An ESPN report Monday afternoon appeared to partially exonerate L.A. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer in a NBA investigation surrounding whether the team illegally circumvented the salary cap to funnel extra money to veteran star Kawhi Leonard.
However, the NBA quickly disputed the report and added even more confusion to the investigation that is now nearing a full year in length; ESPN is one of the league’s current media partners.
“ESPN’s article regarding the LA Clippers investigation — for which the NBA declined to cooperate — contains numerous and significant inaccuracies,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said. “The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded.”
The further delay on a resolution in the matter had some fans on social media growing distrustful of how the NBA is handling the Clippers-Leonard investigation.
“Literally no one believes this; you’ve completely tanked your credibility,” X user @GhostofQuincy wrote in a reply to the NBA’s statement on the ESPN report. “Obviously looking the other way to avoid upsetting your richest owner.”
Fans also took shots at NBA commissioner Adam Silver while making references to Silver’s predecessor and former boss David Stern.
“NBA becomes a complete joke if cheating the CBA is not severely punished,” X user @bpbone wrote. “Adam Silver driving the NBA off of a cliff with his cowardice.”
“Why make a statement if the investigation hasn’t concluded?” X user @1cyber_troll added. “Silver is the worst commissioner in sports. David Stern is rolling in his grave.”
Citing “three people with knowledge of discussions” between the Clippers and the NBA, ESPN broke a story Monday saying “the NBA has found no evidence showing LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through team sponsors to pay Kawhi Leonard in order to circumvent the salary cap.”
The NBA employed law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate Leonard and the Clippers following a series of reports from former ESPN journalist Pablo Torre.
Torre, who now leads an investigative journalism podcast called “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” first reported last year that Leonard had a “no-show,” $28 million endorsement deal with now-defunct company Aspiration.
Through a contract worth $300 million, Aspiration was a sponsor of the recently-opened Intuit Dome, where the Clippers started playing their home games in 2024.
Ex-Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg was charged with defrauding investors — including Ballmer, who invested $60 million in the company — out of $248 million; in June, Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison.
Ballmer painted himself a victim of Sanberg, and has maintained the Clippers‘ innocence during the investigation into a potential salary cap circumvention scheme.
In recent weeks, Torre and his team also uncovered documents that linked Leonard to an endorsement deal with Clippers team sponsor Daktronics, which designed the video board inside the Intuit Dome.
Whether the Clippers failed to supervise employees in making introductions between team sponsors and Leonard violated rules is now the focus of the NBA investigation, according to Monday’s ESPN report. However, connecting players with team sponsors is considered a normal occurrence in the NBA, although teams are not allowed to directly influence any potential endorsement deals between the player and the sponsor.
While the NBA investigation continues, Leonard’s potential trade from the Clippers to the Toronto Raptors, which was agreed to on June 30, remains in limbo.
Despite the NBA’s critical response to Monday’s report, ESPN stood by its reporting in a statement to Awful Announcing.
“We stand by our reporting, which included numerous attempts by ESPN to get comment from the NBA,” ESPN said.
While it is prudent to complete a thorough investigation that is not rushed, the length of the inquiry, combined with Torre’s consistent reporting, is creating unrest among fans and neutral observers.
When that happens in our current media environment, as the NBA is now witnessing, credibility concerns among the public grow, while the the lack of clarity gets replaced with whatever theory makes sense to an individual fan at any given moment.
