Steve Ballmer and the Clippers, Under NBA Investigation
Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and the team are at the center of an NBA investigation. The reason is a report suggesting that Kawhi Leonard allegedly accepted a $28 million sponsorship deal from the company Aspiration, with the aim of circumventing the league’s salary cap.
Ballmer, who previously invested $50 million in Aspiration, has denied having knowledge of the agreement or having instructed the company to establish it.What Was Aspiration?
Aspiration Partners was founded in 2013 by Joe Sanberg and Andrei Cherny. The company offered “socially conscious and sustainable” banking and investment services. Its motto was: “Do well. Do good.” Sanberg was a member of Aspiration’s board of directors and owned around 30% of its shares in September 2021. Cherny was the CEO of Aspiration for almost a decade.The Aspiration Business Model
Aspiration presented itself as a digital bank with an environmental focus. It promised that customers’ deposits “would never finance fossil fuel projects.” Its products included savings accounts and debit cards with cash back from selected companies and the option to plant a tree with each purchase.Featured Investors in Aspiration
Among Aspiration’s investors were figures like Robert Downey Jr., Orlando Bloom, Leonardo DiCaprio, Doc Rivers, and Cindy Crawford with her daughter Kaia Gerber. It also had corporate deals with Meta, Microsoft, and, ultimately, the LA Clippers.The Connection Between Ballmer, Leonard, and the Clippers with Aspiration
According to reports, Ballmer invested $50 million in Aspiration in September 2021. In the same month, the Clippers signed a $300 million deal with Aspiration, becoming the “first founding partner” of the Intuit Dome. The deal included a “Planet Protection Fund”.
Ballmer stated that Aspiration requested him to introduce Leonard to the company in November 2021. In April 2022, Leonard allegedly agreed to a $28 million sponsorship deal with Aspiration.
In addition, it was revealed that Dennis Wong, a minority owner of the Clippers, invested nearly $2 million in Aspiration in 2022, days before Leonard received a $1.75 million payment from the company. Ballmer invested an additional $10 million in Aspiration in March 2023.The NBA’s Reaction
The NBA is investigating whether Ballmer and the Clippers violated league rules. Commissioner Adam Silver stated that the league must prove any irregularities and analyze “the totality of the evidence”.What Happened to Aspiration?
Aspiration’s former CEO, Cherny, left the company in 2022. Aspiration filed for bankruptcy in March, with a reported debt of $170 million. The company owed $30 million to the Clippers and $7 million to Leonard’s company.
Aspiration co-founder Sanberg pleaded guilty to wire fraud for defrauding investors and lenders of $248 million. Ballmer expressed his “shame” for not detecting problems in Aspiration’s finances, stating that he was “scammed”.
