Former Aspiration CEO denies irregularities in Kawhi Leonard contract
The former CEO of Aspiration, the company linked to Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, denied accusations that it was used to evade the NBA salary cap. Andrei Cherny, who left the company in 2022, stated that Kawhi Leonard’s contract was not a “phantom contract”.Last week, the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” reported that Aspiration had agreed to a four-year, $28 million sponsorship deal with Leonard in 2022. Ballmer invested $50 million in the company through his personal LLC in September 2021, and the Clippers announced a $300 million partnership with Aspiration two weeks later. An anonymous employee who allegedly worked for Aspiration told Torre that the payment to Leonard “was to circumvent the salary cap”. On Thursday, Torre reported that Clippers limited partner Dennis J. Wong invested $1.99 million in Aspiration in 2022, nine days before the company made a past-due payment of $1.75 million to Leonard. Ballmer invested an additional $10 million in Aspiration in 2023 as part of a funding round with other previous Aspiration investors. In a statement obtained by Torre, three former Aspiration executives who reported to Cherny said they disagreed with the company’s decision to sign the agreement with Leonard, as it “did not reflect any previously communicated strategy.” When contacted, Mike Shuckerow, former chief operating officer and general counsel of the company, confirmed the content of the statement.“The contract contained three pages of extensive obligations that Leonard had to fulfill,” Cherny wrote in a statement on X. “And the contract clearly stated that if Leonard did not fulfill those obligations, Aspiration could terminate the contract.”
Andrei Cherny
The NBA is investigating whether Ballmer or the Clippers violated league rules. The Clippers have denied any wrongdoing, and Ballmer has said he was unaware of the sponsorship deal and that he directed the company to sign it. In his statement on X, Cherny said he signed the contract with Leonard in 2022.“The team expressed its concern at the time about the high cost of the deal and its lack of alignment with Aspiration’s brand and business strategy,” they said in the statement. “While subsequent marketing efforts were undertaken, they were ultimately suspended and should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the deal itself.”
Statement from former Aspiration executives
Aspiration declared bankruptcy in 2025, and its co-founder Joe Sanberg pleaded guilty last month to two counts of wire fraud for defrauding investors and lenders of more than $248 million.“In the months of discussion among our executives before signing the sponsorship, I don’t recall conversations about the NBA salary cap,” Cherny said. “I signed the contract shortly before submitting my resignation, but before I left there were numerous internal conversations about the various things Aspiration planned to do with Leonard once the 2022-23 season began. … I can’t speak to what was or wasn’t done after I left, nor why.”
Andrei Cherny
