Kawhi Leonard had a hidden “multi-million dollar” sponsorship agreement with scoreboard manufacturing giant Daktronics, according to investigative journalist Pablo Torre. He was told by sources that this was another vehicle used by the Los Angeles Clippers to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap and pay Leonard more than they were legally allowed to under the current collective bargaining agreement.
The NBA has been investigating the Clippers, Leonard and potential salary cap circumvention since last September, when Torre originally unearthed a secret endorsement deal that Leonard had with Aspiration, a now-defunct sustainability company whose co-founder was recently sentenced to 14 years in prison for defrauding investors.
The NBA investigation — being conducted by the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz — has dragged on for nearly 11 months, and it reportedly grew in scope in recent weeks. Torre’s latest reporting shows part of the reason why.
“This was talked about openly within the organization, from people working on the project, that Kawhi was a spokesperson for Daktronics,” a “high-level” Clippers source described as a “former official” told Torre in the podcast episode that was released Thursday night. “It was openly joked about, within people working on the project that knew about this, as it was one-thousand percent a way to circumvent the salary cap.
“People at Daktronics, people within the Clippers’ organization themselves, had told me about this multimillion-dollar deal with Kawhi and Daktronics,” the Clippers source further explained. “They’re not a company that you would see a celebrity endorser for. It wasn’t coming out [Daktronics’] end. The Clippers were technically kind of funding it. It was funneling money from the Clippers through Daktronics back to Kawhi.”
The Toronto Raptors agreed to a trade to acquire Leonard from the Clippers earlier this summer, but that trade has been put on hold with the investigation ongoing. The Raptors were informed by the league that they would have to assume the risk any potential penalties handed to Leonard and pressed pause on the blockbuster deal.
Daktronics is the company that built the 38,000-square-foot jumbotron scoreboard — aka the “Halo Board” and the biggest of its kind — inside the Clippers’ Intuit Dome, which opened in 2024.
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Where does the Kawhi investigation go from here?
ESPN recently reported that this ordeal could end up dragging into 2027 before a resolution is reached, and even then there could still be an arbitration and potential appeals process to play out.
From our Sam Quinn:
If any of the parties involved here dispute their findings, the next step would be arbitration. The arbitrator would be jointly appointed by the NBA and the NBA Players Association, and would have the power to compel document production, witness testimony and order discovery. After that hearing, the arbitrator’s ruling could be appealed to a three-person panel jointly appointed by the NBA and the NBPA. That appeal panel would finally have the power to make a binding decision.
The exact figures in the reported Daktronics deal are unclear. But Leonard, who signed with the Clippers in 2019 and has inked two max contract extensions with the team since, reportedly had a $28 million sponsorship agreement with Aspriation, which received $50 million in funding from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer.
As the Kawhi Leonard investigation drags on, it’s time to wonder if his trade to the Raptors will fall apart
Sam Quinn
The Raptors knew this was being investigated when they traded for Leonard on June 30, but as the scope of the scandal has expanded, the trade has been put on ice as Toronto, understandably, is concerned about having to assume any punishments that may be handed down. Leonard could face a suspension or have his current contract voided, for instance.
Last week, Torre released a podcast Leonard’s secret ownership stake in a Rhode Island soccer team — yet another alleged way the Clippers were getting more money to him than they are legally allowed to pay. And now we have this alleged “hidden” deal with Daktronics, which has deals with other NBA teams.
The most famous case of NBA salary cap circumvention came in the late 1990s when the Timberwolves were caught using Joe Smith’s deal to get around cap restraints. The team was docked five first-round picks (though two of them were ultimately returned), Smith’s contract was voided, the team owner was suspended and the team was fined $3.5 million.
Ballmer, for his part, has denied the team circumvented the salary cap and has maintained that he, like other investors, was duped by Sanberg and Aspiration. The Clippers have yet to comment on the alleged Daktronics deal.
Indeed, this story just keeps getting bigger. And it’s unclear who Leonard will be playing for come next season, or if he’ll be playing at all.