Clippers owner Steve Ballmer: ‘I was personally defrauded’ by Aspiration

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer said he was “personally defrauded” in his dealings with the company Aspiration that have led to an NBA investigation surrounding the team and its star F Kawhi Leonard.

Ballmer, speaking Tuesday at Sports Business Journal’s AXS DRIVE event in L.A., added that he welcomes the NBA investigation and believes, “This too shall pass.”

“This is not a fun thing to be through,” Ballmer told SBJ Publisher & Executive Editor Abe Madkour. “I was personally defrauded through our interactions with the company and some of the staff. The fraud sort of extended broadly.

“Through that, we had many relationships with the company -- sponsor, activation, [it] was through carbon credits, all a bunch of complicated stuff. But the important thing is, our relationship with the company and our player’s relationship with the company were independent, which is important under the rules of the NBA. I feel quite confident in that, that we abided [by] the rules. So, I welcome the investigation that the NBA is doing. It’s a great way, from our perspective, to get the facts out there.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver urged owners to be patient with the league’s investigation during last week’s Board of Governors meeting. Ballmer previously denied knowing that Aspiration reportedly provided Leonard with a multi-million-dollar no-show job, plus $20M in stock, shortly after he signed as a free agent four years ago.

“Let’s all withhold judgment, let’s do this investigation and then we will come back to you in terms of our findings,” Silver said at a press conference after last week’s BOG meeting.

“There’s nothing fun about being highlighted in this way,” Ballmer said on stage Tuesday. “It’s a whole lot more fun to be highlighted for building a great arena. But this too shall pass. And like I said, I feel very good about what we did, and we welcome the NBA taking a look at it and hopefully agreeing with us.”