A $28MM endorsement deal that Kawhi Leonard signed might cause the Clippers to get a trouble with NBA.
The Clippers may get a $28MM endorsement deal signed by Kawhi Leonard that is likely to cause a major stir with the league.
On his “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast, ESPN’s Pablo Torre did an investigative piece that revealed that Leonard had done no work for a tree-planting company that was supposedly a scam and had been given $50 million of Clippers’ owner Steve Ballmer’s money.
If the endorsement was only a way to get around the salary cap, the Clippers would face severe penalties from the NBA.
After winning the title with the Raptors in 2019, Leonard turned down his player option and went unrestricted. Leonard decided to sign a three-year, $103.1MM deal with the Clippers in July of that year. Subsequently, he has signed two extensions with the team.
Aspiration, the ‘tree brokerage’ company, went out of business in March 20025. KL2 Aspire LLC with Leonard as the manager or member, is one of the creditors on the list. The company was in debt to KL2 Aspire LLC with a total of $7MM.
Torre was unable to find a single piece of evidence that Leonard was actually engaged in the company, while other celebrity endorsers were doing their work.
Seven ex-employees of the company were interviewed by Torre, and one of them even gave him a document that showed the signing of a marketing agreement that Leonard was to receive $7MM over four years.
As per a former Aspiration employee from the finance department, Leonard “didn’t have to do anything.”
The organization refuted the allegations with a note that stated, “Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers went around the salary cap nor did they commit any kind of mischief related to Aspiration. Any opposite assertion is provably false.”
In 2000, the league and commissioner David Stern punished the Timberwolves very severely because the team had broken the salary cap rules.
The franchise of Minnesota made a deal with Joe Smith, the first pick in the history of the NBA, of multiple one-year contracts that were below market value with an understanding that he would be given a long-term deal worth up to $86 million over seven seasons eventually.
Spotrac writer Keith Smith pointed out that Smith’s deal was canceled and the Timberwolves had to pay a $3.5 million fine and lost five first-round picks (the team later got two of those picks back).
Team owner Glen Taylor was suspended and executive director Kevin McHale had to resign his post.
As a matter of fact, Stern was known for being stricter than the current commissioner in terms of punishments.
Over the past few years, the NBA had only docked one second-round pick as a penalty in cases of free agent gun-jumping or tampering.
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However, with the way that the Clippers have been under scrutiny by the NBA, it is hard not to think that they are involved in the cap circumvention via this deal with Leonard, and if so, the punishment should be much heavier than that.
Source : HOOPS RUMORS
