The NBA is disputing an ESPN report on the latest in the investigation into allegations that the Los Angeles Clippers paid Kawhi Leonard outside the salary cap via sponsorship deals.
ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr., Baxter Holmes and Ramona Shelburne reported Monday that the NBA did not have evidence to show Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had funnelled money to Leonard through sponsors. The ESPN report added that the league is still digging into whether the introduction of Leonard to team sponsors violated rules prohibiting salary-cap circumvention and examining if the Clippers had a “failure to supervise” employees.
The Clippers and NBA are negotiating a resolution to the investigation, ESPN also reported, citing one source who said talks have been “spirited.”
Shortly after the report was published, the NBA released a statement on social media that read: “ESPN’s article regarding the LA Clippers investigation — for which the NBA declined to cooperate — contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded.”
The NBA did not specify which parts of the report were inaccurate.
ESPN responded to the NBA with its own statement, telling The Athletic that “We stand by our reporting, which included numerous attempts by ESPN to get comment from the NBA.”
The result of the investigation could determine the fate of an agreed-upon trade that would send Leonard from the Clippers to the Toronto Raptors, which the teams put on pause in July pending the result of the probe. Leonard and the Raptors are operating as though the trade will be finalized, ESPN and Sportsnet’s Michael Grange have reported.
Initial findings of the probe were presented to the Clippers in late July, according to ESPN.
The Clippers have strongly denied that any rules were broken.
In a statement to ESPN published Monday, the Clippers said the team “introduced players, including Kawhi Leonard, to companies with which we had business relationships. Making introductions between players and team partners is both an ordinary practice by NBA teams and a common request of players and representatives.”
The statement also said the team did not “negotiate or dictate” the terms of Leonard’s endorsement deals.
“The fact that a player has an endorsement relationship with a company that also does business with his team is not evidence of salary-cap circumvention,” the statement said.
Leonard and the Clippers have been under investigation for 11 months since reporter Pablo Torre revealed an alleged no-show sponsorship deal between the player and environmental bank Aspiration, which has since gone bankrupt.
A second alleged no-show deal between Leonard and Daktronics, the Clippers’ scoreboard maker, has since also been reported by Torre.
Per ESPN, the NBA investigation has also focused on a third deal with Boingo Wireless, a provider for the Clippers’ Intuit Dome.
Add CityNews Toronto as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.
