The owner of Los Angeles Clippers Steve Ballmer calls on the NBA to investigate other teams accused of bypassing the salary limit of the competition in his first comments since he was the target of a probe with the Kawhi Leonard approval agreement.
“I want the competition to investigate, take it seriously. Salary caps are important for the competition, and I want the competition to investigate,” ” Ballmer told ESPN Thursday.
On Wednesday, Podcaster Pablo Torre reported allegations of Ballmer and Leonard who bypassed the salary limit of the competition with a lucrative $ 28 million no-show marketing deal with starting the environment.
Ballmer invested $ 50 million in the company established in San Francisco and had deals in line for advertising options, and at a certain point the name of rights for the new Inglewood arena of the team that was opened in 2024.
“We were done. We were done with Kawhi, we were done with aspiration. The deals were all locked up and loaded,” Ballmer said the outlet. “Then they asked to get acquainted with Kawhi, and according to the rules we can introduce our sponsors to our athletes. We just can’t be involved.”
The dual NBA champion was presented to the company in November 2021, two months after the team had concluded the sponsorship agreement of $ 300 million with aspiration.
Ballmer claims that nor the team had some involvement in the deals between Leonard and the company, and were not aware of some negotiations until the partnership was announced.
“We even found the e -mail that makes the first introduction. It was at the beginning of November,” Ballmer said. “The introduction was made and then they were on their way to the races in themselves. We were not involved.
“I finally learned that they had reached a deal. I have no idea what the deal was,” he added.
Aspiration also gave Leonard a “Zijdal” worth $ 20 million, Torre reported Friday, referring to the Boston Sports Journal.
A former employee of Clippers told Torre that Ballmer reportedly instructed employees not to question the Leonard deal because it was the salary hood “to bypass.
Ballmer says he was worn out by the company, because his mere investment brought him less than three percent of the aspiration that was used to legitimize the company for other potential investors.
“I didn’t have a board. I had no control. Heck, it was a fraudulent company. It is possible that nobody had any control,” he said.
Co-founder of Aspiratie Joe Sanberg argued guilty of two counts of wire fraud for cheating investors and money lenders of more than $ 248 million, The Ministry of Justice has announced In August.
He is confronted with a maximum of 40 years in prison.
“These were guys who committed fraud. Look, they defeated me. They defeated me. I made an investment in these guys and thought it was aware, and they gave me in this stage. I have no state to predict why they might have done everything, let alone the specific contract with Kawhi,” Ballmer said.
“I rated, my employees mainly assessed fraudulent financial data,” he said. “Now, should I have sniff it? Maybe I feel ashamed and a bit stupid that I didn’t look it out, but I didn’t do that,” Ballmer said. “I made the investment. Many other smart investors don’t sniff it either.”
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