The allegations of the LA Clippers circumventing the salary cap to sign Kawhi Leonard have continued to generate interest over the last few days, causing the team owner to speak out. “Remember, they defrauded me. They defrauded many other investors, much bigger than me,” said Steve Ballmer recently in his defense amid the ongoing controversy. Baller has now denied knowing anything about the business dealings of ‘Aspiration’, aka the company that gave a $28 million “no-show” endorsement deal to Kawhi Leonard after he invested $50 million in it. With speculation running rampant amongst reporters, one of them believes the true answer lies behind the billionaire’s past behavior.

‘ESPN LA’ radio hosts Steve Mason and John Ireland recently touched base on the Kawhi Leonard controversy. During the conversation, Ireland revealed that he recently had dinner with a friend of his who, in turn, is friends with someone who worked for Ballmer “for years”. Ireland claimed that when his friend asked Balmer’s employee whether “there’s any way Balmer didn’t know?”, the employee said:

“Steve Balmer is the most aggressive, detail-oriented boss I have ever worked for. There is zero chance that A, he wasn’t aggressive in pursuit of Kawhi, and B, that he didn’t know anything. He knew something”.

Back in 2021, Steve Ballmer became part of a group of investors who provided funding to ‘Aspiration’ at its initial stage. MSNBC contributor Pablo Torre first broke the news by citing legal documents that ‘Aspiration’ paid Kawhi Leonard $21 million, and owed him $7 million more, through the player’s company, KL2 Aspire, LLC.

In exchange, Leonard was required to essentially do nothing, but a clause in the contract stated that the agreement would be terminated if Leonard left the Clippers for another team or retired. Even an anonymous former ‘Aspiration’ employee later spoke on Torre’s podcast, through a voice disguiser, and claimed to have been told that the Aspiration-Leonard was made to “circumvent the salary cap”, thereby pushing Ballmer into the controversy.

The former Microsoft CEO Baller defended himself during an interview with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, insisting that he had “no idea” what the deal was between his player and the company. In his own words, “I don’t know why they did what they did, and I don’t know how different it is [compared with other endorsement deals]”.

In the aftermath of Pablo Torre’s report, even the Los Angeles Clippers put out a statement, stating that “There is nothing unusual or untoward about team sponsors doing endorsement deals with players on the same team”. However, the $28 million deal with the now-bankrupt ‘Aspiration’ saw no high-powered executive being reportedly consulted on it. According to reports, Founder Andrei Cherny never even presented the deal to Aspiration’s Board of Directors.

Now, as the NBA investigates, opinions remain divided on just how much the LA Clippers owner knew, because hard decisions can only be taken when there’s substantial proof. As the host said, “Adam Silver works for Steve Balmer. So he’s not going to suspend him unless there is an abundance of evidence.” For two NBA reporters, even someone as ‘detail-oriented’ as Steve Ballmer could make a mistake.

Sam Vecenie Defends Steve Ballmer’s Investment In ‘Aspiration’: “0.03% of his net worth”

‘The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie recently sat down with NBA journalist Bryce Simon to go into a detailed discussion about the Kawhi Leonard controversy. After spending a major part of the segment recapping everything that has happened, Vecenie admitted to “struggling” a little bit with blaming Steve Ballmer. After all, personally, the reporter believed that “people that are this rich will just kind of throw money at things”, especially if it is for a cause they agree with.

Ballmer’s defense also gains some weight when viewed through the sheer scale of his fortune. With an estimated net worth north of $150 billion, his $50 million stake in Aspiration was barely a blip on the radar—an amount too small to demand close attention from someone of his financial standing. As NBA analyst Sam Vecenie explained, “I did the math on this—it’s 0.03% of his net worth. If you were a millionaire with a million dollars in the bank, this would be the equivalent of putting $300 into something. And honestly, I spend $300 on a bunch of dumb stuff all the time, and I don’t even have a million dollars in the bank. That’s the scale we’re talking about here.”

In that sense, while the optics around the Clippers and Leonard remain messy, it’s not hard to see why Ballmer insists he was defrauded rather than complicit—his financial involvement in Aspiration was trivial compared to the empire he commands. While Vecenie made these remarks, he later also questioned “how Steve Ballmer, or Steve Ballmer’s team, or whoever did this deal, right, looked at the ‘Aspiration’ like a business plan”.

With such a net worth, Steve Ballmer is not only the richest owner of an NBA team, but he is also the 8th richest man in the world according to the Forbes real-time list. According to reports, 90% of his wealth is held in Microsoft stock. Regarding his investment approach, ‘CEO World’ reporter Frank Brown believes that “He has effectively concentrated his assets with virtually no exposure to alternative investments, demonstrating his commitment to Microsoft”. Therefore, when investing in a company like ‘Aspiration’, due diligence must have occurred, even if the investment amount wasn’t too much for Ballmer.

Where do you stand amidst this Kawhi Leonard controversy and Steve Ballmer’s alleged involvement in it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section down below.