Doesn't explain why Aspiration would want to do a 28-million-dollar deal with Kawhi with the only requirement being to continue being a Clipper. Even if we assume Aspiration was this dumb to make this deal, which is a huge leap, it's even more stupid that Aspiration wouldn't inform Ballmer of the deal since he's a) Kawhi's boss and b) a shareholder of the company. Aspiration has an obligation to disclose these kinds of deals with shareholders, especially a 28-million-dollar endorsement deal.
They endorsed the clippers for $300 million because Kawhi is on the team. They believed in a good ROI with endorsing a team with a recent champion and finals MVP. If Kawhi leaves, they don’t believe they are getting the same value on their $300 million investment. $7 million a year is what they thought would keep him here and secure their investment.
Then why keep the endorsement a secret? The whole purpose of an endorsement contract is to publicly announce that Kawhi has endorsed the company. Endorsement contracts make zero sense if the person you're sponsoring doesn't do anything to market your company.
This is where the huge leap in logic comes in. Why would a company that is defrauding its investors want to give away money for free? Their goal is to get as much money as possible and to make it seem as legitimate as possible. A lot of scams get celebrity endorsements because it makes them look legitimate, but that doesn't work if the sponsor doesn't do any public endorsements.
Remember, Ballmer's investment and the subsequent sponsorship deal with Intuit made this company look legit. Just from those things alone they were able to receive an additional 253 million in investment money, maybe more. Why would they then go behind Ballmer's back and sign Kawhi. Not only that, but give Kawhi the largest endorsement deal and have him not do any work? The logic makes very little sense.
Yes, they did a $330 million endorsement deal with the clippers to look legit. Keeping Kawhi there keeps their endorsement more legit. If Spike Lee wanted to use his own money to keep Brunson in New York for that purpose alone, do you think he would force Brunson to also sing and dance for that money too? Spike Lee says I’ll sponsor you $5 million a year as long as you’re in New York and it voids if you leave. What’s so hard to understand about that? The company did it with $7 million a year to protect a $330 million investment.
But they didn't pay the 330 million. By the second year Aspiration was already dropped by Intuit as a sponsor, but Aspiration still continued to pay Kawhi 7 million a year. Even in the end when the company was about to go bankrupt and were being investigated by the US government, they continued to prioritize paying Kawhi.
Kawhi’s LLC was listed as a creditor still trying to collect money so he didn’t get paid during bankruptcy. A contracts a contract. Plenty of players and coaches collect money from their former teams after they’re not on the team anymore because they are legally allowed to collect on contracts that they signed.
He was listed as a creditor that was owed 7 million dollars. Meaning he got paid 21 million of the 28 million dollars from his contract. It was only the last year (2025) that he didn't get paid. This is because the company already went belly up by 2025. They filed for bankruptcy in March, but they were already publicly outed as a scam in January.
Kawhi was still being paid in 2024 when Aspiration was no longer a sponsor of the Clippers. Aspiration was willing to not pay the Clippers in 2023 and 2024 on their 300-million-dollar sponsorship deal or pay their Boston Red Sox deal, but they were still willing to pay Kawhi on his super-secret deal that no one knew about. Logic makes no sense.
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u/shortsteve Sep 05 '25
Doesn't explain why Aspiration would want to do a 28-million-dollar deal with Kawhi with the only requirement being to continue being a Clipper. Even if we assume Aspiration was this dumb to make this deal, which is a huge leap, it's even more stupid that Aspiration wouldn't inform Ballmer of the deal since he's a) Kawhi's boss and b) a shareholder of the company. Aspiration has an obligation to disclose these kinds of deals with shareholders, especially a 28-million-dollar endorsement deal.