Sports
What is Aspiration, the company behind the Kawhi Leonard deal?
LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and the team are under investigation by the NBA following a report that Kawhi Leonard allegedly accepted a $28 million endorsement from a company called Aspiration as a way to circumvent the league’s salary cap.
Ballmer, who had previously invested $50 million in Aspiration, has denied he had knowledge of the deal or that he directed the company to strike one.
Here’s what we know about the now-defunct Aspiration at the center of the accusations.
What was Aspiration and who were its founders?
Harvard alumni Joe Sanberg, an entrepreneur, and Andrei Cherny, a lawyer who worked as a speechwriter for the Clinton administration, co-founded Aspiration Partners in 2013. The company’s mission was to provide “socially-conscious and sustainable banking services and investment products,” according to their archived website from 2019. Their slogan: “Do Well. Do Good.”
Sanberg served on Aspiration’s board of directors and held about 30% of its shares as of September 2021, according to court filings. He was also an early investor in start-ups including Blue Apron. Cherny was Aspiration’s chief executive officer for nearly a decade.
What was Aspiration’s business model?
Think of Aspiration as a digital bank, but environmentally conscious. According to its website, the company claimed to be unlike other banks because customer deposits would “never fund fossil fuel projects like pipelines, oil rigs and coalmines.”
The company’s products included savings accounts and debit cards with cash back from a select number of businesses who were “doing the right thing,” plus an option to plant a tree with every purchase roundup. The company also offered access to investment funds that are “100% fossil fuel free.”
Who were the big-name investors in Aspiration?
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that Aspiration drew backers including Robert Downey Jr., Orlando Bloom, Leonardo DiCaprio, now-Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers and Cindy Crawford and her daughter, Kaia Gerber.
Their corporate partners included the likes of Meta, Microsoft and eventually the LA Clippers.
How are Ballmer, Leonard and the LA Clippers connected to Aspiration?
Last week, podcaster and journalist Pablo Torre reported, citing internal documents, that Ballmer invested $50 million in Aspiration through his personal LLC on Sept. 14, 2021. Ballmer, one of the richest owners in sports and a philanthropist, is known to contribute to climate initiatives.
Also in September 2021, the LA Clippers signed a $300 million deal with Aspiration, making the company the “first founding partner” of the Intuit Dome. The multiyear partnership included a “Planet Protection Fund,” which would allow fans to “offset their own carbon impact whenever they purchase a ticket to cheer on the Clippers,” according to a statement about the partnership at the time.
“Aspiration becoming our first Founding Partner supports the stake we are planting in the ground to make Intuit Dome the most sustainable arena in the world,” Ballmer said in the statement.
In an interview with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne last week, Ballmer said Aspiration asked him to introduce it to Leonard, which he said happened in November 2021.
According to Torre’s report, Leonard agreed to a four-year, $28 million endorsement deal from Aspiration through his LLC KL2 Aspire in April 2022, nine months after he re-signed with the Clippers. An unnamed employee who purportedly worked for Aspiration told Torre that the payment to Leonard “was to circumvent the salary cap.”
This week Torre, citing more documents, reported that Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong also invested nearly $2 million in Aspiration through a personal LLC in 2022, nine days before Leonard was paid $1.75 million by the company.
According to a report in The Athletic on Friday, which cited legal documents, Ballmer invested an additional $10 million into Aspiration in March 2023 in a funding round that included other previous company investors.
How is the NBA reacting?
The NBA is investigating whether Ballmer and the Clippers violated league rules. Commissioner Adam Silver, speaking at his annual news conference at the conclusion of the league’s board of governors meetings in New York this week, said that the “burden is on the league” to prove wrongdoing and that the league needs to look “at the totality of the evidence” rather than just “mere appearance.”
“Just by the way those words read, I think as a matter of fundamental fairness, I would be reluctant to act if there was sort of a mere appearance of impropriety. … I think that the goal of a full investigation is to find out if there really was impropriety. Also, in a public-facing sport, the public at times reaches conclusions that later turn out to be completely false. I’d want anybody else in the situation Mr. Ballmer is in now, or Kawhi Leonard for that matter, to be treated the same way I would want to be treated if people were making allegations against me.”
Sources told ESPN that while there will be a thorough investigation of the matter by New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, there is no set deadline to find a conclusion.
What happened to Aspiration?
Cherny, co-founder and CEO, departed the company in 2022. In a statement posted on his X account Friday, Cherny said Leonard’s contract was not a “no-show” deal and had “three pages of extensive obligations.” He said he signed the contract in 2022 following “numerous internal conversations about the various things Aspiration was planning to do with Leonard.”
“I can’t speak to what was done or not done after I left — or why,” Cherney said in the statement.
When contacted by ESPN Friday, Cherny said that he had no further comment beyond the statement.
Aspiration filed for bankruptcy in March, with a reported debt of $170 million. When it filed for bankruptcy, the company said it owed the Clippers $30 million, the most out of all its creditors. Aspiration said at the time it owed Leonard’s LLC $7 million.
Last month, Aspiration co-founder Sanberg pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud. Federal prosecutors said Sanberg defrauded investors and lenders out of $248 million by fraudulently obtaining loans, falsifying bank and brokerage statements and concealing that he was the source of some revenue booked by the company.
Each of the charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Ballmer told ESPN he was “embarrassed” that he didn’t detect trouble in reviewing Aspiration’s financial statements and business plans.
“These were guys who committed fraud. Look, they conned me. They conned me,” he said. “I made an investment in these guys thinking it was on the up-and-up, and they conned me at this stage. I have no ability to predict why they might have done anything they did, let alone the specific contract with Kawhi.”
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Trey Yesavage’s final start of a wild 2025 season, which began in Single-A ball to pitching his second World Series game for the Toronto Blue Jays, ends with a pivotal masterpiece.
Yesavage, the 22-year-old who worked his wall through the Blue Jays’ minor league system to eventually cement himself as a key member of this postseason run, delivered a seven-inning masterclass on the mound at Dodger Stadium to help Toronto defeat Los Angeles, 6-1, in Game 5 of the World Series.
Thanks to the efforts of Yesavage, and some more timely hitting by this Blue Jays lineup, Toronto is heading back north with only one more win needed to win the World Series.
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Trey Yesavage of the Toronto Blue Jays pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the second inning in game five of the 2025 World Series at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 29, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Yesavage struck out 12 Dodgers hitters and allowed just three hits and one earned run over a 104-pitch performance that saw 10 of those strikeouts in the first five innings of the contest.
The only other person to do that in MLB history? Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax, who was right behind home plate watching Game 5 at Dodger Stadium.
In Game 1, Yesavage didn’t have his go-to pitch, a sharp-dropping splitter, which forced him to use his slider more often than he was used to. As a result, he was touched up by the Dodgers, though the Blue Jays’ own offensive onslaught resulted in a Game 1 victory at home.
This time around, Yesavage had the perfect touch with the pitch and the Dodgers couldn’t figure it out like the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners before them this postseason. Also, the slider was quite complementary with his mid-90s fastball keeping hitters honest at the dish.
BLUE JAYS BOUNCE BACK AGAINST DODGERS TO EVEN WORLD SERIES AFTER EXTRA-INNING MARATHON
And it also helped that Yesavage had some quick insurance on the scoreboard as his opponent, Blake Snell, allowed two solo home runs on the first three pitches of the game.
First, it was Davis Schneider taking the first pitch he saw over the fence to set the tone immediately for Toronto. Then, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s dream postseason continued as he belted his eighth home run this October to make it 2-0 in favor of the road team in this crucial Game 5.
In the bottom of the third, Yesavage’s only blemish of the game came on a 2-0 count to Enrique Hernandez, who didn’t flinch at a splitter up in the zone. He turned and parked it, as the baseball flew over the left field fence and reenergized the Dodger Stadium crowd that had been lifeless since the Guerrero homer.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays hits a home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the first inning in game five of the 2025 World Series at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 29, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Luke Hales/Getty Images)
But it didn’t last long, as the Blue Jays responded in the next frame. Teoscar Hernandez overplayed a Daulton Varsho hit to right field, and it cost him, as Varsho sprinted all the way to third base. Ernie Clement would hit a sacrifice fly to score him and take the two-run lead back.
As Yesavage kept cruising, the Blue Jays widened the gap necessary to come away with the victory in the top of the seventh when Addison Barger scored on a single and three wild pitches, while Bo Bichette singled home Andres Gimenez to make it a 5-1 ball game. Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s single in the top of the eighth was added insurance, as Clement came across to score.
With Yesavage’s night complete, Blue Jays manager John Schneider went to Seranthony Dominguez and closer Jeff Hoffman to shut the door on Game 5, and that’s exactly what they did to give themselves two chances at securing the franchise’s first World Series since 1993.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers, winners of last year’s World Series, have their backs against the wall. They will need to win the next two games to retain their title, and they’ll have the right man on the mound for it.
Trey Yesavage of the Toronto Blue Jays celebrates after a double play to end the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in game five of the 2025 World Series at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 29, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Luke Hales/Getty Images)
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Yoshinobu Yamamoto seeks his third straight complete game, as he was a much-needed leader in Game 2’s victory for Los Angeles. He will face Kevin Gausman, who had a great performance until giving up some solo homers in Game 2 in Toronto.
First pitch in Game 6 will come on Halloween night in Toronto at 8:08 p.m. ET.
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Cristiano Ronaldo is hurtling toward the magical figure of 1,000 career goals and it seems a case of when, rather than if, the Portugal and Al-Nassr forward takes his tally into four figures.
Ronaldo is now at 950 goals, having tallied in Saturday’s 2-0 win at Al Hazm. He signed a new two-year contract with Saudi Pro League team Al-Nassr in June, taking him to the end of the 2026-27 season with the Riyadh-based club.
Only a lengthy injury could deny the 40-year-old his 1,000th goal during that period. But with Ronaldo still scoring at a rate of almost a goal per game for Al-Nassr, we’ve crunched the numbers and can now predict (thanks to the help of ESPN’s Global Sports Research) that Ronaldo — injuries aside — will score his 1,000th goal before the end of 2026, with the former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus star most likely to do it in late November or early December of 2026.
How can we be so certain? Well, there are few things (if any) in football that can be bracketed as sure, but Ronaldo hitting the back of the net for club and country has proved to be one of the most reliable and predictable outcomes since he scored the first of his 950 goals to date as a 17-year-old for Sporting CP in a 3-0 win against Moreirense in Lisbon on Oct 7, 2002.
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Twenty-three years later, Ronaldo is 39 goals ahead of Lionel Messi as the most prolific men’s international scorer with 143 goals — his most recent additions being both goals in Portugal’s 2-1 World Cup qualification victory against Hungary earlier this month — and few would bet against him reaching another big mark, 150 international goals, during the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup next summer.
Having just signed a new three-year contract with Inter Miami that will tie him to the MLS side until the end of the 2028 season, Messi may also break the 1,000-goal barrier before hanging up his boots. The 38-year-old has 889 career goals for Barcelona, Paris-Saint Germain, Inter Miami and Argentina, but with Ronaldo being 60 goals ahead, does anybody really expect him to call it quits before he beats Messi to the 1,000 mark? The answer to that — an emphatic no — is another certainty.
Since making his debut for Sporting as a substitute in a 0-0 Champions League qualifying-round tie against Inter Milan in Aug 2002, Ronaldo has scored 950 goals in 1,293 games, giving him a career goals ratio of 0.73 per game. As previously noted, Messi is the only threat — albeit a distant one — to hitting 1,000 career goals before Ronaldo, but could Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé and Lamine Yamal eclipse whatever figure Ronaldo reaches in the years to come? Yamal, 18, has the luxury of having time on his side, but with just 33 goals in 137 games at a rate of 0.24 goals per game, the Barcelona and Spain forward would need another two decades or more if he were to emulate Ronaldo. Haaland (0.84 goals per game) and Mbappé (0.74) both have a better goals ratio than Ronaldo with 324 and 396 career goals respectively, but if you ask the two players right now whether they are prepared to play beyond their 40th birthday to catch the Portugal star, it feels like a tall order for the 25-year-old Manchester City forward and Real Madrid’s 26-year-old superstar respectively. The incredible thing about Ronaldo is that he is now scoring at an even more impressive rate than his career ratio, with his most recent 100 goals for club and country being scored at 0.92 per 90 minutes and his past 50 goals at 0.93 per 90 minutes. Clearly, by taking his talents to the Saudi Pro League and AFC Champions League, Ronaldo is now operating at a less demanding standard than throughout a career played at the highest level in Europe’s top leagues. It probably explains why it has taken him just 57 games for Al-Nassr and Portugal to go from 900 goals to 950, but nonetheless, he has still scored more Pro League goals this season than Karim Benzema, Darwin Núñez, Ivan Toney and Kingsley Coman. On the basis that he continues to score at a prolific rate for Al-Nassr and is also as reliable as ever for his country, ESPN’s projection is that Ronaldo is on course to hit 1,000 goals in 13 months’ time. That was the timeframe within which he scored his past 50 goals; throwing it forward, another 13 months will give Ronaldo approximately 54-64 games to score his next 50 goals. A deep run in the AFC Champions League with Al-Nassr and a similarly successful World Cup with Portugal next summer would only give Ronaldo more opportunities to edge closer to 1,000 goals. But right now, if you want a date for the diary to celebrate Cristiano Ronaldo’s 1,000th career goal, keep it clear in late November and early December next year.
Sports
Louisiana governor asserts control over LSU’s football coaching search after Brian Kelly’s dismissal
Who should LSU call to be its next head coach?
Joel Klatt reacts to LSU firing head football coach Brian Kelly. Klatt reveals who he thinks LSU should call to replace Kelly and analyzes whether the job is the best coaching vacancy available.
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Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry declared Wednesday that LSU athletic director Scott Woodward would be stripped of his authority in the school’s search for its next head football coach.
LSU is pursuing a new football coach after deciding this week to part ways with Brian Kelly. Woodward announced Kelly’s departure Sunday, one day after the Tigers’ 49-25 loss to Texas A&M.
Kelly left Notre Dame after the 2021 season and spent fewer than four full seasons in Baton Rouge.
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“We had high hopes that he would lead us to multiple SEC and national championships during his time in Baton Rouge,” Woodward said in the announcement. “Ultimately, the success at the level that LSU demands simply did not materialize, and I made the decision to make a change after last night’s game.”
LSU continues to finalize Kelly’s $54 million buyout, a figure that Landry has criticized.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said Wednesday that LSU athletic director Scott Woodward would be stripped of his authority in the school’s search for its next head football coach. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
“We are not going down a failed path,” Landry said Wednesday during a news conference. “The guy that’s here now that wrote that contract cost Texas A&M $77 million. Right now, we’ve got a $53 million liability. We are not doing that again.”
The $77 million figure Landry mentioned was a reference to former Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, whom Woodward hired and whose contract negotiations he oversaw. According to multiple reports, private donors could be tapped to cover some of the costs of Kelly’s buyout, which could be further offset if Kelly lands another coaching job.
Woodward has served as LSU’s athletic director since 2019. The school paid Ed Orgeron a buyout of more than $17 million after his dismissal in 2021.
LSU football head coach Brian Kelly, right, talks with LSU athletic director Scott Woodward before a game at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C. (LSU Athletics/University Images via Getty Images)
“No. I can tell you right now, Scott Woodward is not selecting the next coach,” Landry said. “I’ll let [President] Donald Trump select him before I let him do it.”
‘FORCE THEM TO TURN DOWN $15M’: THE 4 CALLS LSU WILL MAKE FOR ITS NEXT HEAD COACH
The Republican governor added, “The Board of Supervisors are going to come up with a committee, and they’re going to find us a coach.”
Members of the board are appointed by the governor.
Fox News Digital contacted the LSU athletic department for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
LSU head coach Brian Kelly stands on the sideline during a game against Vanderbilt Oct. 18 in Nashville. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Landry made it clear the Tigers’ next coach would be “compensated properly.” He did, however, call for placing “metrics” on the deal.
“I’m tired of rewarding failure in this country,” the governor said.
Landry also confirmed that he participated in talks about a coaching change leading up to Kelly’s removal.
“My role is about the fiscal effect of firing a coach under a terrible contract,” he said Wednesday. “All I care about is what the taxpayers are going to be on the hook for.”
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Despite LSU’s efforts to boost funding to pay transfer portal players, Kelly largely failed to meet expectations of competing for a national championship.
LSU is on a bye week; Alabama hosts the Tigers Nov. 8.
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