Rumors

Attorneys representing Steve Ballmer are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges the LA Clippers owner participated in a fraud by funneling money to star Kawhi Leonard through a now-defunct green banking company, calling the allegations "sensational" and "patently false," according to court documents. The filing is in response to a lawsuit initially filed on July 9, 2025, by 11 investors in Aspiration, which filed for bankruptcy in March of that same year. The lawsuit alleged the investors were defrauded out of millions by Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg and others at the company.

ESPN

Ballmer's attorneys have asked the court to determine that the investors failed to allege facts sufficient enough to state a legal claim. Ballmer's lawyers also asked for the case to be dismissed. A hearing is scheduled for March 9, 2026, at Los Angeles County Superior Court in downtown Los Angeles.

ESPN

Pablo Torre: Kawhi Leonard bought an LA penthouse in 2019 from the co-founder of Steve Ballmer's fellow "marquee investor" in Aspiration, records show, the day after Uncle Dennis started a mysterious LLC — and after the NBA investigated his rule-breaking demands for a house in free agency.

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Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has earned a good reputation with fellow owners, and his net worth is around $150 billion. When speaking to people in the league, these are important factors to consider. "You have to be careful getting into a [legal] fight with someone like Ballmer. You have to have the evidence," one rival team president said. (Ballmer and the Clippers have strongly denied salary cap circumvention allegations that came out after reporting by the "Pablo Torre Finds Out" podcast.)

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Oh No He Didn't: "I've talked to Chris, I've talked to Steve Ballmer but frankly not about this. I probably was in bed when I saw an alert on my phone. I would say I was dismayed just for everyone involved...I would love to see him finish off the season on another team"

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However, Amick finds this approach baffling, especially because of how intense the competition in the Western Conference has become. Additionally, with Ballmer still being patient with stars like Leonard, he leaves the team stranded even when the Clippers are losing and are unable to build any chemistry. Amick proclaims this approach to be blatantly “awful.” “Steve Ballmer, man, has got this inexplicable, in my opinion, borderline insane addiction to this group. I don’t understand it because when you talk about Kawhi, the level of scrutiny and distraction which has come from that partnership with Kawhi has been so problematic, but Steve has never wavered,” Amick said on the “Run It Back” show. “They keep rocking with this group, knowing all of their contracts are coming up in a couple of years, and they’ve been looking at the summer of 2027 for quite some time, and it seems like they’re sticking down this road as bad as this is. It’s awful… I don’t see them blowing it up; I see them continue to do stuff around the edges and pull this thing out,” he added.

basketballnetwork.net

NBA on Prime: Blake Griffin: I'm just disappointed. To be honest. I can't think of really another word. Obviously shocked at first. But disappointed. I'm disappointed for Chris Paul. But I'm disappointed in the Clippers organization. I mean, Chris Paul is a guy who came to the Clippers, when DeAndre and I were first and second-year guys. He brought a winning culture. He taught us how to operate in the NBA, and how to take every game seriously, how to take your body seriously, that there was no detail that was too small. And we weren't perfect, right? Like, we created ultimately win a championship. I know that. I'm reminded of it every day. And CP and I didn't always see eye to eye. But I'm disappointed because we got to a franchise that was synonymous with jokes. Right? You heard the Clippers, and you heard the curse. And, again, we didn't win a championship, but we did create a culture and an environment that people respected. You know, every year, you knew the Clippers were gonna be competitive. And Chris Paul, for 20 years, has been the same player. He's been about winning. And, you know, re-signed with the Clippers. This was supposed to be his moment, his, you know, coming back to LA. You know, 'I'm giving it one last go.' And for him to not get to walk out on his own terms, from the franchise that he chose to go to to end his career, is extremely disappointing. But I think the biggest reason I'm disappointed is what Chris said: No communication with Ty Lue. And, even more than that, you know, no communication -- I talked to CP Wednesday, I talked to him yesterday, I talked to him today -- no communication with Steve Ballmer. And that's, like, the disappointing thing for me. #NBAonPrime

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The Athletic’s Law Murray on Clippers: This team has been very committed to Kawhi Leonard and very committed to James Harden. Before that, they were very committed to Paul George. Paul George isn't there because the CBA changed. If the CBA was the same CBA as the previous one compared to what we have now, the Clippers would have paid Paul George because Steve Ballmer was like, ‘What luxury tax? Who cares?’ There's so many penalties under the CBA that they had to tell Paul, ‘Look, you got to be reasonable if we're building a team a certain type of way.’ The partnership with James is so strong that James’ contract is the way it is. They were able to get players, get someone like Bradley Beal. There's a big partnership there and the Clippers having a plan, a current plan and the next plan. Steve Ballmer is like, ‘Yeah, I'd rather work with these guys and try and find someone else’. Someone else from the outside is going to have to do it with an old team and new relationships and no first-round picks in the foreseeable future. It's kind of hard to recruit. I mean, LA is nice, Intuit Dome's nice, but that's still a situation where it's not it's not the best situation to get the best guy for the job, if that makes sense. So, if that's the case, you can make a change, but are you going to be better or you’re just spinning your wheels? If you're going to spin your wheels, I think they've concluded that doing it with the guys in place is the best option.

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Joey Linn: Lawrence Frank: “I’m very confident this will be a destination franchise as long as Steve is owning the team.”

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"When can we expect a decision," West asked. "Don't want to be a pest and frankly don't want to bother Dennis anymore, if you hear anything please let me know. Thank you for all your help." West relayed updates to owner Steve Ballmer throughout the process. Two days after that exchange, Leonard signed a three-year, $103.14 million contract with the Clippers. The allegations sparked an NBA investigation that concluded the Clippers did not violate league tampering rules. Wilkes said in his deposition he informed Robertson of his payment proposal and offered him a cut.

RealGM

Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has just been sued by 11 Aspiration investors who allege that Ballmer used the company — which is now called Catona — “to secretly funnel millions of dollars to star NBA player, Kawhi Leonard.” According to the complaint: “These funds would be channeled through [Aspiration] to Leonard so that Ballmer could induce Leonard to re-sign with the Clippers by covertly paying him more than allowed by the NBA’s salary cap rules.” The plaintiffs allege that “Ballmer was complicit in and aided and abetted [co-founder Joe] Sanberg’s fraud for his own self-serving purpose.” They continue: “Absent Ballmer’s support, [Aspiration] could not have sustained the frauds set forth herein.”

Pablo Torre Finds Out

Aspiration investor Skip Miller — who is also the plaintiffs’ Los Angeles-based counsel — said in a statement to PTFO: “A lot of people have been hurt here. This lawsuit is being brought to recoup their losses. We look forward to our day in court where everything will be aired out and justice will be done.” According to the 11 investors’ complaint: “Plaintiffs allege that Ballmer transferred other funds to [Aspiration] to keep the company afloat and buy Sanberg’s support, cooperation and silence about the secret deal with Leonard. The full extent of Ballmer’s transfers of funds to [Aspiration] and Sanberg will be ascertained in discovery.”

Pablo Torre Finds Out

Do you expect this to be a long investigation? Adam Silver: I really don’t know. I can say it will take some time, just based on past experience. From the reporting so far, many of the sources are anonymous, but there are several of them. And you have here a separate court proceeding. We have a guilty plea [by Aspiration cofounder Joe Sanberg for wire fraud]. So there’s a fair amount of evidence for us to look at. The stakes are very high here. We, as a league, want to be careful and make sure that not only are we being fair to the Clippers and Steve Ballmer, but also that we have a true understanding of whatever happened here.

Sports Illustrated

Outside the courtroom following Monday's hearing, Sanberg declined comment to reporters and referred questions to his attorney, who declined to answer a question regarding whether Sanberg conspired with Ballmer to circumvent the NBA's salary cap rules through Leonard's sponsorship deal. "We're not going to comment on any of that right now," Mukasey said. "We're just happy that we got through today's proceeding and that Joe accepted responsibility for what he's charged with. Others matters may play out in the future. We'll see."

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