{"id":495313,"date":"2025-09-04T04:43:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T08:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=495313"},"modified":"2025-09-04T04:43:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T08:43:29","slug":"nba-starts-investigation-after-report-of-kawhi-leonard-receiving-28m-off-the-books","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/nba-starts-investigation-after-report-of-kawhi-leonard-receiving-28m-off-the-books\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA starts investigation after report of Kawhi Leonard receiving $28M off the books"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard is at the center of controversy after investigative journalist Pablo Torre reported that the forward received $28 million off the books from the franchise.<\/p>\n<p>According to Torre, documents show the money was funneled through a landscaping company, which had been financed with $50 million by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. The arrangement was allegedly designed to circumvent the NBA\u2019s strict salary-cap regulations.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Exclusive: Kawhi Leonard signed a $28M endorsement deal for a &#8220;no-show job&#8221; with a fraudulent tree-planting company funded by $50M from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, according to documents obtained by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PabloTorre?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@PabloTorre<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was to circumvent the salary cap,&#8221; an inside source says. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/F6z5pNEkI1\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/F6z5pNEkI1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pablofindsout\/status\/1963180670810767577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">September 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Such practices are explicitly forbidden. The league has precedent for severe punishment in similar cases \u2014 most notably in the late 1990s, when the Minnesota Timberwolves were stripped of five first-round draft picks, fined millions of dollars, and saw Joe Smith\u2019s contract voided after an illegal salary-cap scheme. Smith was later forced to sign elsewhere, joining the Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Los Angeles Clippers statement on Kawhi Leonard: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wl0jUo9ZaY\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/wl0jUo9ZaY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBACentel (@TheNBACentel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheNBACentel\/status\/1963406555631546503?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">September 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The NBA confirmed it has launched an investigation into the allegations involving Leonard and the Clippers. Leonard is one of the league\u2019s most decorated active players, a six-time All-Star, two-time NBA champion, two-time Finals MVP, and a member of the NBA\u2019s 75th Anniversary Team. He is currently in the first season of a three-year, $150 million contract that runs through 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard is at the center of controversy after investigative journalist Pablo Torre reported that the forward received $28 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":495314,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17987,17188,17837],"news_category":[16706,16715],"gn_keywords":[18927,18478,1067],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"Allegedly Clippers paid Leonard $50 million through landscaping company","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495315,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495313\/revisions\/495315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495313"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=495313"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=495313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}