The big news in the NBA on Wednesday is the accusation that the Los Angeles Clippers tried to circumvent the league’s salary cap when it came to paying Kawhi Leonard, their star forward.

According to ESPN, both parties entered into a contract separate from Leonard’s official team contract through each party’s respective LLC in April 2022 for four years and $28 million. Documents regarding this deal were obtained by podcaster Pablo Torre, who reported this allegation during an episode of “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”

The LLC on the Clippers’ side was a personal one started by team owner Steve Ballmer. That entity filed for bankruptcy this March.

Needless to say, this is a very serious allegation that could result in harsh penalties for the Clippers. But former Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban doesn’t believe Ballmer did what he has been accused of.

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“I’m on Team Ballmer.

As much as I wish they circumvented the salary cap, First Steve isn’t that dumb. If he did try to feed KL money, knowing what was at stake for him personally, and his team, do you think he would let the company go bankrupt ? Knowing all creditors would be visible to the world ?

“They got scammed by Aspiration, along with many others. Crimes for which they pleaded guilty last week.

“Scammers do scammy things. They did a $300m sponsorship deal with the clippers in 2021. That’s a HUGE deal. The better the team does , the more value the sponsorship has. It actually makes perfect sense that if they stole money from investors and want the clippers to succeed, why not give stolen money to help keep their best player ? It’s sad that @PabloTorre didn’t take the time to find out how these scammers pulled off their scam. The idea that the default is Ballmer is the bad guy is going to back fire on him,” the post reads.

Leonard started out his career with the San Antonio Spurs during the 2011-12 season. He slowly evolved into a star, and he won the 2014 NBA Finals MVP when the Spurs won their fifth world championship of the Tim Duncan era.

But his tenure with the franchise ended in controversy when he appeared in just nine games during the 2017-18 campaign due to an injury concern that team doctors claimed wasn’t as serious as Leonard felt it was.

The forward was traded to the Toronto Raptors in 2018 and led them to the NBA title in his first season there. He then signed with the Clippers as a free agent in July 2019.

Leonard has always been regarded as an enigma because of his chronic injury problems and his extremely introverted (and some would say odd) personality. But when healthy, he continues to be a force on both ends of the floor, even though he’s now in his mid-30s.

He has made the All-Star team six times and has claimed two championships and two finals MVP awards. Unfortunately for him, his time with the Clippers hasn’t been fruitful, as they have gotten to the Western Conference finals just once and haven’t won a playoff series since 2021.

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The franchise, per NBA salary cap rules, could be facing penalties such as hefty fines, forfeiture of draft picks or even the voiding of contracts if the league finds that it did indeed circumvent the salary cap. A league spokesman said that an investigation into the matter is being commenced.

Leonard signed his current contract in 2021. It will pay him $176.3 million and runs through the 2026-27 season.

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