Money Stuff: The Podcast · Friday, September 11, 2026
An NBA investigation, conducted by Wachtell Lifton, has reportedly confirmed that the Los Angeles Clippers engaged in illicit payments to star player Kawhi Leonard. The investigation found that the Clippers funneled millions of dollars through shell companies for "environmental services" and "consulting fees," which ultimately ended up with Leonard through endorsement deals, bypassing NBA salary cap rules. This practice was initially reported by Pablo Torre.
“So it does seem like they paid Aspiration Partners millions of dollars for possibly fake tree planting. And then Aspiration turned around and paid that same amount of money to Kawhi Leonard. for probably fake endorsement deals. And in this way, the Clippers were able to retain his services.”
“And the NBA hired my old law firm, Wachtell Lifton, to do an investigation of this. And last week, they put out their report, and it's real bad for the Clippers. It basically confirms Paul Latorre's reporting and also finds a bunch of other endorsement deals that seem to have been both created and funded by the Clippers.”
“It was like the stadium display maker, basically, right?”