At a time when the scandal involving Aspiration and Kawhi Leonard hasn't even been resolved yet, yet another case has come to light regarding the Clippers’ secret agreements with their superstar. The NBA is being called upon more and more frequently to… shed light on new aspects of this case, which has sparked a major backlash, both toward the player and toward the team’s owner, Steve Ballmer. This is because all the transactions are linked to companies he owns or at least falls within his sphere of influence.
According to a new exposé by Pablo Torre, who was the first to break the initial story, Leonard had a secret sponsorship deal worth many millions of dollars with “Daktronics,” the company that built the impressive circular scoreboard (Halo Board) at the Intuit Dome, the Clippers’ new home arena.The nature of this agreement has not yet been fully clarified, but it netted the player an exorbitant sum that was not counted toward his salary cap. That is, his official salary from the Clippers.
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A spokesperson for Daktronics, responding to questions, stated that “at this time, there is no agreement with Kawhi Leonard,” but declined to comment further due to the investigation being conducted by the law firm Wachtell Lipton. This firm is the one that has been tasked with investigating the case and providing legal representation for the NBA.
The Clippers continue to deny that they used sponsorship agreements as a means of making additional payments to Leonard, however, the investigation has been ongoing for about 11 months, with no timeline yet for its completion. In any case, to many, it seems clear that the Los Angeles team used precisely these agreements to offer even more money (beyond the salary cap) to the American star.
As The Athletic clarifies in its own report, the NBA is no longer just examining the agreement with Aspiration, but also a second sponsorship deal, with the case constantly taking on new dimensions. The more “noise” there is, the faster the Americans want to resolve the situation, which is significantly tarnishing their credibility. Adam Silver has also made it clear that by the end of the summer, the league’s administration will have reached a conclusion.
