Aspration’s former CEO said Friday that Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard did not sign an unseen contract with his former company.
“The contract contains three pages of obligations that Leonard must perform,” Andrei Cherny, who left the company in 2022, wrote in a statement released on X. “The contract clearly states that if Leonard does not meet these obligations, the wish may terminate the contract.”
Cherney also added that he signed a contract with Leonard in 2022.
“I don’t remember the conversation about the NBA salary cap in the discussions between our executives before signing the sponsorship,” he wrote in the statement.
“I signed the contract shortly before I submitted my resignation, but before I left, there was a lot of international conversations that had the desire to start, and once the 2022-23 season started, volunteer events were planned to do anything with Leonard. … I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t talk or not do what I did after, or why.”
Kawhi Leonard signs a recognition agreement with ambition
Last week, Athletics’ Pablo Torre reported in his Pablo Torre Discovery podcast that Wish reported a four-year, $28 million recognition agreement with Leonard in 2022.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested $50 million through his personal limited liability company in September 2021, and the NBA franchise announced a $300 million partnership, and announced in a wish two weeks later.
An unnamed employee who worked for the “Tree Brokerage Company” told Torre that the payment to Leonard was “to avoid a salary cap.”
Torre reported Thursday that Dennis J. Wang, a partner of Clippers Co., Ltd., was a member of Dennis J.
Track and Field’s Mike Vorkunov reported Friday that Ballmer invested $10 million in 2023 as part of a fundraising round with other previous investors.
“Wishes have been struggling financially, with volunteering pay being only $12.2 million in cash as of February 17, 2023, experiencing over $2 million in cash per week,” Vorkunov wrote.
NBA Investigation Questions
The NBA is currently investigating the claim to determine whether there is any misconduct. The alliance hired New York-based law firms Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to deal with the case.
In response to Torre’s bombshell report, the Clippers denied any misconduct, while Ballmer said he was unaware of the endorsement of the contract.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league will prove the Clippers’ wrongdoing.
“I think like any process that requires a basic sense of fairness, the burden should be taken, essentially, it’s the party that brings these allegations,” Silver said at the annual press conference at the end of the coalition board meeting.
Wishes filed bankruptcy in 2025, and its co-founder Joe Sanberg ruled last month on two counts of wire fraud, defrauding more than $248 million of investors and lenders.
