Mark Cuban Stands With Steve Ballmer Amid Kawhi Leonard Scandal

As the NBA investigates allegations of salary cap circumvention by the Los Angeles Clippers, former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban gave a different perspective. Instead of joining the chorus of criticism for Ballmer, he defended the billionaire owner and claimed that he was actually a victim of fraud by the Aspiration company.

"I’m on Team Ballmer," wrote Cuban on X. "As much as I wish they circumvented the salary cap, First Steve isn’t that dumb. If he did try to feed KL money, knowing what was at stake for him personally and his team, do you think he would let the company go bankrupt? Knowing all creditors would be visible to the world? They got scammed by Aspiration, along with many others. Crimes for which they pleaded guilty last week."

It is true that the Clippers signed a $300 million sponsorship deal with Aspiration. It's also true that one of the company's co-founders was charged with defrauding multiple investors by lying about Aspiration's value. He reportedly defrauded investors out of more than $248 million.

"Scammers do scammy things," Cuban added. "They did a $300M sponsorship deal with the Clippers in 2021. That’s a huge deal. The better the team does, the more value the sponsorship has. It actually makes perfect sense that if they stole money from investors and want the Clippers to succeed, why not give the stolen money to help keep their best player?"

It's a fair conclusion from Cuban, and you can't blame him for defending one of his colleagues that he knows personally. To his point, the risk vs. reward just doesn't add up, and if they were already funneling money around, it's entirely plausible that Kawhi's contract was part of their scam, without Ballmer being directly involved. 

The problem with Cuban's defense is that it doesn't explain how Aspiration, allegedly already struggling financially, had $28 million to funnel toward Kawhi in the first place. While they could have theoretically used the stolen money to sign Kawhi, why would they sign him specifically unless Ballmer was directly involved? Kawhi also never publicly endorsed the brand, raising major doubts about its legitimacy.

That's not to mention that Kawhi has asked teams to break the CBA rules before. Back in 2019, he tried to entice the Raptors and Lakers into multiple violations, asking them for things like an ownership stake, private plane access, and a guaranteed amount of endorsement money.

Ballmer's innocence might be more believable if he were not so personally involved with Aspiration. He was a major financial backer of the company, and it's unlikely he was blind to what was happening.

Between Ballmer's involvement, Kawhi's history, and the clause in Kawhi's Aspiration contract to stay with the Clippers, it's no surprise that fans aren't buying Cuban's argument. Something isn't adding up here, and many fans have pointed out the contradiction in believing Ballmer could be naive enough to lose millions to a scam but too savvy to orchestrate a backdoor deal with his star player.

Ultimately, there's still a lot we don't know here, and we shouldn't assume innocence or guilt. At this point, it's up to the NBA to figure out what really happened, and they are already on the case. For the Clippers' sake, they better hope that Cuban is right, or it could result in devastating penalties for everyone involved.