ESPN Reports Steve Ballmer Cleared By NBA’s Kawhi Leonard Investigation, NBA Says Otherwise

According to a https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49639157/nba-la-clippers-aspiration-investigation-steve-ballmer-kawhi-leonard">report from ESPN, the NBA hasn't found any evidence that Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer arranged to pay Kawhi Leonard in excess of salary-cap rules via the fraudulent green-banking company Aspiration.

Just under a year ago, after a https://defector.com/kawhi-leonard-and-los-angeles-clippers-implicated-in-low-effort-tree-planting-scheme">series of reports from podcaster Pablo Torre, the NBA hired the prestigious law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate the alleged scheme.

Per the ESPN report, lawyers representing Ballmer and the NBA have been negotiating a resolution over the past few days, and "the league has presented no evidence" to Ballmer that he cheated.

Here is a brief summary of how we got here: In early Sept. 2025, Torre reported that Leonard had signed a no-show marketing deal with the now-defunct bank Aspiration, and that this functioned as a way for the Clippers to pay Leonard more than his official salary. https://defector.com/steve-ballmer-pleads-ignorance-about-kawhi-leonards-outside-money">Ballmer went on ESPN and played dumb, claiming that while Aspiration was a team partner, he had nothing to do with any arrangements between player and fraudulent bank.

Torre produced over a dozen subsequent reports https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKJyKFdT8rQ">showing a close relationship between Leonard, Aspiration, and various Clippers figures, most notably minority owner Dennis Wong, who reportedly "invested" $1.99 million into Aspiration, after the bank was already crashing and just days before Leonard reportedly received a payment from Aspiration for roughly the same amount.

In addition to reams more evidence about Aspiration, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Ksw0IC4CQ&feature=youtu.be">Torre has also reported on what appears to be a similar arrangement between Leonard and scoreboard company Daktronics.

The crux of the scandal is the matter of whether Ballmer was intentionally paying Leonard under the table via the Aspiration arrangement.

While something shady was clearly going on, providing ironclad legal proof of intent is tricky.

The corpus of Torre's reporting is substantial enough that the relationship seems beyond doubt, but the standard for proving that in something approximating a court of law is significantly higher.

The NBA's preliminary findings today don't mean that it's all over and Ballmer is for sure in the clear.

According to ESPN's report, the NBA seems to have cleared Ballmer of the biggest potential violation of the collective bargaining agreement, but the league is still looking into whether he overstepped rules limiting what teams can do to facilitate endorsement deals for players.