Los Angeles Lakers Laughed At Kawhi Leonard’s Uncle’s Audacity In 2019 Meetings

The Los Angeles Lakers laughed at Kawhi Leonard‘s uncle’s audacity in 2019 meetings, according to Dan Woike, Sam Amick and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.

Leonard’s uncle, Dennis Robertson, asked the Lakers for unlimited access to a private plane, a house and guaranteed off-court earnings from endorsements. He also wanted part ownership of the franchise.

“The Lakers repeatedly told Robertson that his requests were against the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement. Outside of the negotiations, team sources said, the Lakers laughed at Robertson’s audacity. And to Robertson himself, team president Jeanie Buss underscored the outrageousness of the requests by saying he should attempt to get other teams to agree to his terms in writing.”

According to Pablo Torre of Pablo Torre Finds Out, the now-bankrupt company Aspiration paid Leonard $48 million for a “no-show job” intended to circumvent the NBA salary cap.

Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested $10 million in Aspiration in March 2023. The billionaire invested $50 million in Aspiration 18 months before that.

Ballmer introduced Aspiration to Leonard 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 lucrative $300 million partnership with Aspiration.

Aspiration paid Leonard $1.7 million days after Clippers minority owner Dennis J. Wong made an almost $2 million investment in the company. This took place in December 2022.

Leonard also got $20 million in Aspiration shares directly from co-founder Joe Sanberg.

Ballmer and the Clippers invested $118 million in Aspiration in 18 months. LAC’s chief financial officer signed off on a $21 million payment from the team to fund various “carbon projects” for Aspiration in June 2022. The $21 million was enough for Leonard’s first quarterly payment as part of his “no-show” endorsement deal with Aspiration. It also hit Aspiration’s fundraising target.

Even before that $21 million investment was made, Torre uncovered documents that showed the Clippers made a $3 million prepayment for carbon credits on April 1, 2022, and made another prepayment of $32.4 million three days later on April 4.

Torre also noted that the April 4 date is the same day Leonard signed his KL2 Aspire contract worth $28 million.

Torre’s reporting also includes a screenshot of a February 2022 text message sent by Robertson to Sanberg.

The text reads, “Good morning Joe, hope you had a wonderful weekend. Just a heads up things are still dragging. Mike has the contract for about 14 days now, haven’t heard back. Thanks Just keeping you informed.”

According to Torre, the text is referring to Kawhi Leonard’s $20 million equity deal with Aspiration that was on top of his endorsement contract.