Rumors

But team sources continue to indicate he's the type of established wing talent they would pursue in a win-now maneuver, depending on the price point. The problem: League sources said Ballmer has maintained a firm stance against a Leonard trade, preferring to continue building around his star forward.

ESPN

LA Clippers star Kawhi Leonard and his uncle and business adviser Dennis Robertson have been interviewed by NBA investigators amid the league's probe into allegations the team circumvented the salary cap to compensate Leonard, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the investigation. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and other team executives have also sat for interviews, those sources said, as have executives for Aspiration, the now-defunct green banking company at the center of the allegations.

ESPN

Privately, some Clippers officials have grown frustrated trying to prove innocence for a violation that they say they didn't commit, according to several sources with knowledge of their thinking. Despite their certainty that they did nothing wrong, team officials seem less certain about the outcome of the high-profile investigation or whether the league's richest owner will face punishment, the sources said.

ESPN

Two of the sources said that if Silver tried to administer punishment to the Clippers without clear evidence of guilt, other teams and owners could consider it a worrying precedent. "I respect Adam, and I don't think he's stupid," said one of the sources, who has worked closely with Silver through the years. "If Wachtell delivers the report that says, 'Well, we don't have it,' I don't think Adam is going to push it further."

ESPN

Pablo Torre Finds Out: Steve Ballmer quietly admitted to a secret side deal with Aspiration's co-founder — a guarantee on his $50M investment similar to the "I.O.U" for Kawhi Leonard. "He is a victim," says the DOJ prosecutor who launched the case. "But he had a very different deal."

x.com

"The investigation has been conducted by a law firm independent of the NBA," Silver said at Frost Bank Center prior to Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks. "Yes, ultimately we're paying their bills, but they are doing the work independent of the league office, and my instruction to them is we can't be investigating forever, but at some point we have to wrap it up. But at the same time, the most important thing is that we get it right. "I think it's clear they're far along. I think those reports are reading all the time from people who are being interviewed by them and I think they understand that you can keep going on and on. But I think we're close to the point now where I think we need to wrap this up because you also need finality. Their team has to understand what the situation is they're going to be operating under, and so do the other 29 teams."

ESPN

Ramona Shelburne: Adam Silver says he’s “wouldn’t be doing my job” if he issued a decision “based on perception.” He says he needs to wait for the facts from the investigation into the Clippers dealings with Aspiration. There’s no timeline on when that report will conclude but “we’re close to the point where we need to wrap this up.”

x.com

But, of course, you can't ignore Kawhi Leonard and the LA Clippers being under investigation for possible salary cap circumvention. That leaves his short-term future somewhat up in the air. "There's no way they're voiding his contract even if the league finds him guilty," a West GM said. "That would be a reward, clearing the Clippers' books for them." The way Leonard is playing, the Clippers might want him on their books. "Them getting the No. 5 pick in the draft [via trade with the Indiana Pacers and some lottery fortune] is the piece of information they've been waiting for," a West executive said. "At the very least, you'd expect them to have some fresh conversations to assess his [trade] value."

ESPN

Laughter filled the ballroom. Except VanVleet wasn’t joking. The 10-year veteran is a throwback: an unheralded recruit who grinded his way to All-American status at Wichita State, an undrafted rookie who willed his way to becoming a world champion. To him, basketball is not merely a business. It is a source of identity, the ticket he claimed to escape a troubled life. Anything that taints its beauty constitutes a threat. This season has demonstrated that the threats are real—and they are multiplying. Teams lost countless games on purpose in the pursuit of better draft positioning. Players—and, even more troubling, a head coach—were caught up in gambling-related scandals. The NBA’s wealthiest owner, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who bought the Clippers after the Sterling fiasco, was accused of funneling payments to his franchise player via a third party to circumvent the salary cap, an allegation that continues to shake the foundations of the league. (Ballmer has denied any wrongdoing; the investigative journalist Pablo Torre’s podcast, which exposed the alleged cheating, was recently awarded a Pulitzer Prize.)

The Atlantic

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

ESPN

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

Twitter

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.

The Verge

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.

ESPN

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.'

ESPN