The LA Clippers responded Thursday to reporting related to team owner Steve Ballmer’s ties to Aspiration, saying he was “duped on the investment” into a now-bankrupt environmental company that served as a former team sponsor.
The relationship between Ballmer/the Clippers, Aspiration and Kawhi Leonard is at the center of an NBA investigation into whether the Clippers circumvented the league’s salary cap via a “no-show” endorsement deal between Leonard and Aspiration, allegations first outlined by Pablo Torre on his “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast earlier this month.
Torre’s latest podcast episode, which was released Thursday and cites anonymous sources and bank records, alleges the Clippers paid Aspiration $56 million for carbon credits from April 1, 2022, through June 17, 2022. The Athletic first reported the Clippers’ carbon credit deal with LA last week. Leonard signed a four-year, $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration on April 4, 2022, the same day the Clippers made a $32 million carbon credit payment to Aspiration, according to Torre.
The podcast alleges the Clippers, Ballmer, or parties tied to either invested $118 million in Aspiration over 18 months, between September 2021 and March 2023. The Athletic has confirmed some of those alleged payments, including Ballmer’s nearly $10 million investment into Aspiration in March 2023, as the company hemorrhaged cash, laid off employees and struggled to raise funds. The environmental company also struggled to make quarterly $1.75 million payments to Leonard in the months after inking his endorsement deal.
In a statement responding to the allegations, the Clippers said Thursday: “Steve and his family are focused on sustainability, which is why Intuit Dome was designed to be a carbon neutral building from its inception and to achieve LEED Zero status over time. Our development agreements for the arena included mandates to buy carbon credits, but after studying the issue of neutrality, we went far beyond those requirements, exploring ways to address emissions from our fans and contracting with Aspiration to directly purchase carbon offsets, as well as broker the acquisition of additional offsets.
“Some of those commitments were built into the sponsorship deal with Aspiration — totally separate of the investment in the company — and we made payments to Aspiration until the company was unable to fulfill their responsibilities.”
The Clippers added that Ballmer was “duped on the investment and on some parts of this agreement, as were many other investors and employees.”
Ballmer has maintained that he was defrauded by Aspiration and said he welcomes the NBA’s investigation by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
“The important thing is our relationship with the company, and our player’s relationship with the company were independent, which is important under the rules of the NBA,” Ballmer said at the Sports Business Journal’s Drive event Tuesday in Los Angeles, per the SBJ. “I feel quite confident in that, that we abided (by) the rules. So, I welcome the investigation that the NBA is doing. It’s a great way, from our perspective, to get the facts out there.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday that the league’s investigation “will take time,” and that the NBA will review its rules around owner and player investments in light of the reports.
“Pablo Torre Finds out” is an independently produced show licensed by The Athletic and distributed on its podcast network. The Torre podcast signed a licensing agreement with The Athletic Podcast Network last month.
(Photo of Steve Ballmer: Leon Bennett / Getty Images)