The NBA's investigation into whether the Clippers funneled extra money to Kawhi Leonard through a since-bankrupt company called Aspiration has been dragging on for about 10 months now, with reports suggesting it could stretch into 2027 before anything gets resolved. Draymond Green isn't waiting around for the league to figure it out — he's already got his verdict on what should happen next.
Green went on The Draymond Green Show and made clear he's not mad at Kawhi for allegedly taking the money. He's mad at the system that makes it worth the risk in the first place.
Draymond Green says a light punishment for Kawhi Leonard would only encourage every team to try the same salary cap workaround.
"If the punishments aren't steep, everybody should do it," Green said. "If it's just gonna be a slap on the wrist, then everybody should do it and every player should be trying to do it." It's the kind of take you'd expect from a guy who's spent a decade in locker rooms watching front offices maneuver around the cap — he's not defending Kawhi's alleged deal so much as pointing out that the incentive to cheat only disappears if the punishment actually hurts.
That Aspiration deal, first reported by Pablo Torre, allegedly paid Leonard $28 million for a no-show endorsement job, and the investigation has since widened to include a separate alleged arrangement with scoreboard company Daktronics. Both Leonard and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer have denied any wrongdoing, and the whole thing could end up in arbitration if the players' union doesn't like where the NBA lands.
Green's real target, though, is the cap itself. "We're playing in a league where a team just sold for $12.5 billion," he said, pointing to the Lakers' record-setting sale to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner this week. "Let the punishment be getting rid of the salary cap." It's a bit of a rhetorical flourish — nobody expects the league to actually blow up the cap system over one case — but the underlying point lands: when franchise valuations are exploding into the billions, restricting how much a superstar can legally get paid starts to look like a relic.
Whatever the NBA decides, it's not happening fast. With the probe reportedly bleeding into 2027 and both sides digging in, Green's comments are less a prediction than a warning shot — if the league wants teams to stop looking for loopholes, it needs to make an example that actually stings.