Kawhi Leonard endorsement controversy gains another spark after Toronto Raptors deal come to light

Not just the Los Angeles Clippers, even the Toronto Raptors - the team that Kawhi Leonard left behind after a successful championship season, had offered the star forward $15 million in endorsement money back in 2019.

Unfortunately for the Raptors, the Clippers seemingly offered more - $28 million specifically, and gained themselves a star player that no one thought would go to a team like the Clippers the very next season after winning the league.

New information comes to light about Kawhi Leonard Los Angeles Clippers controversy

As revealed in recent reports, it is being alleged that to circumvent the NBA salary cap, the Los Angeles Clippers and their owner Steve Ballmer, seemingly paid Kawhi Leonard $28 million extra.

Not that anyone is owning up to it just yet. Leonard seemingly signed an endorsement deal with an eco-friendly fintech company, Aspiration, which incidentally was also funded by Ballmer himself.

But as many have noticed since the report was made public, he never actually did any endorsements for said company. And since the company declared bankruptcy in March of 2025, it still owes an LLC named KL2 Aspire, which is owned by Leonard, $7 million.

But apparently, this endorsement deal idea wasn't very fresh, as before he joined the Clippers, his previous team, Toronto Raptors owner Larry Tannebaum, offered to pay the star forward $15 million extra in terms of endorsement deals.

Toronto Raptors owner tried to get 3 sponsorships worth $15 million for Kawhi Leonard

As recently revealed by sports talk show and radio host John Gambadoro, Toronto Raptors owner Larry Tannebaum called three different sponsors to get Kawhi Leonard endorsement deals worth $15 million.

It was brought to the attention of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, and Tannebaum got a warning instead of any action being taken against him. "From what I know from sources - when Kawhi signed with the Clippers the Toronto owner Larry Tannebaum was beside himself because he believed he bent over backwards for Kawhi - including calling three sponsors to meet Kawhi's demand of an extra $15 million in endorsement money. This was brought to the attention of Adam Silver as a concern over the cheating going on in the league being out of control.

But no action was taken as it was thought Tannebaum didn't truly understand the rules - only a promise to get more serious about it in the future.

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But Leonard decided against staying with the Raptors and joined the Los Angeles Clippers in 2019 - a team that he is still a part of, despite being a "no-show" for most of his tenure with the team because of various injury spells. With all the new information coming to light, let's see what's the next update on this, as the NBA is alleged to have launched an investigation on the matter. Also Read: NBA set to investigate Kawhi Leonard's Los Angeles Clippers deal after claims of salary cap circumvention by Steve Ballmer