Adam Silver says NBA will “take its time” in Kawhi Leonard’s investigation

The NBA will take its time in determining whether Kawhi Leonard’s business ties with a California company violated league salary cap rules, Commissioner Adam Silversaid on Wednesday.

Speaking after a board of governors meeting in New York, Silver stressed that the league will wait for the results of an outside investigation before drawing conclusions.

“We’re constantly learning in the league office and again, I’m reserving judgment because I don’t know the facts here,” Silver said. “I don’t know what Kawhi was paid. I don’t know what he did or didn’t do. We’ll leave all that for the investigation.”

The whole investigation centers around a $28 million endorsement deal between Leonard and sustainability services company Aspiration Fund Adviser, which has since filed for bankruptcy. Questions were first raised in a report by journalist Pablo Torre, prompting the league to launch its inquiry last week.

“I never heard a whiff of anything around an endorsement deal with Kawhi [Leonard] or anything around an engagement with the Los Angeles Clippers.”

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Silver responds as the NBA launches an investigation into whether the Clippers arranged a $28M endorsement deal for Kawhi Leonard. pic.twitter.com/LrwPAlrkMi

— ESPN (@espn) September 10, 2025

The Clippers have firmly denied any wrongdoing, insisting that the partnership was legitimate and expressing support for the league’s review.

Silver made it clear that fairness is central to the process: “I think as a matter of fundamental fairness, I would be reluctant to act if there was a mere appearance of impropriety. I think the goal of a full investigation is to find if there really was impropriety. … I would want anybody else in the situation that Mr. Ballmer is in now or Kawhi Leonard for that matter, to be treated the same way I would want to be treated if people were making allegations against me.”