The LA Clippers have come out with a new statement denouncing recent reports that owner Steve Ballmer misapplied money through the buying of carbon credits to evade the NBA salary cap. The organization claims that the motives were based on sustainability, rather than financial rules manipulation.
Sportskeeda
What’s Alleged
In an endorsement deal with Aspiration, a tree-planting service, journalist Pablo Torre alleged that the Clippers had purchased prepaid credits of approximately $56 million of carbon in the years 2022, a period that coincided with the endorsement of Kawhi Leonard. These are purchases that occurred between April and June 2022, and which have cast doubt on the idea of the credits being a workaround to compensate Leonard in a way not normally represented.
The Clippers’ Response
The reaction of the team focuses on being environmentally responsible but not on playing financial games:
Investments by Ballmer in carbon credits were part of an arena development strategy, such as the Intuit Dome, which was constructed with an underlying design to be carbon neutral.
The organization claims that it exceeded the contractual requirements of sustainability by purchasing additional offsets, contacting Aspiration to purchase direct carbon credits, and trading additional offsets.
The Clippers also argue that they were deceived: some of their contract with Aspiration was incorporated in sponsorships. The money was paid until, Aspiration allegedly was unable to maintain all expenses.
What We Don’t Know
There are a few crucial details that are not clear:
It is not known whether any laws or NBA rules were broken in spite of the accusations, though no official findings have been announced.
The specific cause of the mismatch between the expectations of the Clippers and the aspirations. The organization indicates that Ballmer was duped; however, it is not clear how and when.
Why It Matters
This case brings up two highly sensitive topics of professional sports franchises:
Particular attention to the financial compliance and transparency is likely to be particularly important in times when the salary cap regulations and the deals with endorsements are closely examined.
Corporate sustainability practices: Distributing environmental-only commitments with responsibility and evading the suspicion of greenwashing.
Bottom Line
The Clippers defend that the carbon credits of investments of Steve Ballmer were included in a genuine, progressive sustainability strategy, and not a back-door approach towards balancing the books. It will remain to be seen whether investigations carried out by the NBA, or perhaps other regulatory bodies, will prove otherwise.
