The Kawhi Leonard improper benefits scandal isn’t going away, despite the Los Angeles Clippers’ best efforts. New evidence has been uncovered by journalist Pablo Torre which implicates the Clippers in what appears to be a clear link between the basketball team and now-defunct carbon offset company Aspiration, which was reportedly paying Leonard $7 million a year for a no-show job.
This “smoking gun” comes in the form of a $1.99M investment in Aspiration from a company owned by Dennis Wong, who also owns 1% of the Clippers. It’s alleged that Aspiration was in financial free fall in December of 2022, and didn’t have the funds required to make Leonard’s scheduled $1.75M payment. In order to satisfy this outstanding debt Wong invested money in the failing company, and nine days later Leonard’s payment was made in full. Internal documents from the company show that the payment to “KL2 Aspire,” a company owner by Leonard was marked as “critical,” and a transfer was made the same day Aspiration laid off 20% of its workforce due to financial trouble.
An anonymous former employee detailed the payment to Torre, saying that Wong’s investment in the company was “beyond shocking” and “not a rational investment that someone would make.” At the time it was widely known that Aspiration was in financial trouble, which has since resulted bankruptcy and an investigation from the federal government for defrauding investors.
Ballmer owns 99 percent of the Clippers. Wong owns the other 1 percent, and is listed as the franchise’s alternate governor.
Leonard left Toronto in free agency when the Raptors said no to the proposed arrangement, and stunned the world when he signed with the Clippers after being linked to the Lakers for much of the summer.
Try as they might, this story is getting too big for either Steve Ballmer or Adam Silver to contain. It remains to be seen what punishment the Clippers might receive, but with every new report the odds that it will be a perfunctory slap on the wrist shrinks.
