Clippers Make Announcement After New Steve Ballmer, Aspiration Allegations

The NBA is investigating a situation between the LA Clippers and a fraudulent company, Aspiration, after accusations that the Clippers were using this company to circumvent the salary cap and pay star forward Kawhi Leonard more than allowed.

Of course, on the surface, this situation seems like it will end poorly for Steve Ballmer and the Clippers, and as more information comes out, the worse it looks for every party involved.

Investigative journalist Pablo Torre continues to find out more about this situation, and recently discovered another $21 million payment from the Clippers to Aspiration, just two weeks before Leonard’s first paycheck from the company was due.

Torre finds out that the Clippers CFO signed off on this deal to buy $50 million worth of “carbon credits,” which Aspiration uses as part of their tree-planting initiative. This came after Mark Cuban, a huge Ballmer defender, said that this would be the smartest way for the Clippers to circumvent the salary cap effectively.

Of course, it was already reported that Ballmer himself invested $50 million into the company, and co-owner Dennis Wong invested a suspicious $2 million, as one of Leonard’s payments was running late. However, there always seems to be more coming out about it that digs the Clippers into a deeper hole.

Following the allegations of using this $21 million carbon credit deal to help pay Leonard, the Clippers’ organization released a statement, labeled “Our response to the recent report about Steve’s purchase of carbon credits:”

“Steve and his family are focused on sustainability, which is why Intuit Dome was designed to be a carbon neutral building from its inception and to achieve LEED Zero status over time.

“Our development agreements for the arena included mandates to buy carbon credits, but after studying the issue of neutrality, we went far beyond those requirements, exploring ways to address emissions from our fans and contracting with Aspiration to directly purchase carbon offets, as well as broker the acquisition of additional offsets.”

The Clippers continue their statement, mirroring Ballmer’s previous comment about how he was also “conned” by Aspiration.

“Some of those commitments were built into the sponsorship deal with Aspiration – totally separate of the investment of the company – and we made payments to Aspiration until the company was unable to fulfill their responsibilities.

“This effort reflects Steve wanting to set a positive example and raise awareness of the growing and important role of voluntary carbon markets. Unfortunately, he was duped on the investment and on some parts of this agreement, as were many other investors and employees.”

Of course, regardless of what the Clippers release to the public or what dirt Torre finds on Ballmer, it all comes down to what the NBA finds in its investigation.