Nobody expected the Clippers’ gamble on Kawhi Leonard to end with federal investigators, leaked documents, and whispered talk of salary-cap circumvention. Yet here they are. On Jan. 3, 2025, Leonard was supposed to be out. Hours later, he suited up anyway, dropped 25 points after the All-Star break, and still couldn’t keep Los Angeles from bowing out to the Denver Nuggets in seven games. By September, the rumors had hardened into an NBA probe into the team’s ties to a $28-million endorsement deal with Aspiration, a financial-services company now mired in a federal fraud case. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer himself had sunk $50 million into the firm, but the pursuit was never just this simple.

The investigation has revived old stories about the extraordinary lengths the Clippers

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