---
title: "Silver says the NBA's Kawhi Leonard investigation must end before the season"
description: "NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league's investigation into whether the Los Angeles Clippers used a sponsorship deal with Kawhi Leonard to skirt the salary cap must be wrapped up before next season, as the probe drags on and has grown in scope."
category: "Sports"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/sports
author: "Lucía Fuentes"
published: 2026-07-15T13:56:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-15T13:56:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/silver-says-the-nba-s-kawhi-leonard-investigation-must-end-before-the-season
tags: ["nba", "kawhi leonard", "la clippers", "adam silver", "salary cap"]
---
# Silver says the NBA's Kawhi Leonard investigation must end before the season

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league's investigation into whether the Los Angeles Clippers used a sponsorship deal with Kawhi Leonard to skirt the salary cap must be wrapped up before next season, as the probe drags on and has grown in scope.

The NBA's long-running investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers and their star forward Kawhi Leonard has a deadline, if not yet an end. Commissioner Adam Silver said this week that the inquiry [needs to be "wrapped up before the beginning of next season,"](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49364590/silver-kawhi-leonard-probe-finish-season-starts) adding that he was "hopeful" it would conclude over the summer but acknowledging it had "gone on longer than I would have hoped."

## What the league is investigating

The probe centers on allegations that the Clippers effectively funneled extra money to Leonard, and thereby circumvented the salary cap, through a sponsorship arrangement with Aspiration, a now-defunct company. Critics have described it as a "no-show" endorsement deal, in which Leonard was paid without doing meaningful work, [an arrangement the league is examining for possible cap circumvention](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-investigation-kawhi-leonard-clippers-aspiration/). The Clippers' owner, the billionaire Steve Ballmer, had also invested in Aspiration, a link that has drawn scrutiny.

These are allegations, not findings. The Clippers have denied wrongdoing, saying they did not route money to Leonard and describing themselves as victims of fraud by Aspiration. Leonard has not addressed the matter publicly.

## A widening inquiry

Silver indicated the investigation, being handled by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, has [grown beyond the original Aspiration deal](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-investigation-kawhi-leonard-clippers-aspiration/) to include whether the Clippers covered other expenses for Leonard and whether he had a separate, previously unreported endorsement deal. Silver attributed the delay partly to legal complications, including bankruptcy proceedings tied to Aspiration.

## The trade in limbo

The cloud has already had concrete effects. A proposed offseason trade that would have sent Leonard to the Toronto Raptors is on hold. Silver was careful to clarify the sequence: [the league did not freeze the deal, he said, but the teams involved "made a decision not to go forward given that the investigation remained open."](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49364590/silver-kawhi-leonard-probe-finish-season-starts)

## Why it matters for Los Angeles

For the Clippers, one of the city's two NBA franchises and a team that just opened a new arena in Inglewood, the stakes go beyond a single roster move. Depending on what investigators find, the league could impose penalties for salary-cap circumvention, a serious charge in a sport built around the cap's guardrails. Silver's message was that the uncertainty cannot linger into another season, even if he could not yet say how it will end.

## Sources

- [Silver: Kawhi Leonard probe must finish before season starts](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49364590/silver-kawhi-leonard-probe-finish-season-starts)
- [Adam Silver updates Kawhi Leonard investigation timeline as probe reportedly grows in scope](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-investigation-kawhi-leonard-clippers-aspiration/)