Kawhi Leonard’s latest sponsorship deal has Stephen A Smith losing his mind

The Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard are already under investigation for possibly funneling money through Aspiration, but reports have come out that he had another sponsorship deal with the company called Daktronics, which designed the team’s videoboard.

Pablo Torres, who has been at the head of these sponsorship findings over the past year, has spoken to several sources that said the deal with Daktronics was to circumvent the cap and funnel money back to Leonard. This just adds more to the current investigation, and Stephen A. Smith went on a tangent during First Take about the entire situation.

“This is egregious if it’s true,” Smith said. “If it’s true, we’re talking about banishment for Steve Ballman, as far as I’m concerned, for at least a year. It should be entertained that Kawhi Leonard should be banned for a year. 
Yeah, he just took the money, but d–n that.

“The Clippers are in a world of trouble… This is egregious if true… It should be entertained that Kawhi Leonard should be banned for a year.”

Stephen A Smith on the new report of another Kawhi salary cap circumvention deal

(via @FirstTake) pic.twitter.com/bRhI6BHASv

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) August 7, 2026

“The deal with Aspiration, that’s a green banking company. That’s at the center of the NBA investigation going on now. To learn that you might have had another sponsorship deal worth millions of dollars with Daktronics? 
So you had not one, but a couple of companies, funneling money to you, to circumvent the salary cap, where you’re getting this money, but you’re also getting these additional dollars on the side, illegally, because according to NBA bylaws, you ain’t supposed to be doing this? Nah, you can’t go for that.”

If the findings are actually true, it’ll be interesting to see what the league would do as far as a punishment. Many have thrown out the idea of Leonard’s contract being voided, while the Clippers could possibly lose future draft picks.

That means that the trade pending that’s supposed to send Leonard to the Toronto Raptors would be called off by the league.

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