Clippers-Aspiration Investigation Takes Shocking Turn

Thus, on the same day Leonard received his payment, the entire Aspiration staff was laid off. The biggest brow-raiser is that just nine days before Kawhi got paid, $2 million was wired to Aspiration by a company associated with Clippers minority owner Dennis J. Wong, who also happens to have been a college roommate of Ballmer. Before the $2 million transfer, that company has never invested in Aspiration.

Unsurprisingly, Aspiration has since gone bankrupt.

To be fair, there’s no concrete evidence that the $2 million Wong wired to Aspiration was then transferred to Leonard. But again, the problem is that the optics are getting worse by the minute.

Adam Silver’s Response

Yesterday, the NBA Board of Governors met for the first time to discuss the Clippers-Aspiration situation. Following the meeting, Silver spoke with the media, saying:

“Well, when the podcast came out, it was news to me. I’d frankly never heard of the company Aspiration before, and I’d never heard a whiff of anything around an endorsement deal with Kawhi. We spoke internally, we had a conversation with Steve, and we quickly concluded this was something that rose to the level that necessitated an investigation.

I would also say that I’ve been around the league long enough in different permutations of allegations, and you know, I’m a big believer in due process and fairness. You need to let the investigation run its course.”

The Last Word On The Clippers Drama

One thing is certain.

The NBA cannot allow the situation to escalate without an investigation. Only time will tell whether that investigation yields a paper trail that shows that the Clippers purposefully circumvented the salary cap. With that in mind, the investigation is unlikely to end in a week or a month; it’ll take time. Unfortunately for the Clippers, time doesn’t appear to be on their side. Not if the newest report from Torre linked another Clippers owner, not just Ballmer, to the clandestine company.