While most NBA media day press conferences follow a similar script, there was genuine intrigue about what we’d hear from the Clippers and most notably Kawhi Leonard.Â
Monday was the first time Leonard answered questions from the media since the bombshell reports of alleged cap circumvention tied to a questionable endorsement deal with the now-bankrupt company Aspiration. Leonard never did anything publicly to endorse Aspiration, which made the $28 million deal he signed with them (and the additional $20 million deal for stock in the company) look extremely fishy.Â
Steve Ballmer and the Clippers had financial ties to the company as well, creating further questions that the league is now investigating. While they have issued numerous statements about various reports, Leonard offered his first comments Monday. The star spent the first three minutes of his press conference answering questions about the situation, and here is everything he said.Â
Kawhi Leonard investigation: What potential punishments could mean for the Clippers, Steve Ballmer and the NBA
Sam Quinn
When asked about if there was any difficulty to dealing with the distraction of the reports and the investigation as the season got started, Leonard quickly shrugged it off.Â
“It’s easy for me,” Leonard said. “I don’t read headlines or do conspiracy theories or anything like that. It’s about the season and what we’ve got ahead of us right now. Tomorrow we’ll start camp, and see what we got.”
When asked if he had any reaction to the reports or a statement about the situation, Leonard had a brief response.Â
“Um, no. The NBA’s gonna do their job. None of us did no wrongdoing. And, yeah, that’s it,” Leonard said. “We invite the investigations. It’s not gonna be a distraction for me or the rest of the team.”
Leonard was asked whether he was aware of the details of the contract, what he was supposed to receive from Aspiration and what he was supposed to do for that compensation.Â
“I understand the full contract and the services I had to do,” Leonard said. “Like I said, I don’t deal with the conspiracies or clickbait analysts or journalism that’s going on. So that’s what it is.”
When pressed on the reports he didn’t actually do anything as part of the deal, Leonard shifted the focus to this being an old story for him.Â
“I don’t think it’s accurate. But, it’s old,” Leonard said. “This is all new to you guys. The company went bankrupt awhile ago, so, we already knew this was going to happen.”Â
Leonard was then asked if he got paid everything he was owed and said he had not.Â
“Uh, no. But the company went belly up,” Leonard said. “It was fraud, as everybody knows. If you want any more questions or details about that company you need to ask the owner or whoever else is involved in the fraud that went on.”Â
He was asked if the reports he was still owed $7 million was accurate, he said he didn’t know the exact number but thought it was actually more.Â
“I’m not sure, I gotta look back at the books,” Leonard said. “No, it’s more than that for sure.”
Finally, he was asked if he knew how much he made from that deal, and he couldn’t recall.
“No, it was like two, three, four years ago,” Leonard said.Â
From that point the conversation shifted to basketball, but it was certainly a fascinating back-and-forth to open his presser, with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, who did the first sit-down interview with Steve Ballmer after the story broke, asking the questions about the contract details.Â
Calling it a conspiracy theory and then confirming many of the details about the contract was interesting, to say the least. Noting he was owed more than the $7 million initially reported is also noteworthy, and the league will undoubtedly look into all of this.Â
Leonard echoed the Clippers’ line of welcoming the investigation, but we’ll find out once that investigation is completed — which likely won’t be for some time — if Leonard and the Clippers said that for good reason, or if the league sees the situation differently, as most others do from what’s been reported. Â
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