Kawhi Leonard $28 million contract mystery takes another twist
The former CEO of Aspiration has denied the existence of Kawhi Leonard’s ‘no show’ agreement.
The Kawhi Leonard contract mystery, involving a reported $28 million for doing nothing, is not going away. The smoke is too strong for interested sports fans to fan out of their eyes, but neither is there any sign of a fire.
Here’s a summary in case you’ve missed it: back in 2022, a company called Aspiration signed a four-year, $28 million endorsement deal with Kawhi Leonard. However, prior to that deal being struck, in September 2021, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had invested $50 million in the company through his personal LLC, only for the NBA side to announce a $300 million partnership with Aspiration two weeks later.
The story first broke thanks to the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, after which Steve Ballmer himself quickly moved to distance himself from the deals; later, ESPN reported that “an unnamed employee who purportedly worked for Aspiration told Torre that the payment to Leonard was indeed put in place “to circumvent the salary cap" with Kawhi not fulfilling any duties.
Gil was right, Ballmer was paying Kawhi Leonard to circumvent the NBA salary cap 🔮 pic.twitter.com/oKfGDkDMuS
— Gil’s Arena (@GilsArenaShow) September 3, 2025
With the winds blowing at gale-force speeds around the story that gets murkier by the moment, former CEO of Aspiration, Andrei Cherny has taken to social media to provide the latest twist.
Writing on Twitter, Cherny said: “it’s been surprising (though maybe it shouldn’t be) that until now no reporter has bothered to reach out to me for the facts about that contract." He also added that the claims of the ‘no-show’ deal are “false” and that the deal “contained three pages of extensive obligations that Leonard had to perform.”
Full statement from Andrei Cherny:
The claim that the contract with Kawhi Leonard was a "no show" contract is false. The contract contained three pages of extensive obligations that Leonard had to perform. And the contract clearly said that if Leonard did not meet those obligations, Aspiration could terminate the contract. The “beliefs” provision is not unusual in celebrity endorsements and merely means we can’t do something like make a vegetarian eat meat as a way of forcing them to break the contract. It doesn’t mean you can have a “belief” of not talking to a camera.
In the months of discussion among our executives before signing the sponsorship, I don’t remember conversations about the NBA salary cap. I signed the contract shortly before I submitted my resignation, but before I left there were numerous internal conversations about the various things Aspiration was planning to do with Leonard once the 2022-23 season began, including emails from the marketing team about their plans in just the week before my last day. I can’t speak to what was done or not done after I left – or why.
Joe Sanberg is now pleading guilty to criminal acts that were among the reasons that I decided to resign from Aspiration in 2022 and that the company eventually went bankrupt. Those now calling our company a “fraud” are blaming the victims. Along with all our customers and investors, it is those of us who worked at Aspiration and gave years of our lives to its mission who were hurt most by what Sanberg did.
This tweet came out after Torre reported that Clippers limited partner Dennis J. Wong invested $1.99 million in Aspiration in 2022, just nine days before the company missed a $1.75 million payment to Leonard. The Athletic added on Friday that Ballmer contributed an additional $10 million to Aspiration in 2023 during a fundraising round that included other previous investors.
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The NBA is currently investigating whether either Ballmer or the Clippers violated league rules; the former denies any knowledge of the deal.
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