Kawhi Leonard’s Uncle Asked for Ownership Stake in Toronto Maple Leafs in 2019

NBA star Kawhi Leonard‘s uncle, Dennis Robertson, asked for an ownership stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2019, according to Bruce Arthur of the Star.

Leonard left the Toronto Raptors in the summer of 2019 after guiding the franchise to the championship and signed a three-year, $103 million deal with the Los Angeles Clippers.

“Sources in Toronto say, in one meeting, Uncle Dennis asked for an ownership stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs, because that way he wasn’t asking for a piece of the Raptors,” Arthur wrote. “It was politely explained to him that both teams were owned by the same company, and that the request was impossible.”

Robertson asked teams for improper benefits in 2019, according to The Athletic. Leonard met with the Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers before ultimately joining the Clippers, who acquired Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

One of the top players in NBA history, Leonard allegedly received a no-work contract from a now-bankrupt environmental company called “Aspiration,” which had direct ties to his team, the Clippers and franchise owner Steve Ballmer, so that he could be paid more money without it counting against the NBA’s salary rules.

On the latest episode of the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, seven anonymous former employees for “Aspiration” said Leonard got $48 million for a “no-show job” intended to “circumvent the (NBA) salary cap.”

Ballmer, who invested $50 million in the now bankrupt green banking company, told ESPN that “Aspiration” asked him to introduce the company to Leonard, but he denied he knew about the endorsement contract the sides eventually signed or that he directed the company to do so.

Ballmer said the introduction came in November 2021, three months after the Clippers had agreed to a four-year, $173 million extension with Leonard. Two months earlier, in September 2021, the Clippers announced a massive $300 million partnership with “Aspiration.”