SAN ANTONIO — All season long, there has been a cloud darkening the skies over the LA Clippers and the NBA, an investigation into owner Steve Ballmer and the organization allegedly using former team sponsor Aspiration to funnel money to Kawhi Leonard outside of his contract.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver sounds ready for that investigation to be over. That investigation is being handled by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, independent of the NBA, and has been ongoing since September.
“My instruction to them is, you know, we can’t be investigating forever, and at some point we have to wrap it up, but at the same time, I think the most important thing is we get it right,” Silver said during his annual media address before the start of the NBA Finals.
The Pablo Torre Finds Out Podcast — which won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting in this case — found multiple former employees of Aspiration who said Leonard was given a “no-show” endorsement contract that was simply a workaround to funnel more money to Leonard outside of his contract with the team — a blatant violation of league rules. Joseph Sanberg, the founder of Aspiration (a “green bank” company), has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for defrauding his investors.
The Clippers and Ballmer have consistently and vehemently denied any wrongdoing, with Ballmer saying he was duped, like other investors (Ballmer invested more than $50 million in Aspiration).
Silver had no timeline for when the investigation will wrap up, but he understands that this dragging out is not a great look for the league.
“I certainly hear and read things all the time about the perception of what really happened or didn’t happen here, and I think my only reaction is I wouldn’t be doing my job if ultimately I issued a determination based on perception,” Silver said. “My job is to follow the facts.”
Once the law firm finishes its report and hands it over to Silver, he has to take it to a neutral arbitrator — as required by the CBA — who will review the evidence and decide to give Silver the authority to punish the Clippers or say there is not enough evidence to move forward. While nothing is official, the buzz in league circles is that the law firm found some incriminating evidence, and the league will want to come down hard on Ballmer and the Clippers.
Silver spoke on several other issues during his annual media availability.
• Silver had no formal update on plans to expand in Seattle and Las Vegas, but said the effort is moving forward.
“There’s multiple groups interested in both cities. We are in discussions with them…” Silver said. “What we have told all interested parties, our anticipation is our Board will make a decision by the end of this calendar year.”
• Silver said the NBA has not made a decision about active NBA players being able to own part of NBA Europe franchises. It’s become an issue because the Lakers’ Luka Doncic is part of a group that purchased a smaller team in the Italian league, intending to move it to Rome and become a founding member of NBA Europe.
“Our bidding process is continuing,” Silver said of finding the 12 permanent members of NBA Europe (the other four spots in the annual tournament will be filled by teams that play their way in). “The end of this month, bids will be due, and presumably we’ll be in a position in the fall to award franchises…
“In terms of whether it’s Luka Doncic or other players owning teams, that’s not been resolved yet. That’s an issue we have to work through with our Players Association. I will just add I think part of the determination will be what the basketball relationship will be between these teams… and the NBA.”
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