Following allegations by podcaster Pablo Torre that the Clippers gave star player Kawhi Leonard $28 million through a no-show endorsement arrangement with Aspiration, a sustainability-focused financial firm, NBA commissioner Adam Silver made his first public remarks on Wednesday.
According to Torre, anonymous company insiders claimed that the agreement with Leonard was established in order to get around the salary cap.
Silver stated on Wednesday that he was unaware of the reports when they surfaced, but the league has enlisted outside legal counsel to look into them.
On Wednesday, Silver stated: “When the podcast came out, it was news to me,”. “I frankly never head of the company Aspiration before, and I never heard a whiff of anything around an endorsement deal with Kawhi or anything around an engagement with the Los Angeles Clippers. … [We] had a conversation with Steve Ballmer and determined quickly this was something that rose to the level that necessitates an investigation—in fact—one that’s done outside of our office. Wachtell-Lipton, a law firm that we have used in the past for investigations in the past is overseeing it…”
“I never heard a whiff of anything around an endorsement deal with Kawhi [Leonard] or anything around an engagement with the Los Angeles Clippers.”
Silver responds as the NBA launches an investigation into whether the Clippers arranged a $28M endorsement deal for Kawhi Leonard. pic.twitter.com/LrwPAlrkMi
— ESPN (@espn) September 10, 2025
Having been in the league long enough, Silver continued, he believes in “due process and fairness” and should wait for the investigation to conclude.
