NBA Clears Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer in Kawhi Leonard Probe, Clearing Path for Raptors Trade

The Toronto Raptors’ blockbuster trade for Kawhi Leonard is finally clear to move forward. The NBA’s 11-month investigation into whether Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money to Leonard through team sponsors to circumvent the salary cap has found no evidence of a direct payment scheme, according to ESPN, removing the biggest obstacle standing between Toronto and one of the most significant trades in franchise history.

Leonard, a two-time NBA champion and two-time Finals MVP, has spent the last six seasons in Los Angeles after signing with the Clippers as a free agent in 2019. The probe began after journalist Pablo Torre alleged Leonard had signed a four-year, $28 million “no-show” endorsement deal with Aspiration, a now-defunct green banking company in which Ballmer had personally invested $50 million while the Clippers separately struck a $300 million partnership with the firm. Commissioner Adam Silver had publicly stated he wanted the matter resolved before the start of the new season, and both franchises froze the trade until the league reached a conclusion.

What the NBA’s Findings Mean for the Deal

According to ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr., Baxter Holmes and Ramona Shelburne, investigators found no evidence that Ballmer or the Clippers used sponsors including Aspiration, Daktronics and Boingo Wireless to secretly pay Leonard beyond his contract, a finding that backs the team’s long-standing defense that connecting players with corporate partners is standard practice across the league rather than a cap-circumvention scheme. The NBA pushed back on parts of ESPN’s report, with chief communications officer Mike Bass saying the article “contains numerous and significant inaccuracies” and that results would be made clear once the investigation formally concludes. The league is still examining a narrower question — whether the Clippers’ introduction of Leonard to those sponsors amounted to a failure-to-supervise violation — but no penalties are expected on that front, and sources say conversations have centered on relatively minor restitution rather than suspension.

That distinction matters enormously for Toronto. The Raptors agreed to the framework of the trade back in June, sending Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, a 2027 first-round pick swap and two second-round picks to Los Angeles in exchange for Leonard. The Raptors announced in July that they would assume the risk of any potential league punishment if they completed the deal before the investigation wrapped, and both sides ultimately chose to wait out the process rather than gamble on a retroactive penalty.

Leonard’s Path Back to Toronto

Leonard already has a championship history in Toronto, having led the Raptors to the 2019 NBA title before leaving for the Clippers in free agency that summer. His camp reportedly informed teams across the league that he wanted to sign an extension only with Toronto, setting up this trade as essentially the only path the Raptors and Clippers could take to satisfy him. Once the trade is formally completed, Leonard will be eligible to sign a two-year, $123.7 million extension with Toronto on top of the $50.3 million he is still owed for the 2026-27 season under his current deal.

The return package reflects how much draft capital and young talent the Raptors were willing to surrender for a player they view as a title-caliber cornerstone. Ingram, a two-time All-Star, had signed a three-year, $120 million extension with Toronto just months after arriving via trade from New Orleans in February 2025, while Dick was seen as a promising young wing before being included as part of the return. For bettors and fans tracking Toronto’s outlook, the shift instantly reshapes the Raptors’ championship odds conversation, and sportsbooks will be recalculating win totals the moment the trade is officially processed — a dynamic worth watching for anyone comparing DraftKings Sportsbook markets once training camp opens.

With the league’s findings now public and no suspension on the table, the remaining step is procedural: the NBA must formally close the investigation before the trade can be executed and Leonard’s extension signed. Sources close to the situation expect that to happen ahead of training camp this fall, finally ending a saga that has hung over both franchises since the deal was first agreed to in June.