{"id":123772,"date":"2026-07-10T00:36:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/123772\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T00:36:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:36:31","slug":"kawhi-leonard-trade-to-raptors-put-on-hold-until-clippers-aspiration-investigation-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/123772\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard trade to Raptors put on hold until Clippers\u2019 Aspiration investigation ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kawhi Leonard trade between the LA Clippers and the Toronto Raptors will not be finalized until the NBA concludes its investigation into allegations of salary-cap circumvention by the Clippers<\/a>, according to statements issued by both teams Thursday.<\/p>\n

The two teams agreed to the trade on June 30<\/a>, reuniting Leonard with the franchise with which he won the 2019 NBA title.<\/p>\n

However, the Raptors said in their statement Thursday that though they are \u201ceager\u201d to add Leonard to their roster, they will \u201cwait until the league\u2019s investigation is complete\u201d before finalizing the deal. The Raptors do not want to be held responsible if Leonard\u2019s contract is voided or otherwise altered as a result of the league\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NBA league office informed us that as a result of the ongoing investigation involving the Clippers, we would assume the risk of any potential outcome of the investigation impacting Kawhi,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

The two teams agreed to a deal that sends Leonard to the Raptors, the team he led to the 2019 NBA championship before leaving as a free agent the following offseason to join the Clippers. LA is set to receive All-Star small forward Brandon Ingram, 2023 lottery pick Gradey Dick and a package of draft picks that includes unprotected first-round selections in 2031 and 2033. Leonard was in Toronto for Kyle Lowry\u2019s retirement announcement Tuesday<\/a>, and the Clippers brought Dick into the team\u2019s facility at Intuit Dome on Monday.<\/p>\n

What a reunion with Kawhi means for the Raptors<\/p>\n

Eric Koreen and Jeshua Kidd<\/p>\n

The Clippers, in their statement, acknowledged the investigation and the extent of their participation in it, and that they were notified of \u201cthe risk of penalties\u201d that Toronto would have to inherit if the trade were finalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn June 30, we reached an agreement in principle to trade Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors. We have since been informed that the trade can only be finalized if the Raptors\u2019 ownership group assumes the risk of penalties related to Kawhi\u2019s contract that could theoretically result from the ongoing investigation.\u00a0 The investigation is ongoing, and we expect the trade to be finalized following its conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this development isn\u2019t seen as a sign that there is significant discipline coming for the Clippers and\/or Leonard, the fact remains that the potential for Leonard\u2019s contract to be voided is the primary obstacle to this Clippers-Raptors trade going down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a specific timeline for the conclusion of the investigation but expect the firm to finalize its work in the coming weeks,\u201d an NBA spokesperson told The Athletic Thursday.<\/p>\n

The NBA informed the Raptors before they agreed to the trade that the investigation could cause issues with any deal involving Leonard, according to sources briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the league\u2019s probe is ongoing. Yet when the terms of the deal between the Clippers and Raptors were widely reported on June 30, it forced the league \u2014 and commissioner Adam Silver, most of all \u2014 to decide how to handle this unprecedented situation.<\/p>\n

The decision was made, league sources say, to ignore the public pressure that came from the trade being publicized and follow through on the stance that had been shared from the start. Had the specifics of the Clippers-Raptors trade been kept quiet until the league\u2019s Aspiration investigation was complete, the NBA could have avoided the chaos that came with the Thursday announcements from both teams.<\/p>\n

The trade comes less than a year after allegations surfaced connecting Leonard, the Clippers and an under-the-table deal with environmental company Aspiration. The now-bankrupt Aspiration served as the team\u2019s jersey-patch partner until the end of the 2022-23 season.<\/p>\n

The allegations were detailed in a series of episodes of the \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d podcast. Ten months ago, shortly after Torre\u2019s first episode was released, the NBA opened an investigation into whether the Clippers, and chairman Steve Ballmer, used Aspiration\u2019s sponsorship relationship with the franchise to circumvent league salary-cap rules.<\/p>\n

The league has yet to publicly announce the findings of that investigation. Silver acknowledged the ongoing probe before the start of the 2026 NBA Finals, saying, \u201cWe can\u2019t be investigating forever.\u201d The upcoming NBA Board of Governors meetings next week are the next potential opportunity for the NBA to close the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a specific timeline on when they will be completed,\u201d Silver said June 3, just before Game 1 of the finals in San Antonio. \u201cI think it\u2019s clear they are far along. I think those reports are \u2014 reading all the time from people who are being interviewed by them, and I think they understand that you could keep going on and on, but I think we are close to the point now where I think we need to wrap this up, because you also need finality. The team has to understand what situation they are going to be operating under, and so do the other 29 teams. So that\u2019s where things currently stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pablo Torre reports on new Aspiration findings<\/p>\n

The Clippers continued to put the onus of guilt onto Joe Sanberg, the co-founder of Aspiration who has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role in a long-term scheme that defrauded lenders and investors of more than $248 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the heart of this investigation are Joe Sanberg and Aspiration. We did not funnel money to Kawhi Leonard through Aspiration. Like many sophisticated investors, financial institutions, and business partners, we were victims of a fraud initiated by Sanberg, who has been convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison,\u201d their statement read. \u201cWe recognize the uncertainty this has created and the impact it has had on our team, our fans, the Raptors organization, their fans, and the players whose futures remain affected while this process continues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Clippers had previously completed trades sending James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Ivica Zubac to the Indiana Pacers and Chris Paul to Toronto in February, in addition to two trades made during the second night of the 2026 NBA Draft. The Clippers were also one of six teams involved in a trade announced Wednesday that included LA sending John Collins to the Detroit Pistons in a sign-and-trade arrangement. The Clippers also announced the free agent signing of former Los Angeles Lakers power forward Rui Hachimura on Monday and the re-signing of second-year forward Kobe Sanders on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

None of those transactions came with any complications, but this one involving Leonard did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kawhi Leonard trade between the LA Clippers and the Toronto Raptors will not be finalized until the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4725,996,48],"class_list":["post-123772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-nba","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}