Old Clippers Post About Kawhi Leonard Resurfaces After Controversy

Aspiration filed for bankruptcy in March of 2025 after co-founder Joe Sanberg was arrested on charges of fraud. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer was among the financial backers of the company.

After Torre's report, an old post by the Clippers about Aspiration planting a tree for every interaction on an X post wishing Kawhi Leonard a happy birthday has gone viral.

"Happy Birthday, Kawhi! For every comment/retweet, Aspiration will plant one tree for Kawhi's birthday!"

The post from 2023 has fans responding to the revelations made by Torre's show today.

What Kawhi Leonard Is Being Accused Of?

Endorsement deals are common in the NBA, but there's a reason this has attracted as much attention as it has.

Aspiration's bankruptcy filing from this year lists an LLC under the name "KL2 Aspire LLC", with an agreement stating that Aspiration would pay KL2 $7 million over four years, for a total of $28 million. KL2 is managed by Kawhi Leonard.

But what's interesting is that Leonard never actually publicly endorsed the company while receiving 'the single largest payment to an individual for marketing that Aspiration ever made.' Aspiration was publicly endorsed by the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Drake while also having official partnerships with other sports teams and tech organizations like Meta.

The contract also stated that the deal would be terminated if Leonard left the franchise.

Given Ballmer's financial stake in Aspiration and that Leonard received the most money for any endorsement while never delivering one, Torre concluded that this was a deliberate attempt to circumvent the NBA's salary cap.

Torre and his team reached out to the Clippers with this information, and the franchise issued the following statement:

"Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration. Any contrary assertion is provably false."