By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-09-04 16:29:45
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
2025年4月21日，周一，丹佛，NBA季后赛首轮系列赛第二场下半场，洛杉矶快船队前锋科怀·伦纳德 (Kawhi Leonard) 抢断了丹佛掘金队中锋尼古拉·约基奇 (Nikola Jokic) 的一次传球。根据记者巴勃罗·托雷 (Pablo Torre) 的一篇报道，伦纳德与快船队可能通过一份与Aspiration公司的代言合同规避了联盟的工资帽规定，而快船队老板史蒂夫·鲍尔默 (Steve Ballmer) 曾向该公司投资5000万美元。
这事要是马刺队来干，肯定行不通。就算霍尔特家族有这个财力和胆量，用卡特彼勒的挖掘机装满现金，通过一家神秘的外部公司来规避工资帽，也改变不了一个事实：科怀·伦纳德 (Kawhi Leonard) 想去加州。
他当时仍然不会留下来。
哪怕给他一份Fred’s Fish Fry（注：圣安东尼奥本地知名快餐店）价值2800万美元的挂名闲职，他也不会留下。
但随着NBA开始调查涉及伦纳德、洛杉矶快船队亿万富翁老板史蒂夫·鲍尔默 (Steve Ballmer) 以及一桩显然无需任何实际代言工作的丰厚代言合同，这件事的重点就不再是创造公平的竞争环境了。
在NBA，最大的市场总会占有优势，最富有的老板也是如此。
但如果某个大市场里的一位富豪老板，明目张胆地藐视一项联盟的基石规则，而联盟却视而不见呢？
这难道不就印证了所有那些质疑NBA对公平竞赛精神承诺的人的猜疑吗？
球迷们似乎并不需要额外的理由去产生怀疑。从裁判被指控操纵比赛，到联盟总裁被指控操控选秀乐透，联盟从不缺少阴谋论。
当然，这些理论大多荒谬可笑，稍加审视便逻辑不通。（例如：如果联盟的运作真是为了最大化知名度和利润，为什么本世纪以来，圣安东尼奥和俄克拉荷马城承办的NBA总决赛次数，会比纽约和芝加哥加起来还要多七次？）
但是，没有人操控一切，不代表没有人试图作弊。在本周，调查记者巴勃罗·托雷 (Pablo Torre) 在其一期时长80分钟、报道详尽的网络节目中，提出了一个令人信服的论证：快船队可能通过违规手段规避了NBA工资帽规定，以留住三年前离开圣安东尼奥的伦纳德。
整篇报道都值得一看。其中包含了堆积如山的证据，形式包括法律文件、法庭档案，以及对Aspiration公司员工的采访。Aspiration是一家总部位于旧金山的环境公司，成立于2013年，十年后申请破产。以下是此事件的基本情况：
记录显示，前微软首席执行官鲍尔默——其精明的投资头脑使他成为全球十大富豪之一——在2021年向Aspiration公司投入了5000万美元。同年，伦纳德与快船队签下了一份为期四年、价值1.76亿美元的续约合同。
据托雷披露的文件，同年，伦纳德与Aspiration公司签订了一份为期四年、价值2800万美元的代言合同。但从未有人发现伦纳德做过任何代言工作——没有广告，没有拍照，甚至没有转发推文——尽管他一直在领取酬劳。据托雷称，该合同中唯一可强制执行的要求，就是伦纳德必须受雇于快船队。
2025年1月29日，周三，圣安东尼奥，NBA常规赛上半场，洛杉矶快船队前锋科怀·伦纳德（2号）持球突破圣安东尼奥马刺队后卫克里斯·保罗（3号）。根据记者巴勃罗·托雷的一篇报道，伦纳德与快船队可能通过一份与Aspiration公司的代言合同规避了联盟的工资帽规定，而快船队老板史蒂夫·鲍尔默曾向该公司投资5000万美元。
需要指出的是，快船队已向多家媒体发表声明，坚决否认鲍尔默试图规避工资帽，称这些指控“荒谬至极”。球队还指出，Aspiration公司的联合创始人约瑟夫·桑德伯格 (Joseph Sandberg) 已承认涉及2.43亿美元的欺诈指控，并表示：“史蒂夫和快船队组织都未曾监管科怀与Aspiration签订的独立代言协议。任何与此相反的说法都是彻头彻尾的谎言。”
快船队或许说的是实话。但要相信他们的说法，你必须接受以下几点：
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鲍尔默，这位世界有史以来最聪明、最成功的投资者之一，被一家没有明确盈利计划的公司骗走了5000万美元。
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Aspiration公司的负责人，此前曾与像小罗伯特·唐尼 (Robert Downey Jr.) 和莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥 (Leonardo DiCaprio) 这样确实会进行公开代言的名人签订过金额小得多的合同，却愿意将2800万美元（此外，据《波士顿体育日报》的一篇报道，还有价值2000万美元的公司股票）送给他们那位5000万美元投资人所拥有球队中的最佳球员。而且，即便这位球员从未在公开场合提及过这家公司，他们也觉得没问题。
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这一切都发生在伦纳德签下一份被认为是“对球队有利”的续约合同之时，这纯属巧合。这份合同为快船队提供了必要的工资帽灵活性。而此事涉及的球员，恰好就是那位据The Athletic报道，其舅舅丹尼斯·罗伯逊 (Dennis Robertson) 在2019年曾向潜在的自由球员追求者索要不正当利益，并因此受到NBA正式调查的球员，这也纯属巧合。
换言之，这实在让人难以置信。尽管前独行侠老板马克·库班 (Mark Cuban) 等人已经站出来为鲍尔默辩护——亿万富翁们抱团取暖的方式无人能及——但NBA有责任向公众进行一次真正的调查。
如果托雷的报道只是小题大做？很好，那就向我们展示原因。
如果事实证明，其他老板也为别的球队策划了类似的规避工资帽的方案？也行，那就把那些也公之于众。
但正如The Athletic在2019年报道的那样，NBA总裁亚当·萧华 (Adam Silver) “将规避工资帽视为一项不可饶恕的大罪”，这是有原因的。工资帽定义了球队的建队方式，它区分了计划周详的球队和杂乱无章的球队。如果29支球队都遵守规则，而有一支不遵守，这或许不能保证那支球队夺冠，但它可能对其他所有球队的冠军争夺产生多米诺骨牌效应。
如果这项大罪是在洛杉矶犯下的？除非NBA想引发更多的阴谋论，否则快船队最好面临一些严厉的后果。
否则，最终整个联盟都将为此付出代价。
点击查看原文：NBA can't turn blind eye to Kawhi Leonard, L.A. Clippers report
NBA can’t turn blind eye to Kawhi Leonard, L.A. Clippers report
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard steals a pass by Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic in the second half of Game 2 of a first-round NBA playoff series Monday, April 21, 2025, in Denver. Leonard and the Clippers may have circumvented league salary cap rules through an endorsement deal with Aspiration, a company in which Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested $50 million, according to a report from Pablo Torre.
It wouldn’t have worked if the Spurs tried it. Even if the Holt family had the means and the audacity to fill Caterpillar backhoes with cash and funnel it through a mysterious external company to circumvent the salary cap, it wouldn’t have changed the fact that Kawhi Leonard wanted to be in California.
He still wouldn’t have stayed.
Not even for a secret $28 million no-show job at Fred’s Fish Fry.
But as the NBA opens an investigation into allegations involving Leonard, billionaire Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, and a lucrative endorsement deal that apparently required zero actual endorsing, this isn’t about leveling the playing field.
The biggest markets always will have advantages in the NBA. So will the wealthiest owners.
But if one of those wealthy owners in one of those big markets brazenly flouts a load-bearing rule, and the league looks the other way?
Won’t that confirm the suspicion of everyone who’s ever questioned the NBA’s commitment to the spirit of fair play?
It’s not as though many fans need extra encouragement to be skeptical. From referees supposedly fixing games to the commissioner supposedly rigging the draft lottery, the league has a conspiracy theory for everyone.
Most of those theories are ridiculous, of course, and the logic disintegrates upon even the most cursory examination. (For instance: Why, in a league orchestrated to maximize profile and profits, would San Antonio and Oklahoma City have hosted seven more NBA Finals series this century than New York and Chicago have?)
But just because nobody’s rigging everything doesn’t mean nobody’s trying to cheat. And in a thoroughly reported, 80-minute episode of his online show this week, investigative journalist Pablo Torre laid out a compelling case that the Clippers might have circumvented NBA salary cap regulations to retain the services of Leonard, three years after he left San Antonio.
The entire report is worth watching. It includes mountains of evidence in the form of legal documents and court filings, plus interviews with employees of Aspiration, a San Francisco-based environmental company that was founded in 2013 and filed for bankruptcy a decade later. But here are the basics:
Records show Ballmer, the former Microsoft chief executive officer whose penchant for savvy investing made him one of the 10 richest people in the world, poured $50 million of his own money into Aspiration in 2021, the same year Leonard signed a four-year, $176-million extension with the Clippers.
That same year, according to documents uncovered by Torre, Leonard entered into a four-year, $28-million endorsement contract with Aspiration. But Leonard never was found to have done any endorsement work — no commercials, no photo ops, no retweets — even as he kept collecting the checks. According to Torre, the only enforceable requirement in the contract was that Leonard had to be employed by the Clippers.
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) drives on San Antonio Spurs guard Chris Paul (3) during the first half of their NBA game at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in San Antonio. Leonard and the Clippers may have circumvented league salary cap rules through an endorsement deal with Aspiration, a company in which Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested $50 million, according to a report from Pablo Torre.
Now, it should be noted that the Clippers issued a statement to multiple media outlets vehemently denying that Ballmer had attempted to circumvent the salary cap, calling the allegations “absurd.” The team also noted that Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sandberg pleaded guilty to fraud charges involving $243 million, and said, “Neither Steve nor the Clippers organization had any oversight of Kawhi’s independent endorsement agreement with Aspiration. To say otherwise is flat-out wrong.”
The Clippers might be telling the truth. But here is what you have to accept to buy their version of events:
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Ballmer, one of the smartest, most successful investors the world ever has seen, was bilked out of $50 million by a company with no clear plan to make money.
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Those in charge at Aspiration, who’d signed much smaller deals with celebrities like Robert Downey Jr. and Leonardo DiCaprio who actually did public endorsements, were fine giving $28 million (plus, coincidentally, $20 million in company stock, per a report in the Boston Sports Journal) to the best player on the team owned by their $50 million investor. And that was fine with them, even though the player never made a single public mention of the company.
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It’s just a coincidence that this happened at the same time Leonard signed what was considered to be a team-friendly extension that provided the Clippers with needed salary-cap flexibility. It also was just coincidental that this involved a player who, according to The Athletic, was the subject of a formal NBA investigation into complaints that his uncle, Dennis Robertson, had asked for improper benefits from potential free-agent suitors in 2019.
In other words, it’s a lot to swallow. And even though former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is among those who have come to Ballmer’s defense — nobody circles the wagons for each other the way billionaires do — the NBA owes it to the public to do a legitimate investigation.
If Torre’s report was much ado about nothing? Fine. Show us why.
If it turns out that other owners have pulled off similar cap-dodging schemes for other franchises? Fine. Show us those, too.
But there’s a reason NBA commissioner Adam Silver “sees salary-cap circumvention as a cardinal sin,” as The Athletic reported in 2019. The cap defines how rosters are built. It separates the franchises with smart plans from those with haphazard ones. If 29 teams abide by it and one does not, it might not guarantee a championship for that one team, but it can have a domino effect on the title race for everyone else.
And if that cardinal sin was committed in Los Angeles? Unless the NBA wants to encourage even more conspiracy theories, the Clippers had better face some serious consequences.
Or eventually the whole league will.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News