{"id":1971041,"date":"2026-06-04T01:11:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T22:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1971041"},"modified":"2026-06-04T01:11:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T22:11:25","slug":"adam-silver-on-clippers-aspiration-investigation-we-need-to-wrap-this-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1971041","title":{"rendered":"Adam Silver on Clippers-Aspiration investigation: \u2018We need to wrap this up\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SAN ANTONIO \u2014 NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday that it was \u201cclose to the point now where I think we need to wrap this up,\u201d regarding the league\u2019s investigation into whether the LA Clippers circumvented the salary cap.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou \u2026 need finality,\u201d Silver said during his annual news conference at the outset of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

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The league, through white-shoe law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz<\/a>, has been investigating since September whether the Clippers arranged a no-work, multi-million dollar endorsement deal for star player Kawhi Leonard through a team sponsor.<\/p>\n

In May, journalist Pablo Torre was awarded the Pulitzer Prize<\/a> for uncovering the links between the Clippers, Leonard, and now-bankrupt environmental company Aspiration, while earlier this week, Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in prison<\/a> for defrauding investors, including Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and his team.<\/p>\n

In September, Torre\u2019s podcast \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d found seven anonymous former employees for San Francisco-based Aspiration, an environmental start-up company partly funded by a $50 million investment from Ballmer, who said the four-year, $28 million endorsement deal Leonard received in 2022 was for a \u201cno-show job\u201d intended to \u201ccircumvent the (NBA) salary cap.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"Aspiration<\/p>\n
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\n Aspiration co-founder sentenced to 14 years in federal prison by judge\n <\/div>\n
\n Sanberg received 168 months in prison. Prosecutors said Sanberg was responsible for at least $248 million in losses.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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There is no publicly available evidence that Leonard ever did any work for Aspiration. Also, according to the Torre podcast, Clippers minority owner Dennis J. Wong made a $2 million investment in Aspiration, which was already running out of money. The company turned around and paid Leonard $1.75 million \u2014 as required through his endorsement contract with the environmental company.<\/p>\n

The Clippers, Ballmer and Leonard have repeatedly said they did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is that we get it right,\u201d Silver said Wednesday. \u201cI certainly hear many things all the time about the perception of what really happened or didn\u2019t happen here. I wouldn\u2019t be doing my job if, ultimately, I issue (his) determination based on perception. My job is to follow the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silver said the Wachtell Lipton law firm would produce a report of its months-long investigation, and then it\u2019s up to Silver to decide if there should be any punishment issued. He declined to set a specific date for when Wachtell\u2019s report might be delivered.<\/p>\n

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It is against NBA rules for a team to pay players additional salary outside of their league-approved contracts. If the NBA determines that Leonard\u2019s deal with Aspiration was a form of cap circumvention, Silver could punish the Clippers by fining them millions, stripping away future draft picks or even voiding Leonard\u2019s contract with the team.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"Whistleblower<\/p>\n
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\n Whistleblower accused Aspiration of helping Clippers evade salary cap for Kawhi: Report\n <\/div>\n
\n A 2023 SEC whistleblower account alleged that Aspiration helped the Clippers evade the cap to pay Kawhi Leonard “an incentivized bonus.”\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cThe team has to understand what situation they are going to be operating under, and so do the 29 other teams,\u201d Silver said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t be investigating forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other business, Silver said the NBA and its players\u2019 union need to decide whether current NBA players can be investors in NBA Europe franchises. Silver\u2019s office is in the final stages of negotiating with current and new European franchises to form a new league overseas, which is expected to launch in 2027.<\/p>\n

As The Athletic<\/em> first reported<\/a>, Lakers star Luka Don\u010di\u0107 is part of an investor group headed by former Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson that is seeking to bring a team to Rome as part of NBA Europe, but players are currently prohibited from owning portions of NBA teams.<\/p>\n

This week, Silver\u2019s office confirmed that it has had discussions with Don\u010di\u0107 about his interest in NBA Europe, but insisted there has been no determination yet whether players can invest in NBA Europe teams.<\/p>\n

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Also, Silver said said both he and Michael Jordan attempted to broker peace between former Knicks star Charles Oakley and team owner James Dolan, but neither was successful.<\/p>\n

Oakley has been at Knicks road games during this playoff run but remains banned from The Garden for trouble between them that goes back to 2017, when Oakley was ejected from the Garden by Dolan\u2019s security after years of criticizing Dolan for poor management of the team. Criminal charges were dismissed against Oakley, who has a civil lawsuit still pending against Dolan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate for the NBA that this is an ongoing situation,\u201d Silver said. \u201cI tried my best. So, I don\u2019t really see anything else I can do at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday that it was \u201cclose to the point now where I think we need to wrap this up,\u201d regarding the league\u2019s investigation into whether the LA Clippers circumvented the salary cap. \u201cYou \u2026 need finality,\u201d Silver said during his annual news conference at the outset of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1971041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1971041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1971041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1971041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1971041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}