Clippers owner Steve Ballmer speaks on Kawhi Leonard’s $28 million fraudulent deal

The NBA world has been turned upside down since the news of Kawhi Leonard having a fake job at Steve Ballmer’s tree-service business broke.

As this news was coming around on social media, fans wondered when either Leonard or Ballmer would speak about the incident. Ballmer has now done this, after granting an interview Thursday night with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.

“We made an investment in the company,” Ballmer said. “I had no control over this company. At the time, it was an exciting deal for us to go do. We had already signed our deal with Kawhi Leonard.

“At that time, we hadn’t even introduced … Kawhi to Aspiration. Then they request to be introduced to Kawhi. Under rules, we can introduce our sponsors to our athletes. We just can’t be involved.

“Where could any of this circumvention have happened?” Ballmer continued. “It didn’t. It couldn’t have. The introduction got made. And they were off to the races on their own. We weren’t involved. I eventually learned that they reached a deal. I have no idea what the deal was.”