Ex-Aspiration CEO Denies Kawhi Leonard Signed No-Show Deal

The former chief executive officer of Aspiration said Friday that Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard did not sign a no-show contract with his former company.

“The contract contained three pages of extensive obligations that Leonard had to perform,” Andrei Cherny, who left the company in 2022, wrote in a statement posted on X. “And the contract clearly said that if Leonard did not meet those obligations, Aspiration could terminate the contract.”

Cherny also added that he signed the contract with Leonard in 2022.

“In the months of discussion among our executives before signing the sponsorship, I don’t remember conversations about the NBA salary cap,” he wrote in his statement.

“I signed the contract shortly before I submitted my resignation, but before I left there were numerous internation conversations about the various things Aspiration was planning to do with Leonard once the 2022-23 season began. … I can’t speak to what was done or not done after I left — or why.”

Kawhi Leonard Signed Endorsement Deal With Aspiration

Last week, The Athletic’s Pablo Torre reported on his “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast that Aspiration reportedly agreed to a four-year, $28 million endorsement deal with Leonard in 2022.

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had invested $50 million through his personal LLC in September 2021, and the NBA franchise announced a $300 million partnership with Aspiration two weeks later.

An unnamed employee who worked for the “tree brokerage” company told Torre that the payment to Leonard “was to circumvent the salary cap.”

On Thursday, Torre reported that Clippers limited partner Dennis J. Wong invested $1.99 million in Aspiration in 2022, nine days before the company made a $1.75 million payment to Leonard.

The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov reported Friday that Ballmer invested an additional $10 million into Aspiration in 2023 as part of a fundraising round with other previous investors.

“Aspiration had been struggling financially, with just $12.2 million in cash as of Feb. 17, 2023, and running through more than $2 million a week,” Vorkunov wrote.

NBA Investigating Matter

The NBA is currently investigating the claim to determine if there was any impropriety. The league hired New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to handle the case.

In response to Torre’s bombshell report, the Clippers denied any wrongdoing, while Ballmer said he had no knowledge of the endorsement contract.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said it would be up to the league to prove wrongdoing by the Clippers.

“I think, as with any process that requires a fundamental sense of fairness, the burden should be on the party that is, in essence, bringing those charges,” Silver said during his annual news conference at the conclusion of the league’s board of governors meetings.

Aspiration filed for bankruptcy in 2025, and its co-founder Joe Sanberg pled guilty last month to two counts of wire fraud for defrauding investors and lenders of more than $248 million.