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It is important to note that the Clippers still have an ongoing league investigation hanging over the franchise. The Clippers were accused of circumventing the salary cap to pay Kawhi Leonard. If LA is found guilty of wrongdoing, penalties could include the loss of draft picks, significant fines and suspensions of team executives, including owner Steve Ballmer. -- Bobby Marks
Steve Ballmer: Five years ago, I invested in Aspiration, a company focused on environmental sustainability, a cause deeply important to me and my family. I also bought carbon credits and trees through the company to reduce the carbon footprint of the Clippers, Intuit Dome, the Kia Forum and all our fans and patrons. Aspiration’s founder, Joe Sanberg, engaged in fraud that injured many, and eventually, took the company down. I was duped and feel silly about that. Everyone who believed in Aspiration, including employees, customers and investors, was also duped. Everyone is still tallying the losses. Here is the letter I submitted to Judge Wilson ahead of Monday’s scheduled sentencing of Joe Sanberg. https://www.flipsnack.com/555AFBC9E8C/victim-impact-statement-for-ballmer
Connie Ballmer, wife of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and cofounder of the Ballmer Group, has given $80 million to NPR. That’s roughly seven years’ worth of government funding ($11.2m) after Trump and Congress cut funds for public media, but only a fraction of NPR’s full annual budget of $300 million.
In a five-page letter to the judge that was obtained by ESPN, an attorney for Ballmer said the Clippers owner lost his entire $60 million investment in Aspiration, which declared bankruptcy in 2025, and has faced "immeasurable" harm to his reputation. The Clippers also lost "virtually all of the $300 million sponsorship payments, and more than $20 million held in escrow for additional carbon offset purchases, which were never made and the money not returned," according to the letter, which a source with knowledge of the situation said had been filed in court.
Ballmer's attorney also wrote that Torre's reporting was a "vitriolic public campaign against Mr. Ballmer" and "principally based on anonymized gossip." In a statement to ESPN, Torre said, "Last month, Pablo Torre Finds Out published the federal whistleblower complaint, signed by two former Aspiration employees, which described how the Clippers allegedly used carbon credits 'to pay Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard an incentivized bonus to circumvent the NBA's salary cap, disguised as an organic marketing sponsorship agreement.'
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ESPN showed five player agents who don't represent Kawhi Leonard language in Leonard's endorsement contract pertaining to obligations and termination clauses. ESPN also showed the same language to an NBPA source who is familiar with such contracts. Said one agent, "This is standard. Nothing unusual here." Said another, "There's nothing in there that jumps out to me. Everything is pretty standard." A third agent made similar comments. Two additional agents singled out the "beliefs" clause, with one saying, "I've never seen a player have the right to decline to do something due to 'beliefs.' A good lawyer would have at least said bonafide 'religious' beliefs." Another, the fifth agent, made a similar remark, adding that it could represent an "amazing negotiation and/or an inexperienced lawyer on behalf of Aspiration."
The NBPA source told ESPN that "there is nothing in that contract that is inconsistent with the regular course of business. The only thing that stands out is that language that says 'consistent with his beliefs, which is too broad and too vague. And that is really just a question of good negotiation. If a lawyer said, 'Look, we want to have this language as broad as possible because we can't sit here today and envision all the promotional activities you may be asking Kawhi to do,' and if the lawyer for Aspiration is stupid enough to say, OK, we'll allow that,' then that's just good negotiation by Kawhi's team. But there's nothing on the face of that contract that suggests that this was all orchestrated." The NBPA source then said that while the language in the "beliefs" provision is certainly favorable to Leonard, the source also pointed out that Aspiration wasn't a well-managed company and that it ultimately went bankrupt.
Henry Abbot on Clippers investigation: To me like their decision is we definitely want to keep Steve Ballmer. We don't want to kick him out like Donald Sterling, but we need to punish him enough that we look credible the next time Adam Silver has a difficult question in a press conference like the one you just played. So like what's the minimum viable punishment to get them there? And I would be very surprised if they're not negotiating that right now.
Pablo Torre: “And I found this very eye opening for obvious reasons perhaps. Um, for months I've been talking to multiple NBA owners and coaches and general managers and scouts who believe that the NBA does not want to punish its richest owner because Steve Balmer's $140 billion may be too critical to Adam Silver's ambitions at a time when money for growth for global expansion, which he was talking about on this stage earlier today in those chairs and all that money is in flux, right? It's an uncertain time economically. Everybody knows that. And this guy has in Mr. Ballmer a ton of it. And what one NBA head coach told me was, quote, ‘The aspiration situation deserved an immediate response. It affects the integrity of the league as well as competitive balance right now.’”
Pablo Torre: “As for my other Aspiration sources that I've been talking to for I started this investigation in February of 25. It's been more than a year. There are several key sources who say they've refused to talk to the NBA's investigators because they essentially see those investigators as working for the 140 billionaire who's ostensively being investigated. And when these sources tell me that it feels like the NBA is quote paying to borrow someone else's letterhead, it is hard to ignore what the NBA's high-powered law firm of choice has not been asking about which they are all talking about amongst themselves.” “But this is what's especially crazy to me about not asking about the team's owner in particular.”
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The LA insider explained that there is some "bad blood" between the two teams, not surprising given that they are city rivals. "There's a little bad blood there, I would say, between the ownerships," Buha said. "Like, I don't think it's two franchises that like love each other." For context, Lakers owner Jeanie Buss once nicknamed Clippers owner Steve Ballmer "Ballz," and the Lakers still have some "egg on their face" from the Ivica Zubac trade with the Clippers. "I don't think the Clippers would love trading Kawhi to the Lakers," Buha noted. "And at that point, if you're forced to trade him, I think the league's not gonna be like, 'You have to trade him to the Lakers, you have to trade him to team X.' It's gonna be, 'Alright, let's get into a bidding war here.'
In the weeks leading up to Ballmer’s big bash, there was a significant upswing in league-wide speculation that the NBA’s hammer is likely to fall on the Clippers. This was a noticeable shift from earlier in the season, when so many seemed to believe that the Leonard/Aspiration scandal might come and go without any substantive punishment being handed down.
That last part about the timing of it all is worth unpacking, as there has been chatter among rival teams for months now that the league was delaying its announcement for the sake of salvaging All-Star Weekend. Yet until the ruling comes, the Clippers’ every move will continue to be analyzed by league folks and fans alike.
Law Murray: Adam Silver on Clippers investigation: " I haven't come to any decisions whatsoever yet on the Clippers matter... from everything I've been told, the Clippers have been fully cooperative. But as I said, I'm not involved day to day in the investigation."