The Clippers’ Salary Cap Manipulation and its Effect on College Sports

Last week, Kawhi Leonard and Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer made headlines for all the wrong reasons. The two were accused of using a now-bankrupt company called Aspiration to circumvent the NBA salary cap.¹ Aspiration, a tree-planting service funded by Ballmer, entered into a $28 million marketing agreement with Leonard’s company, KL2 Aspire.² The agreement took place in 2022, just nine months after Leonard signed a $176 million extension with the Clippers.³

The contract included a clause allowing Leonard to “decline to proceed with any action desired by the company.”⁴ Essentially allowing Leonard to be paid without lifting a finger. It seems this clause was exercised as no marketing work was ever performed.⁵ Another clause voided the deal if Leonard left the team.⁶

Newly released bank statements reveal that Leonard’s company received a $1.75 million payment from Aspiration on December 15th, 2022, the same day that Aspiration laid off 20% of its staff.⁷ Just nine days earlier Clippers’ vice chairman, sole minority owner, and college roommate of Ballmer, Steve Wong wired $1.99 million to Aspiration.⁸ According to an unnamed employee, Aspirations payments to KL2 were intended to skirt the NBA’s salary cap and funnel additional money to Leonard, who joined the Clippers in 2019.⁹ That same year, Leonard was investigated for improper requests during free agency, including no-show sponsorships similar to the Aspiration deal.¹⁰ The NBA also investigated the Clippers in 2019 for related allegations, but ultimately cleared the team of wrongdoing.¹¹

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he had “never heard a whiff” about the Aspiration contract, but confirmed the league is now investigating.¹² This marks the first time Silver has had to confront an investigation of this nature, though the NBA has faced similar scandals before.

October 2000 saw, then-commissioner of the NBA David Stern hand down one of the harshest punishments in league history.¹³ The Minnesota Timberwolves were fined $3.5 million, stripped of five first-round picks, and owner Glen Taylor and head front office executive Kevin McHale suspended for one year.¹⁴ Their offense? Signing former No. 1 overall pick Joe Smith to below-market one-year contracts while secretly paying him $86 million under the table.¹⁵ The situation was unprecedented and the punishment was harsh, later collective bargaining agreements aimed to narrow the range of punishments available for salary cap circumvention.

Under Article 13 of the 2023 NBA CBA, a team found guilty of cap circumvention will face a fine of up to $4.5 million, the forfeiture of one first-round pick, the voiding of any player contract involved, and the nullification of any related agreements.¹⁶

While the Clippers investigation remains ongoing and the allegations unproven, the NBA has at least established a clear disciplinary framework should wrongdoing be confirmed. Outside NBA, the case may serve as a cautionary example for college sports. Following the 2025 House v. NCAA settlement, colleges will implement a salary cap of $20.5 million for the 2025–26 season.¹⁷ In this new era, where billionaire boosters are emerging and five-star quarterbacks can command up to $12 million, the NCAA will likely face pressure to adopt NBA-style restrictions on outside contracts.¹⁸ Enforcing such rules could prove far more difficult in college sports, where players are free to strike independent endorsement deals without school involvement. What happens if a booster secretly recruits an athlete with money never counted toward the salary cap? While the NBA appears to have its disciplinary system in place, and the Clippers may soon face its judgement, college sports remain the wild, wild West.

1. https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/kawhi-leonard-reportedly-paid-28-million-for-no-show-job-with-clippers-as-way-to-get-around-salary-cap-nba-investigating-125651670.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANRdf9KH_n5L5TA-4IRX9pOZqA3a4aCvZCvrwuwNtXcA-wP2ekD7XiW1wTu6IgOAtxdq65jhIWIQZeUtOBbjZ2Y4pm5gyHK8IpSoovE1nbyYADQ8kut-8MwEhGvhm1fQK7ernwt2AlMTLqW8vOXA_bxg_R2taBH2VtE9ouKa4z4t ↩︎
2. Id. ↩︎
3. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25247873-adam-silver-says-he-never-heard-whiff-about-kawhi-leonard-aspiration-contract ↩︎
4. Supra, note 1. ↩︎
5. Id. ↩︎
6. Id. ↩︎
7. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/clippers/2025/09/11/kawhi-leonard-clippers-contract-scandal-news-steven-wong/86092779007/ ↩︎
8. Id. ↩︎
9. Supra, note 3. ↩︎
10. Id. ↩︎
11. https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/possible-punishments-for-clippers-questions-loom-over-nbas-investigation-of-kawhi-leonard-deal-140314949.html ↩︎
12. Supra, note 3. ↩︎
13. Supra, note 11. ↩︎
14. Id. ↩︎
15. Id. ↩︎
16. Id. ↩︎
17. https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/45467505/judge-grants-final-approval-house-v-ncaa-settlement ↩︎
18. https://heavy.com/sports/college-football/michigan-wolverines/bryce-underwood-nil-deal-money-how-much/ ↩︎