The Funniest Emails From The Kawhi Leonard Investigation Are Also The Most Clarifying

The 35-page report released on Wednesday by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which contains a great deal of evidence that Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented the NBA’s salary-cap rules, makes for some surprisingly fun reading. It includes some juicy and/or embarrassing emails and text messages sent by some of the parties involved in the Clippers’ scheme, and my favorite part of the report is this one:

In December 2021, Mr. Sanberg discussed with senior Aspiration executives his desire for the company to enter into an endorsement agreement with Mr. Leonard on the terms described above. Mr. Sanberg did not have the authority to sign such an agreement on Aspiration’s behalf and, according to internal Aspiration emails, the reaction among its C-suite executives who did have this signing authority was swift and uniformly negative: “I have no idea why we’d do this,” wrote one senior executive; “this is not a good investment of our capital […] It’s $48M over 4 years for Kawhi, who is not a big name […] Not sure why we would make such a commitment considering we are already paying a huge sponsorship fee to Clippers,” wrote another.

When these concerns were conveyed to Mr. Sanberg, he told the Aspiration executives that “the Clippers are asking us to do this with Kawhi Leonard” and that the team would provide additional business back to Aspiration to help offset the financial impact on Aspiration. In an email exchange among Aspiration’s CEO, CFO, and general counsel, one wrote, “[Mr. Sanberg said] that the Clippers are promising to increase the amount they pay us per quarter in line with what we pay this guy [i.e., Mr. Leonard].” Another responded: “Thanks for verifying. … We should be fine if it’s cashflow neutral.”

This excerpt is one of several within the report that could be described as a “smoking gun.” Here you have Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg, who pleaded guilty to felony charges for defrauding all sorts of people while running Aspiration, hinting at the purpose of the company’s endorsement deal with Leonard, only for his CFO, CEO, and general counsel to then describe the scheme in plain language: “[Mr. Sanberg said] that the Clippers are promising to increase the amount they pay us per quarter in line with what we pay this guy [i.e., Mr. Leonard].”