BREAKING: Kawhi Leonard's Other Undisclosed "Sponsorship" Deal

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Earlier this year, Pablo Torre Finds Out won the Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on NBA superstar Kawhi Leonard’s secret, no-show endorsement deal with a tree-planting company called Aspiration, whose big investor just so happened to be the richest owner in American sports: Steve Ballmer.

The scandal: Ballmer, who signed Leonard to the L.A. Clippers after a competitive free agency process, apparently used Aspiration to circumvent the NBA’s salary-cap restrictions meant to limit how much billionaires can pay to win. Ballmer has denied the accusations amid an NBA investigation led by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

Hunterbrook has worked with PTFO since we first launched: exposing how Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia deceives American homebuyers (a very relevant story today!); tying Memphis Grizzlies owner Robert Pera to Russian “crimes against humanity”; and, somehow, gaining access to the contents of a group chat in which Phil Mickelson seemed to be sharing inside information on a California oil stock.

Today, we join Pablo Torre for the next chapter of the Kawhi Leonard story, revealing what sources describe as a hidden, multimillion-dollar “sponsorship” deal — this time, with a publicly-traded company: Daktronics (DAKT).

For over half a century, Daktronics has built scoreboards for sporting venues and public places. One of its biggest deals, announced in 2022: The Halo Board at the Clippers’ new Intuit Dome, owned and financed by Ballmer.

The Clippers account came at a pivotal time for Daktronics, whose auditor-board chair warned in 2023 that there was “substantial doubt” about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern. “In our 54-year history, we have not been faced with the perfect storm that these last two years represent,” the company’s then-CEO said in an earnings call.

Even the following year, when Daktronics was on stronger financial footing, it would have been a weird time to sign an endorsement deal, let alone one from which it’s unclear the company got anything in return. Hunterbrook has torn through the internet and has not found a shred of evidence that Leonard performed any work in exchange for his alleged agreement with Daktronics.

In the years since the Intuit Dome deal, Daktronics has seen its stock soar more than 500%.

As the kids say: Scoreboard.

Asked repeatedly for a comment explaining the alleged deal, Daktronics declined, after initially responding through a crisis communications firm, which confirmed the company had been contacted by Wachtell as part of its investigation, while also stating that Daktronics doesn’t have a contract with Leonard “right now.”

Again and again, we asked the firm whether it could provide evidence that Leonard performed services for Daktronics. We were met with silence. We’d love to better understand this story. There are more questions than answers. Daktronics has just declined to help us answer them.

Watch the full episode:

Authors

Sam Koppelman is a New York Times best-selling author who has written books with former United States Attorney General Eric Holder and former United States Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal. He helped build Fenway Strategies into one of the preeminent strategic communications firms in the country—with side quests speechwriting for Michael Bloomberg, running the surrogate remarks operation on the Biden-Harris campaign, and co-founding Mayday, which is now one of the leading information providers on how to access reproductive health care in states with bans. Sam has published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Time Magazine, and other outlets — and occasionally volunteers on a fire speech for a good cause. He has a BA in Government from Harvard, where he was named a John Harvard Scholar and wrote op-eds like “Shut Down Harvard Football,” which he tells us were great for his social life.

Editors

Vikas Kumar joined Hunterbrook from The Capitol Forum, where he led the corporate investigations team for a decade as a senior editor. He was previously an attorney at Gordon Feinblatt, a trial attorney for the Department of Justice, and a law clerk for a federal judge. He has a J.D. from University of Virginia School of Law and a bachelor's from Emory University. Vikas is based in Maryland.

Michelle Cera and Andrew Ford contributed reporting.