Kawhi Leonard responds to Pablo Torre’s reporting: ‘We invite the investigations’

Since the beginning of September, Pablo Torre Finds Out has been doling out fresh reporting and uncovering new details surrounding the Los Angeles Clippers’ alleged use of team sponsor Aspiration as a means to circumvent the NBA salary cap and pay Kawhi Leonard tens of millions of dollars in addition to his salary for a “no-show” endorsement job.

In fact, Torre dropped a new nugget Monday, alleging that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s philanthropy arm made a $1.875 million donation to Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg’s charity 10 months after the Clippers had ended its business relationship with Aspiration and Ballmer had claimed Sanberg defrauded him. While not particularly damning on its own, it’s yet another detail that ties Ballmer, the Clippers, and Aspiration into a complex financial situation where payments from the team appear to align with those made to Leonard.

While some have attempted to undermine Torre and his team’s reporting, the case has only grown stronger, and the NBA has launched an investigation into the Clippers in response.

Ballmer went to ESPN to categorically deny any wrongdoing, and the former Aspiration CEO has claimed there was nothing shady going on. Still, we had yet to hear from Leonard himself.

That changed Monday when the Clippers held their media day, and their superstar had to face questions about the allegations for the first time.

Kawhi Leonard says the NBA will do their job, and that nobody did any wrongdoing pic.twitter.com/8QdGBVSbey

— Law Murray ❓ (@LawMurrayTheNU) September 29, 2025

“It’s easy for me,” he said when asked how he’s not letting the NBA investigation distract him. “I don’t read headlines or do conspiracy theories or anything like that. It’s about the season and what we got ahead of us right now.”

Leonard was then asked if he had any thoughts to share on the reports and accusations. He remained adamant that there was nothing to see here.

Kawhi Leonard echoed the Clippers comments, saying there was no wrongdoing done:

“The NBA is going to do their job. None of us did no wrongdoing. That’s it. We invite the investigations. It’s not going to be a distraction for me or my team.” pic.twitter.com/NJh4dngdpK

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) September 29, 2025

“The NBA is going to do their job. None of us did no wrongdoing. That’s it. We invite the investigations. It’s not going to be a distraction for me or the rest of the team.”

We’re not sure we agree with Leonard’s assessment that this situation will not be a distraction or linger over the season. If the NBA were to determine that Ballmer and the Clippers purposefully tried to circumvent the salary cap, the punishments could be damning. There’s no timeframe for when the league will make its decision. There’s also no telling what else Torre or other reporters will uncover. So while Leonard is probably right to put his head down and focus on basketball, this storm is going to continue brewing for the foreseeable future.