NBA Finds No Evidence Against Ballmer in Kawhi Case, But Keeps Investigation Open

The case blocking Kawhi Leonard's return to Toronto has taken a significant turn. The NBA has found no evidence that Steve Ballmer funneled money to the player through Clippers sponsors to circumvent the salary cap, according to reporting by Don Van Natta Jr., Baxter Holmes, and Ramona Shelburne on ESPN citing three people with knowledge of conversations between the parties.

Caution is warranted here, because there are two conflicting versions. League spokesman Mike Bass responded publicly that the article contains numerous and significant inaccuracies, clarified that the NBA did not cooperate with the reporting, and deferred any conclusions to the end of the investigation.

What the club is now being accused of

What's relevant, if ESPN's information is accurate, is that the focus has shifted. The league would be examining whether the fact that the Clippers presented Leonard to their sponsors constitutes in itself a violation of rules against salary cap circumvention, and whether the club incurred a failure to supervise its employees. It's not even clear, according to the cited sources, what specific rule would have been violated or what penalty would apply.

The investigation, led by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, has stretched on for eleven months and expanded beyond Aspiration to reach at least three other companies with commercial ties to the club, including Daktronics, the company that designed the video board at Intuit Dome, and connectivity provider Boingo Wireless. In those cases either, there would be no evidence of money transfers.

The Clippers' defense

The franchise maintains that it introduced its players, including Leonard, to companies with which it maintained business relationships, and describes that practice as common throughout the league and as a frequent request from the players and their representatives themselves. It denies having negotiated or imposed the terms of the wing's endorsement deals and rejects that the coincidence between a team sponsor and a player's advertiser proves anything.

The argument is not unreasonable. The league itself has promoted such contacts: an internal presentation from the 2024-25 season that ESPN obtained recommended teams facilitate dialogue between players and executives from sponsoring companies. The 2021-22 operations manual, however, expressly prohibited a club from recommending a player as a candidate for an endorsement deal, allowing only for providing their contact information.

The origin of the case

It all started in September 2025, when Pablo Torre's podcast published internal documents according to which Ballmer had invested 50 million dollars in Aspiration through a personal entity. That same month, the Clippers signed a 300 million dollar agreement with the company that made it the first founding partner of Intuit Dome. In April 2022, Aspiration closed a 28 million dollar endorsement contract with Leonard that a former employee described as a fictitious job designed to circumvent the salary cap.

The company's downfall was spectacular. Aspiration collapsed in 2025 and its co-founder, Joe Sanberg, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and was sentenced in June to fourteen years in prison for a scheme that defrauded 248 million from its investors. Ballmer, according to the brief his attorney submitted to the judge, lost all 60 million he invested and considers himself a victim of the fraud.

What can happen now

The most likely scenario, if there is no settlement, is arbitration. A finding of salary cap circumvention would constitute a violation of the collective bargaining agreement, so the NBA, the Clippers, and the players' union would have to agree on both the conclusions and the punishment. And two sources familiar with the NBPA's position assert that the thesis that a presentation to a sponsor amounts to circumvention would not survive arbitration.

The league's lawyers would have put on the table as a reference the case of the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2000, sanctioned with the loss of five first-round picks and a 3.5 million dollar fine for a secret agreement with Joe Smith. The difference is that there existed a document; here, according to ESPN, there is no equivalent evidence.

Ballmer, for his part, would have conveyed to his circle that he will not accept a resolution asserting that he or the club intended to circumvent the salary cap, and that he would take the matter to arbitration.

And meanwhile, Toronto waits

The trade agreed on June 30, which sends Leonard to the Raptors in exchange for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, and draft picks, remains frozen. Toronto halted the deal upon learning it would assume the risk of any sanctions on the player.

Leonard's own situation appears less compromised than feared. No source points to his contract being voided, and conversations would center on a possible financial restitution for any improper benefits received from the Clippers, such as travel and lodging for his representative and uncle, Dennis Robertson. Player and Canadian franchise operate assuming the trade will eventually close.

Adam Silver expressed in July his desire to resolve it before the start of the 2026-27 season. Just over two months remain.