Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers find themselves at the center of a scandal right now, but Mark Cuban isn’t buying it.
The Dallas Mavericks icon spoke about Ballmer and accusations of the Clippers circumventing the NBA’s salary cap in order to give Kawhi Leonard more money.
He feels that Ballmer and the whole Clippers organization were scammed by Aspiration, the company that gave Leonard the money and then went bankrupt.
“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 ?” Cuban posted on X.
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… https://t.co/AxvMoLmPv7
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 3, 2025
Cuban’s view is certainly plausible, and it’s possible that Aspiration took advantage of the team.
Ballmer and his staff may not have done anything wrong.
But it seems that the majority of people believe that something fishy was happening behind the scenes and that the Clippers did avoid the rules in order to get Leonard money and keep him in Los Angeles.
For now, it’s all speculation and opinion, because a formal investigation has just begun.
The only opinions that really matter are those of Adam Silver and his staff.
If they find that the Clippers acted improperly, they could face serious consequences, and the team’s management could be tainted for years to come.
Ballmer and his team might have Cuban’s support, but that ultimately doesn’t mean anything to the league.
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