Steve Ballmer “Scammed” by Kawhi Leonard and Uncle Dennis as Pablo Torre Reveals Stunning NBA Settlement Details

Steve Ballmer had a chance to settle with the NBA before the league handed the Los Angeles Clippers one of the harshest punishments in NBA history.

According to Pablo Torre, he wanted no part of it.

“Steve Ballmer was fundamentally uninterested in settling,” Torre said.

What followed was a 35-page investigation detailing the NBA’s findings against the Clippers, Ballmer and several members of the organization — along with five forfeited first-round picks, a $30 million fine and multiple suspensions.

Torre has a name for the outcome.

“This is the non-settlement settlement,” he said. “This is what you get when you don’t bargain.”

That decision now sits at the center of the Clippers’ extraordinary salary-cap circumvention scandal.

The Clippers Had Been Warned Before

The story actually goes back to 2015.

As the Clippers tried to retain DeAndre Jordan in free agency, then-President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker organized a presentation that included a guaranteed $200,000-per-year endorsement opportunity with Lexus, a Clippers sponsor.

The NBA fined the team $250,000 for violating its anti-circumvention rules.

At the time, Ballmer called the violation inadvertent.

“As I shared with everyone on day one of purchasing the Team, being part of the Clippers family means operating with the highest integrity,” Ballmer said. “We believed we were doing this the right way, and any circumvention was inadvertent.”

Eleven years later, the same executive would be at the center of a much larger investigation involving the same basic concept: using team-connected businesses to create additional income for a player.

Then Uncle Dennis Made His Demand

During the Clippers’ 2019 free-agency pitch to Kawhi Leonard, Dennis Robertson — Leonard’s uncle and former business manager — laid out a list of demands for Lawrence Frank.

According to contemporaneous notes, Robertson wanted team equity, a private plane, a house and a guaranteed $10 million annual pipeline of outside endorsement income.

The notes included a blunt statement:

“I have to get paid.”

Instead of immediately reporting those demands to the league, Frank passed the notes to Ballmer and Zucker. The investigation later concluded that the organization began working toward satisfying the $10 million target.

That became the foundation of the case.

The Clippers did not merely introduce Leonard to potential sponsors. The NBA concluded that team executives actively helped create and facilitate the arrangements.

The Intuit Dome Became Part of It

One of the most striking examples involved Daktronics, the company competing for the massive halo scoreboard contract at Ballmer’s new Intuit Dome.

After the Clippers increased their business with Daktronics, a Clippers executive directed the company to increase Leonard’s second-year endorsement payment by $2 million, from $3 million to $5 million.

The total endorsement was worth $8 million.

A former Intuit Dome contractor later described the arrangement this way:

“It was 1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap… funneling money from the Clippers through Daktronics back to Kawhi.”

The NBA found similar arrangements involving Boingo Wireless and Lockton Insurance, two other companies doing business with or seeking business from the Clippers.

Then there was Aspiration.

The $48 Million Aspiration Deal

Aspiration had a major corporate relationship with the Clippers, including a $300 million sponsorship arrangement. Ballmer also personally invested $50 million in the company.

In 2021, Aspiration entered a four-year agreement with KL2 Aspire LLC, an entity registered by Robertson.

The deal was worth $28 million in cash plus $20 million in equity.

The Wachtell investigation found that Leonard performed no promotional services for Aspiration, while the agreement contained provisions allowing payments to continue without promotional work and tying the deal to Leonard remaining with the Clippers.

Aspiration’s co-founder Joseph Sanberg later faced federal consequences for financial fraud, adding another layer to Ballmer’s relationship with the company.

That is where Torre’s “scammed” comment comes into focus.

Pablo Torre’s “Scammed” Argument

Torre has argued that Ballmer’s relationship with Aspiration reveals a broader problem with the Clippers owner.

“He is somebody who can’t stop getting scammed by people he trusts to scam other people,” Torre said.

But the distinction matters: that is Torre’s characterization, not the NBA’s finding that Kawhi Leonard or Dennis Robertson scammed Ballmer.

The league reached a different conclusion about Ballmer’s role.

Wachtell found that Ballmer knowingly approved commercial agreements that functioned as preconditions for sponsors to enter arrangements with Leonard and faulted him for failing to establish adequate compliance oversight.

So Ballmer can simultaneously be portrayed as someone Torre believes was taken advantage of by people he trusted while also being held responsible by the NBA for what happened inside his organization.

And the consequences were enormous.

Why the Punishment Was So Severe

The NBA found five categories of violations, including initiating Leonard’s outside income opportunities, facilitating endorsement agreements, inducing companies with valuable Clippers or arena business to work with Leonard, approving impermissible personal expenses and failing to report Robertson’s solicitations.

The Clippers were fined $30 million and forfeited first-round picks in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033.

Ballmer was suspended for one year.

Zucker was suspended for one year, Frank for six months, Robertson was banned from NBA business dealings for five years and Leonard was ordered to pay $700,000 in restitution. The Clippers were also placed under a five-year compliance program.

The five-pick punishment immediately brought back memories of the 2000 Minnesota Timberwolves scandal involving Joe Smith.

Minnesota was also stripped of five first-round picks after secretly arranging a future contract with Smith. One pick was later restored.

But the Clippers’ overall punishment went further, combining the draft-pick forfeiture with the largest team fine in league history, executive suspensions and years of league oversight.

Foxworth Sees Another Problem

Domonique Foxworth offered a different perspective on the scandal.

“I’m not arguing that no one should be punished,” Foxworth said. “But all it is to me as someone who is always on the union side and the player side is evidence that there are no true free agents.”

His argument highlights the economic tension underneath the entire case.

The NBA’s salary-cap system limits what teams can legally offer players. Outside endorsements are allowed, but using team relationships to manufacture additional compensation crosses the line.

The NBA says the Clippers crossed it repeatedly.

Then Ballmer Refused to Bargain

That brings everything back to Torre’s central revelation.

By August, the NBA had presented its findings and settlement discussions were taking place. Torre says Ballmer rejected the idea of settling.

“This is the non-settlement settlement,” Torre said. “This is what you get when you don’t bargain.”

He also explained why the decision mattered so much.

“They don’t have to release the report. They just don’t,” Torre said. “And that would come on the backs of a settlement.”

Instead, there was no quiet resolution.

There was a 35-page report.

There were five lost first-round picks.

There was a one-year suspension for Ballmer.

And there was a public record showing how the Clippers’ basketball and business operations became intertwined with Leonard’s outside income.

The Clippers have rejected the NBA’s findings and said they intend to challenge the decision. Ballmer’s attorney called the investigation a “witch hunt” and a “gross injustice,” while Leonard said he accepted responsibility for lapses in judgment within his inner circle but had no knowledge of an intent to circumvent the salary cap.

The NBA and NBPA, however, agreed that the penalties are final and binding.

Ballmer may believe he was the one who got played.

The NBA believes his organization played with the rules.

And according to Torre, Ballmer’s refusal to settle ensured that everyone got to see exactly how the Clippers got there.

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