Shams reported that the Clippers issued a statement on evading the salary cap:

neither the Clippers nor Ballmer evaded the salary cap. It is ridiculous that Ballmer gave Leonard money through Aspiration! Ballmer invests in Aspiration because they respect customers while protecting the environment.

After a long period of market manipulation activities, Aspiration not only deceived Steve, but also many other investors and sports teams, and then filed for bankruptcy. The company's co-founder, Joseph Thunberg, recently pleaded guilty to a crime involving $243 million in fraud. Neither Steve nor the Clippers knew of any misconduct from Aspiration and its co-founders before the government launched the investigation. Aspiration was the team sponsor in the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 seasons, and later violated the contract.

The team sponsor signs an endorsement agreement with the players of the same team, which is nothing unusual or inappropriate. Neither Steve nor the Clippers management supervised the independent endorsement agreement signed by Kawhi and Aspiration. If this is not the case, it would be completely wrong.

The Clippers attach great importance to compliance with NBA regulations, fully respect league rules, and welcome the league's investigation into matters related to Aspiration. The Clippers will also continue to cooperate with law enforcement to investigate Aspiration's extremely obvious fraud.