial by former strength and conditioning coach Randy Shelton, who filed a suit against the team and president of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank, incorrectly abolishing the concerns about the health and management of Leonard.
Bobby Marx of ESPN contributed to this report.
