The former CEO of the aspiration says that the idea Kawhi Leonard had “a non-presentation contract is false”

All Case of bypassing the salary ceiling against Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers Based on this premise: Kawhi Leonard had a “non-presenting” approval contract with the aspiration of the sponsor of the Clippers. This approval paid him $ 48 million ($ 28 million in payments, 20 million dollars in action purchase options now worthless), but there is no evidence that he did promotional work for the company (no appearance, no marketing, no messages on social networks).

Andrei Cherny, the former suction CEO, published a statement postponing the idea that Leonard had a “non -presentation” contract – the approval contract listed the things he had to do – and said that there had never been a discussion on the NBA’s salary ceiling during discussions on the contract. He added that the “beliefs” clause much discussed in Leonard’s contract – that he could not be forced to do everything he did not believe – is standard in celebrity contracts and does not apply to things like talking to the camera or publishing on social networks.

Cherny’s position led the former members of the aspiration management team to the time pushing the idea that Leonard’s approval was supported by most of the management.

Two things can be true. As Cherny noted, Leonard’s approval contract had specific provisions he had to fulfill – an eight -hour “working day”, making five publications on social networks (including retweets) during a year, and more.

As true: there is no evidence that he has ever made this work. However, the checks continued to come.

What the mowers can discuss – and what could take a break from other owners when the time comes to punish Los Angeles – is that it is not their work for the approval contracts of the police. The clippers can claim that they were in no way involved in what Leonard did or did not do with suction. The other owners and the players’ union will hesitate to create a precedent where the team must monitor the approval agreements.

Ballmer and the Clippers vehemently denied any reprehensible actWith Ballmer saying that he was “duped” by the aspiration and its founder, like many other investors. He and the Clippers said on several occasions that they had nothing to do with Leonard’s approval agreements.

However, it is difficult for clippers and Ballmer to take the odor test given the entire evidence, including investments with suction. Ballmer made a personal investment of $ 50 million in suction in 2021, and months later, Leonard had an approval contract with the company which was finally worth $ 48 million. In December 2022, after it became clear that the aspiration failed, The owner of the Clippers minority, Dennis Wong, made an investment of $ 2 million in The company. Shortly after, Leonard received a delay in an approval contract of $ 1.75 million. In March 2023, when things were bad at the suction and that he had trouble making payments, Ballmer made another $ 10 million investment.

From Commissioner Adam Silver and the point of view of the League, the bar is high to prove that the clippers tried to bypass the ceiling.
Silver said this week that the burden of evidence was on the league – who hired a law firm to investigate as a third neutral part – and that he “would be reluctant to act if there was somehow only a simple appearance of irregularity”.

Expect that the NBA investigation takes place in the NBA season, a cloud that will hang out the league even when the game gives tips.