"Boardman must get paid for doing nothing" - Pablo Torre releases fresh report documenting $118M cycle of payments by Clippers owners to Aspiration

Pablo Torre continues to unveil more and more layers of the Kawhi Leonard drama.

The former ESPN personality has uncovered mountains upon mountains of evidence of the LA Clippers using a now-bankrupt carbon credit company called Aspiration to circumvent the salary cap and pay Leonard for a 'no-show' job.

Per his latest report, Ballmer, along with Leonard's camp, kept pushing the company to pay Leonard on time, even though they were running out of money and on the verge of bankruptcy. In total, the Clippers owners poured in as many as $118 million into the company to make sure Leonard got his money.

"According to my sources, what happens here, is that it is paramount, it is so important to Aspiration's relationship with Steve Ballmer, that Kawhi Leonard gets paid," Torre said (Timestamp 35:06).

Explore the NBA Draft 2024 with our free NBA Mock Draft Simulator & be the GM of your favorite NBA team.

Aspiration reportedly had Leonard's deal at the top of their priority list, and when the payments were running late, even Dennis Wong, the only other stakeholder of the team, also invested money.

The league is currently conducting an investigation of the matter, but even though all evidence is circumstantial, it doesn't look good for the Clippers at all.

The timing of the transactions, the fact that the company had secured a massive deal to be the primary partner of the Intuit Dome, and the fact that Leonard's camp had already demanded things like this in free agency, even though they're explicitly prohibited by the NBA's CBA, raise some questions.

The NBA can't afford to void Kawhi Leonard's contract

If the Clippers are found guilty, the NBA should lay the hammer on them like they did with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Joe Smith decades ago. That could include voiding Leonard's contract.

Nevertheless, former GM John Hollinger believes that voiding Leonard's deal could only create more trouble in the league, even if he's asked to return all the money:

"So, can you imagine if Kawhi Leonard were suddenly an unrestricted free agent halfway through the season, one who is forbidden from re-signing with the Clippers?" Hollinger wrote. "What if he decides he just likes being in L.A. and signs with the Lakers for the minimum? What does that do for competitive balance? For that matter, what if he signs anywhere for a meager salary — won’t that be hugely distorting to the playoff chase?"

The only way to prevent that from happening would be to suspend Leonard or effectively ban him from signing with any team for an undetermined period of time, but that's not contemplated in the CBA.

The investigation will take months, and it'll be interesting to see what the league does here.

Edited by Ernesto Cova