2 hours ago 2

Kawhi Leonard's uncle reportedly asked Toronto to get the player 'no-show' endorsements in 2019

On Wednesday in New York, the NBA’s Board of Governors — the 30 NBA owners — are meeting. While discussion of league rules and other details will be on the agenda, the big topic will be the report that the Los Angeles Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer circumvented the salary cap by Kawhi Leonard having a “no-show” endorsement deal with a team sponsor, a “green bank” company called Aspiration that has since gone bankrupt with the CEO pleading guilty to defrauding investors. The NBA is now investigating the charges, and when Adam Silver meets with the media on Wednesday, that will be the main topic of conversation.

A new report from Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star says that when Leonard was a free agent in 2019, his uncle and manager Dennis Robertson — commonly referred to in league circles as Uncle Dennis — asked the Raptors for no-show endorsement deals at that time. As has been previously documented (and investigated by the league at the time), Uncle Dennis asked for a lot of things during that free agency.

Robertson asked for ownership stakes in outside companies: not just the (NHL’s Toronto) Leafs, which he seemed to believe was separate, but with other companies with whom [Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment] had a relationship. And two, the Raptors were told they needed to match at least $10 million per year in extra sponsorship income. Teams are allowed to introduce players to team sponsors; teams cannot negotiate deals, and MLSE was aware of that fact.

But it didn’t end there. As one source put it, when told about all the corporate sponsors in Toronto who would be happy to have Leonard as a pitchman, his camp said, “We don’t want to do anything.” Raptors representatives said any sponsor would want to shoot ads or arrange appearances; Robertson reiterated Leonard didn’t want to do anything for the money.

That does sound awfully familiar, and for a lot of fans and people around the league it just adds to the wave of circumstantial evidence in this case. That said, a couple of things should be noted here:

• While the no-show endorsement part with Toronto is new, Uncle Dennis asking in 2019 for stakes in the franchise, exclusive use of planes, a home, and much more is well known and something the NBA knew about. Uncle Dennis’s requests are the stuff of legend around the league. The NBA investigated this when the Clippers signed Leonard as a free agent and found no wrongdoing or illegal benefits.

• Even before Leonard was traded to Toronto in 2019, it was known around the league that he wanted to get back closer to where he grew up in Los Angeles. It was thought at the time that he would end up with the Lakers or Clippers as a free agent, and Leonard reportedly was not enamored with the idea of playing next to LeBron James, which gave the Clippers an edge. They pursued him hard, with Clippers’ team executive Lawrence Frank conspicuously attending many Raptors games, both home and away, that season. Despite all the rumors and actions by Uncle Dennis at the time, Leonard’s signing with the Clippers was not some out-of-the-blue surprise, and he signed a four-year max contract with the move.

The NBA’s investigation could head in numerous different directions, depending on whether they find any genuine connection between Ballmer or another Clipper employee and this no-show endorsement deal. Ballmer and the Clippers have vehemently denied any knowledge of impropriety or connection to the endorsement deal. In the initial investigation reported by Pablo Torre on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, he said he had seven different employees with Aspiration tell him this was about salary cap circumvention. This is where the NBA being a league run by lawyers — with an outside law firm running the investigation — will bog down in legal terminology. Employees at Aspiration being told by other people with the company that this was for salary cap circumvention does not prove the Clippers knew or participated in it (was it just an office rumor started by someone without direct knowledge?). It’s not that these people are lying or doing anything wrong, but it’s not the kind of direct evidence lawyers will demand. Also, another report surfaced that Aspiration gave other celebrities huge endorsement deals with little or no work required, however, as part of those contracts the endorsers then hired Aspiration back using part, but not all, of that endorsement money (which helped inflate the books for Aspiration, who could point to large contracts on their books). It’s unclear if Leonard was involved in such a deal and, if so, whether the Clippers were aware of it.

When Mark Cuban appeared on Pablo Torre Finds Out to defend Ballmer, he suggested it was possible this was simply Uncle Dennis and a fraudulent company working together, and that the Clippers were genuinely unaware.

We simply have more questions than answers at this point. About all of it. The NBA’s investigation will try to answer them, but it’s possible that the evidence we currently have is basically all we will have. While that looks bad in the court of public opinion, whether it would be enough for other owners to bring the hammer down on one of their own is up for debate.