The Kawhi Leonard situation just keeps getting uglier for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Roughly a month ago, the Toronto Raptors agreed to send Brandon Ingram, two first-round picks, a pick swap, two second-rounders and more to the Clippers in exchange for Leonard. That deal has been placed on hold though since the NBA is currently investigating the Clippers.
It was reported last year that Leonard had a $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration as a way to "circumvent the salary cap." Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested $50 million in Aspiration through his personal LLC back in 2021. He admit to introducing Leonard to Aspiration, but he denied any knowledge of an endorsement deal.
On Thursday night, Torre reported that Leonard allegedly had a sponsorship agreement with Daktronics, the manufacturer of the Clippers' scoreboard at the Intuit Dome. An "anonymous high-level source" told Torre that this alleged deal allowed the Clippers to manipulate the salary cap.
© Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images.
After the latest report from Torre was shared with the public, NBA fans came to an agreement that Leonard should be disciplined by Adam Silver. Some are suggesting a lifetime ban is an appropriate punishment.
"Please just ban Kawhi from the league and have Ballmer sell the team," one fan said in response to this report.
"Ballmer should have to sell the team or have a multi year suspension but what is the argument against banning Kawhi Leonard from the NBA? Kawhi makes $60M+ per year and he and his associates have the audacity to want millions more in shady deals. Ban Kawhi from the NBA," a second fan wrote.
"Unless the NBA doesn’t care about CBA and teams/players cheating on rules, time to ban Kawhi and add crippling penalty to Clippers for cheating and circumventing the CBA salary cap," another fan said.
"Kawhi should get a lifetime ban from the NBA not even joking," another fan declared.
What about the Clippers-Raptors trade?
According to ESPN, the NBA’s investigation could linger into 2027. That means the Clippers and Raptors may have to just scrap their deal entirely.
“Sources close to the National Basketball Players Association with knowledge of the investigation said the union wouldn’t hesitate to take the matter to arbitration if the NBA sought penalties without sufficient evidence proving the claim that the Clippers have denied since the league’s probe began nearly 10 months ago,” ESPN’s Baxter Holmes wrote.
The Clippers have denied all wrongdoing since these allegations first emerged. However, new details just keep on coming out.
