Pablo Torre's New Evidence on Clippers and Aspiration Could Ruin Franchise
Sep 22, 2025
The story involving Kawhi Leonard, the Los Angeles Clippers, and a company called Aspiration keeps getting crazier and crazier. Reporter Pablo Torre has been slowly revealing a ton of information on a “no-show” endorsement deal between Kawhi and Aspiration that may have been funded partly by the Los Angeles Clippers.
On Thursday, Torre went on his podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out, and revealed to the world more of what he’s…found out.
The most recent information that Torre uncovered was more investments from the Clippers to Aspiration. Particularly, ones that seem ridiculous given the company's financial issues at the time. Most of this money was sent in return for “carbon credits” from Aspiration.
Chris Cwik of Yahoo Sports put together a timeline of the facts Torre has revealed:
Sept. 14, 2021: Ballmer LLC invests $50M in Aspiration
Sept. 27, 2021: Clippers announce deal with Aspiration
April 1, 2022: Clippers send $3M to Aspiration for carbon credits
April 4, 2022: Clippers send $32M to Aspiration for carbon credits
April 4, 2022: Leonard signs his $28M deal with Aspiration
June 17, 2022: Clippers send $21M to Aspiration for carbon credits
July 6, 2022: Aspiration pays Leonard $1.75M
Dec. 6, 2022: Clippers co-owner Dennis Wong invests $2M in Aspiration
Dec. 15, 2022: Aspiration pays Leonard $1.75M
March 9, 2023: Ballmer LLC invests $10M in Aspiration
Late March 2023: Government starts to investigate Aspiration
The timing of these payments is certainly fishy. It is starting to smell a lot more like salary-cap circumvention with every new fact.
If the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard are found guilty of cap circumvention, it probably won’t happen for a long time. For now we can just wait for more information to see just how damning that potential punishment could become.
