ESPN filed a report on Monday with new details about the NBA’s ongoing investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers’ potential salary cap circumvention related to sponsorship deals awarded to star player Kawhi Leonard. No more than two hours after ESPN published its findings, the NBA issued a strongly worded statement refuting the article as containing “numerous and significant inaccuracies.”
“ESPN’s article regarding the LA Clippers investigation — for which the NBA declined to cooperate — contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded,” the league said in a statement attributed to spokesman Mike Bass.
NBA Chief Communications Officer Mike Bass issued the following statement: pic.twitter.com/iEBGJd51fv
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) August 17, 2026
The ESPN report, authored by Don Van Natta Jr., Baxter Holmes, and Ramona Shelburne, detailed that the NBA has found “no evidence” showing Clippers owner Steve Ballmer attempted to circumvent the salary cap by funneling endorsement money to Kawhi Leonard through team sponsors. Rather, ESPN reported that the league is focused on whether introducing team sponsors to Leonard would violate league rules.
“We stand by our reporting, which included numerous attempts by ESPN to get comment from the NBA,” an ESPN spokesperson told Awful Announcing.
The NBA’s statement is a rare example of a league issuing a strong public rebuke directed at one of its media rights partners. ESPN will pay the league an average of $2.62 billion per year over the course of its 11-year deal that includes the rights to the NBA Finals each season.
If nothing else, ESPN’s publication of this report clearly indicates that its investigative team is not self-censoring to protect the network’s business interests.
It remains unclear exactly what details in the report the NBA is refuting. In addition to reporting that the NBA has found “no evidence” tying Ballmer to any salary-cap circumvention scheme and that the league’s investigation has moved its focus to how teams introduce players to potential sponsors, ESPN quotes a league insider calling a potential punishment on the grounds of player introductions “an outrageous overreach,” adding that, “players and their management won’t stand for it.”
ESPN goes on to report that such a ruling would be in direct contradiction to previous materials it has distributed to teams outlining how to introduce players to potential sponsors without violating salary cap restrictions.
In addition to the NBA’s statement, the Clippers issued a statement on Monday defending their handling of Leonard’s endorsements, though the team did not directly mention the ESPN report.
The Los Angeles Clippers released this statement in response to ESPN’s story that claimed the league found no evidence that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through team sponsors to pay Kawhi Leonard and circumvent the salary cap. pic.twitter.com/qIKTzGgUMm
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) August 17, 2026
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