Black wrestling fans reflect on Hulk Hogan’s legacy on issues of race

Published

1 month ago

July 25, 2025

One of Kazeem Famuyide’s earliest memories is sitting on his father’s lap watching Hulk Hogan wrestle in the 1988 Survivor Series.

His love of Hogan in the ring became inextricable from what would become a lifelong obsession with the sport — including a yearlong role touring the country and writing scripts for WWE’s top talent.

“He was a superhero to a lot of people, including myself,” said Famuyide, who is Black and now co-hosts the WWE-themed podcast “The Ringer Wrestling Show.” He remembers Hogan telling audiences to “train, say your prayers and eat your vitamins,” often in front of giant American flags.

But for the 38-year-old Famuyide and other Black wrestling fans and sports commentators, Hogan’s death this week at 71 has resurfaced an irreconcilable contradiction in the iconic wrestler’s legacy: Hogan’s undeniable role in broadening wrestling’s appeal to fans of all backgrounds versus his well-documented racism.

“You never really got the feeling that Hulk Hogan truly felt remorse,” Famuyide said.

Reactions to Hogan’s death reflect American divide on race

“The Right Time” podcast host Bomani Jones noted there were two sharply different reactions to Hogan’s death. Remembrances have split between those who see no need to harp on past controversies and those who struggle with his behavior that once got him banned from the WWE.

“This was never going to be one where people were going to mourn quietly,” Jones said.

Hogan’s death drew remembrances from politicians, celebrities and fans alike, celebrating his accolades. Many applauded how he was able to parlay his wrestling persona into movie appearances, brand deals, a reality television show and notable political influence.

On Friday, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, whose fame arguably rivals Hogan’s acclaim, paid tribute. Johnson, the son of pioneering wrestler Rocky Johnson, one of the WWE’s first Black champions, said Hogan was a hero “to millions of little kids.”

“You may have ‘passed the torch’ to me,” Johnson wrote under a 2002 video showing him and Hogan facing off at Wrestlemania.

“But you, my friend…you ‘drew the house’ meaning you sold out every arena and stadium across the country in your prime as Hulk Hogan, on your way of becoming the greatest of all time.”

Other notable Black professional wrestlers, from Booker T and Mark Henry, to Jacqueline Moore and Carlene “Jazz” Moore-Begnaud, have found success and fame in the WWE.

But just as many people took Hogan’s death as an opportunity to recount Hogan’s more controversial behavior.

In 2016, a Florida jury awarded Hogan over $115 million against Gawker Media, after Hogan sued them for posting a video of him having sex with his former best friend’s wife. The litigation led to the discovery that Hogan had used racial slurs in 2007 to describe his daughter’s Black ex-boyfriend.

“I am a racist, to a point,” Hogan said, before adding the slur against Black people, according to a transcript.

Hogan apologized at the time and called the language “unacceptable.”

Around the same time, some outlets reported that Hogan used the same slur on a recorded phone call with his son.

Hogan’s enthusiastic endorsement of conservative political figures like longtime friend President Donald Trump made many people doubt the sincerity of that apology, Jones said.

“It’s one thing to get caught on tape saying these things in private. It’s another thing for you to decide publicly to align yourself with a cause that many Black people find antagonistic toward us,” Jones said.

Professional wrestling has a history of reckoning on racist tropes

For many Black wrestling enthusiasts, Hogan’s death brings up familiar contradictions in how the sport deals with race.

Lyric Swinton, 27, a freelance wrestling writer, first fell in love with the sport when she was 8. She describes wrestling as “the most nuanced and colorful” form of storytelling.

Although she feels representation has improved, Swinton remembers WWE use racist tropes in Black wrestlers’ plot lines. Swinton recalls Shelton Benjamin having a “mammy,” played by Thea Vidale, invoking a racist caricature.

Swinton considers Benjamin one of the most talented wrestlers at the time, but feels he never got the recognition that his contemporaries did, in part because he was scripted to those roles.

“I kind of felt like I had to check my Blackness at the door,” she said.

Hogan hasn’t tarnished sport for all Black fans

For WWE enthusiast and sports journalist Master Tesfatsion, the mixed reactions to Hogan’s death mirror fault lines that exist throughout the country, and highlight how central wrestling has become in pop culture.

Growing up, Tesfatsion, who is Black, remembers watching Vince McMahon, the company’s co-founder and former chairman, use a racial slur in a match with John Cena in 2005; or the storyline in 2004 when wrestler John Layfield chased Mexicans across the border.

“In some strange way, the WWE always had a pulse on where America stood,” Tesfatsion said. “You cannot tell the history of America without all these issues, just like you cannot tell the history of the WWE without these issues.”

Tesfatsion was in the audience at Hogan’s last appearance at a professional match in January. He was one of the many who booed Hogan. After decades of fandom, it was his first time seeing Hogan live.

“I never thought that I would see ‘The Hulk’ in person, and that I would resort to bullying him. But that’s what his actions made me do.”

Still, Tesfatsion said he will never stop being a super fan.

“I still love America, I still love the WWE. It’s an emotional contradiction that I choose to deal with because I still find value in it,” he said.

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US military to continue targeting vessels belonging to alleged Venezuelan drug cartels, Rubio warns – live | Trump administration

Published

25 minutes ago

September 3, 2025

Tom Ambrose

Judge sides with Harvard and orders Trump to reverse funding cuts

A federal judge in Boston has sided with Harvard university in its court battle with the Trump administration, ordering that the federal government reverse funding cuts, the AP reports.

The Trump administration had cut more than $2.6bn in research grants to the school as part of the president’s aggressive attacks on academic institutions.

Judge Allison Burroughs ruled Wednesday the cuts constituted illegal retaliation after Harvard had refused the White House’s demands to change its policies and governance, the AP reported.

Harvard’s complaint, filed in July, said:

This case involves the government’s efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decisionmaking at Harvard. All told, the tradeoff put to Harvard and other universities is clear: allow the government to micromanage your academic institution or jeopardize the institution’s ability to pursue medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions.

Key events

Federal agents reportedly practicing crowd control in Chicago

Hundreds of federal agents are arriving to the Chicago area for Donald Trump’s deployment, with some already “practicing crowd control with shields and flash-bang grenades”, according to a new report in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Roughly 230 agents, some who work for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), are arriving from Los Angeles, the newspaper reported, with at least 30 of them training at a naval station near north Chicago.

JB Pritzker, Illinois’ Democratic governor, has strongly condemned the deployment, which the president has claimed is meant to address crime. “Any kind of troops on the streets of an American city don’t belong unless there is an insurrection, unless there is truly an emergency. There is not,” the governor said on Sunday. “I’m going to do everything I can to stop him from taking away people’s rights and from using the military to invade states. I think it’s very important for us all to stand up.”

More than 100 unmarked vehicles have been sent to the Navy training station, the Sun-Times reported.

The deployment of troops and other federal agents in LA caused widespread outrage and protests. Some demonstrations were met with teargas and other munitions. Border patrol agents with CBP were also accused of injuring protesters in LA and were found to have made false statements about demonstrators they arrested.

Louisiana governor says he will ‘take Trump’s help’ in New Orleans

Jeff Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, said he backed the president’s threat to send federal troops to his state.

“We will take President @realDonaldTrump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!” Landry said on social media, responding to a White House post that said Trump was determining whether to send federal forces to Chicago or New Orleans “where we have a great governor”.

It’s unclear if Landry has formally requested that the president send in troops, and his office did not respond to questions from the Associated Press.

New Orleans, like other cities attacked by Trump, has seen a sharp decline in crime. JP Morrell, president of the New Orleans city council, criticized Trump’s threats of deployment in a statement, saying:

It’s ridiculous to consider sending the National Guard into another American city that hasn’t asked for it. Guardsmen are not trained law enforcement. They can’t solve crimes, they can’t interview witnesses and they aren’t trained to constitutionally police.

Trump’s deployment of troops to US cities has been condemned as authoritarian, with scholars saying the president was increasingly acting like a dictator.

Adam Gabbatt

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, has denied, sort of, having conversations with the Trump administration about him being given a government job in exchange for dropping his re-election campaign.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that advisers to Donald Trump “have discussed the possibility” of giving Adams a position, in an attempt to thwart Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old Democratic socialist who is currently the frontrunner to be elected mayor in November.

According to the Times, “intermediaries” for Trump have spoken to “associates” of Adams about leaving the race. Adams, who has proved to be deeply unpopular among New York Democratic voters and is running as an independent candidate, is well behind Mamdani in the polls, and is draining support from Andrew Cuomo, another independent candidate.

There is a suggestion that if Adams, a centrist Democrat, and the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, were to drop out of the race, Cuomo could consolidate enough support to challenge Mamdani. The Times reported that there have been talks in the Trump administration about also finding a job for Sliwa.

Sliwa did not respond when asked about the Times story, but the Adams campaign did reply to the Guardian.

“Mayor Adams has made it clear that he will not respond to every rumor that comes up,” said Todd Shapiro, a spokesman for Adams.

“He has had no discussions with, nor has he met with, President Donald Trump regarding the mayoral race. The Mayor is fully committed to winning this election, with millions of New Yorkers preparing to cast their votes. His record is clear: crime is down, jobs are up, and he has consistently stood up for working families. Mayor Adams is focused on building on that progress and earning four more years to continue delivering for the people of New York.”

On Tuesday a poll found Adams with 9% of the vote in the election – Mamdani was at 42%, Cuomo 26%, and Sliwa 17%. It’s worth noting that the Times story did not claim that Adams himself had discussed leaving the race with Trump.

Rubio: US military will continue targeting vessels belonging to alleged Venezuelan drug cartels

Speaking in Mexico City, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, warned that the US military would continue to target vessels belonging to alleged Venezuelan drug cartels.

Arguing that previous interdiction efforts in Latin America have not worked, Rubio said: “What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them.”

“The president of the United States is going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations,” Rubio said, adding that the strikes would continue, according to reporters covering the news conference. “It’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now.”

Rubio’s visit to Mexico, his first since taking office, comes after the US military launched what the president said was a “a kinetic strike” on a “drug-carrying boat” in the Caribbean Sea. Trump said 11 drug traffickers were killed in the attack.

Defending Tuesday’s military operation, Rubio said of the Venezuelan vessel: “This one was operating in international waters, headed towards the United States, to flood our nation with poison. And under President Trump those days are over.”

House Republicans help sink motion to censure Democratic congresswoman

A handful of House Republicans helped tank a motion to censure Democratic congresswoman LaMonica McIver of New Jersey stemming from her indictment by a federal grand jury earlier this year for allegedly assaulting law enforcement during an altercation at an immigration facility in her home state – charges she denies.

The censure, brought by Republicans congressman Clay Higgins, was expected to succeed in the GOP-led chamber where the once-rare form of public disapproval is now increasingly common. The House voted 215-207 to set aside the censure resolution, which would have stripped her of her position on the homeland security committee, a role the resolution claimed represented a “significant conflict of interest”.

Nearly a half-dozen Republicans sided with Democrats in voting to table the resolution.

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has crossed the pond and popped up at House judiciary committee, a guest of House Republicans.

His testimony was met with scalding derision by Democrats on the panel, who accused the far-right leader of being a a “Putin-loving free speech impostor” working to “ingratiate yourself with tech bros”. At one point, Congressman Hank Johnson, asked Farage to confirm that Reform currently has four MPs.

Farage, who missed prime minister’s questions to appear before the committee, testified to the “awful authoritarian” situation for free speech in the UK.

Florida surgeon general says state will eliminate vaccine mandates for children

Richard Luscombe

Children in Florida will no longer be required to receive vaccines against preventable diseases including measles, mumps, chicken pox, polio and hepatitis, the state’s surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, announced on Wednesday.

In a speech announcing the move, Ladapo likened vaccine mandates to “slavery”.

Ladapo, hand-picked for the role by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, is a long-time skeptic of the benefit of vaccines, and has previously been accused of peddling “scientific nonsense” by public health advocates.

In his Wednesday speech he said that every state vaccine requirement would be repealed, and that he expected the move would receive the blessing “of God”.

“All of them. All of them,” Ladapo said. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”

In 2022, Ladapo altered data in a study about Covid-19 vaccines in an attempt to exaggerate the risk to young men who took one.

West coast states form public health alliance in response to turmoil at CDC

The governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced on Wednesday the creation of a West Coast Health Alliance aimed at safeguarding access to vaccines, amid growing turmoil at the nation’s top public health agency under the leadership of Robert F Kennedy Jr.

In a joint press release, governors Gavin Newsom of California, Tina Kotek of Oregon, and Bob Ferguson of Washington said the CDC had become a “political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science”.

“President Trump’s mass firing of CDC doctors and scientists – and his blatant politicization of the agency – is a direct assault on the health and safety of the American people,” the Democratic governors said in a joint statement, adding: “California, Oregon, and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk.”

Speaking on Capitol Hill earlier, Chauntae Davies, one of Epstein’s victims, says the disgraced financier bragged often about his friendship with Trump.

Epstein and Maxwell “were always very boastful about their friends – their famous or powerful friends”, she told reporters in Washington. “And his biggest brag forever was that he was very good friends with Donald Trump.”

Davies added that Epstein kept an 8in x 10in framed photo of him and Trump on his desk. “They were very close,” she said.

Vance meets with families of Minneapolis shooting victims

Vice-President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance have arrived in Minneapolis, where they will meet with the families of the victims of the Annunciation Catholic church shooting that killed two schoolchildren and injured nearly two dozen people last week.

The scene outside Annunciation Catholic Church, where the VP and Second Lady are currently paying their respects. Thousands of flowers line the walkway. Messages of love and hope are written in sidewalk chalk and painted on stones.

One reads: “God is our refuge and strength.” pic.twitter.com/wH0Az27B1a

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) September 3, 2025

“They will hold a series of private meetings to convey condolences to the families of those affected by the tragedy,” the White House said in a statement.

Trump’s attorneys are asking the US supreme court to reverse a $5m sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit against him in the civil lawsuit brought by E Jean Carroll, Bloomberg News has reported.

According to a new filing, the president’s lawyers are asking the justices to extend the deadline for him to formally ask the court to toss out the verdict.

In 2023, a civil jury trial concluded that Trump had sexually abused Carroll, a former magazine columnist, in the 1990s, before he embarked on his political career, and then defamed her in 2022 when he denied the allegations as a hoax and said that she was “not my type”. Carroll was awarded $5m in damages.

The petition was due on 11 September, but Trump’s legal team has asked for an extension, until 10 November, Bloomberg wrote.

The day so far

Here’s a look back at what’s gone on today so far:

Democratic congressman Ro Khanna said only two more Republican signatures are needed for the success of a discharge petition to force a vote on legislation compelling the release of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Donald Trump slammed the push for the files’ release as a “Democrat hoax that never ends” and mulled deploying federal agents into New Orleans to fight crime.
Republican congressman Thomas Massie criticized how House GOP leaders handled the Epstein issue.
At a separate press conference outside the US Capitol, Epstein survivors detailed abuse they suffered at the disgraced financier’s hands.
The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said that the US would carry out more strikes like the one that targeted a suspected drug trafficking boat and killed 11 people on Tuesday off the coast of Venezuela.
A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Donald Trump unlawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans he alleged were part of a criminal gang.

Donald Trump teased the possibility of deploying federal resources into New Orleans to fight crime.

“We’re going to be going to maybe Louisiana, and you have New Orleans, which has a crime problem. We’ll straighten that out in about two weeks. It’ll take us two weeks,” the president said.

New Orleans has a homicide rate that is among the highest in the nation, but lies in a Republican-governed state – unlike Los Angeles and Washington DC, where Trump deployed federal troops earlier this year.

Trump also confirmed that he was still sending federal agents into Chicago, saying: “We could straighten out Chicago”.

Trump calls clamor over Epstein files ‘Democrat hoax that never ends’

Asked at the White House about the push in Congress to release the Epstein files, Donald Trump again accused Democrats of orchestrating the controversy, and attempted to change the subject to his own purported accomplishments.

“This is a Democrat hoax that never ends,” Trump said. Referring to the recent release of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, he said: “Nobody’s ever satisfied.”

“They’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president,” Trump said. He went on to claim credit for making Washington DC a “totally safe zone” with “no crime, no murders, no nothing” – though crime, including murders and robberies, have continued since he deployed the national guard and took control of its police department.

Another boast from Trump: “I ended seven wars, nobody’s going to talk about it because they’re going to talk about the Epstein whatever.” It’s unclear which seven he is referring to, though his claims of having quelled recent fighting between Pakistan and India played a part in souring the relationship with New Delhi. He also has notably not ended the war in Ukraine – something he boasted, on the campaign trail, that he could do right after taking office.

The White House has referred to signing the discharge petition to release the Epstein files as a “hostile act”, and discouraged Republicans from supporting it.

Thomas Massie, the Republican congressman who introduced the petition and is one of four lawmakers from his party who signed it, replied:

I don’t know if that’s precedented in this country to have a president call legislators to say that they’re engaged in a hostile act, particularly when the so-called hostile act is trying to get justice for people who’ve been victims of sex crimes.

He also said that the fact that there was little new in the case documents released yesterday may spur more lawmakers to sign the petition:

What people are waking up and discovering right now is the folks who stayed up all night to go through the 34,000 individual pages have found that they’re so redacted as to be useless and that many of them were already available.

A reality check on the discharge petition that could force a vote in the House on legislation to release the Epstein files.

The petition needs two more signatures – which will probably have to come from Republicans – to reach the majority threshold to compel the vote. But even if the petition receives that support and the bill passes the House, the legislation will still need to be approved by the Senate, where Republican majority leader John Thune has given no indication he will put it up for a vote.

Should it pass the Senate, it faces another obstacle: Donald Trump. He’s condemned the furor over the Epstein files as a distraction created by the Democrats, and could veto the legislation. That would punt the issue back to Congress, where the bill would need two-thirds majority support to overcome his veto – a tall order.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is among the most outspoken conservatives in Congress, but has made a rare pact with the Democrats by signing the discharge petition that could force a vote on legislation to release the Epstein files.

“This is an issue that doesn’t have political boundaries. It’s an issue that Republicans and Democrats should never fight about. As a matter of fact, it’s such an important issue that it should bring us all together,” she said at the press conference convened by the petition’s sponsors outside the Capitol.

“The truth needs to come out, and the government holds the truth. The cases that are sealed hold the truth. Jeffrey Epstein’s estate holds the truth. The FBI, the DoJ and the CIA holds the truth. And the truth we are demanding comes out on behalf of these women, but also as a strong message to every innocent child, teenager, woman and man that is being held captive in abuse. This should never happen in America, and it should never be a political issue that divides us.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks to encourage release of the Epstein files outside the Capitol. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

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Kawhi Leonard, Clippers used endorsement deal to ‘circumvent’ NBA salary cap: Report

Published

49 minutes ago

September 3, 2025

Joe Vardon and Sam Amick

Kawhi Leonard allegedly received a lucrative, no-work contract from a now-bankrupt environmental company with direct ties to his team, the LA Clippers, and franchise owner Steve Ballmer so that he could be paid more money without it counting against the NBA’s salary rules, according to accusations made by former employees of the firm to a podcast.

In the latest episode of the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast, which was released Wednesday morning, seven anonymous former employees for San Francisco-based Aspiration, an environmental start-up company partly funded by a $50 million investment from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, said the four-year, $28 million endorsement deal Leonard received in 2022 was for a “no-show job” intended to “circumvent the (NBA) salary cap.”

“We went through a litany of really, really top-tier name contracts, and then (someone would say), ‘Oh, by the way, we also have a marketing deal with Kawhi Leonard, like a $28 million organic marketing sponsorship deal with Kawhi,’” a person described as a former financial official for Aspiration said on the Torre podcast. “And (they’d say) that if I had any questions about it, essentially don’t (ask), because it was to ‘circumvent the salary cap. LOL.’ There was lots of LOL when things were shared.”

The NBA is “aware of this morning’s media report regarding the LA Clippers and are commencing an investigation,” league spokesman Mike Bass told The Athletic on Wednesday afternoon.

Messages left for Leonard’s business partners were not immediately returned.

The Clippers’ communications team sent the following statement to The Athletic: “Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary-cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration. Any contrary assertion is provably false: The team ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago, during the 2022-23 season, when Aspiration defaulted on its obligations. Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Ballmer was aware of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation. The team and Mr. Ballmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can.”

This is the second time in Leonard’s six seasons with the Clippers that accusations have surfaced suggesting he and his business representatives sought improper payments.

According to a 2019 report by The Athletic, the NBA conducted a formal investigation of complaints that Leonard’s uncle and chief business partner, Dennis Robertson, had asked for improper benefits from multiple teams when Leonard was a free agent that summer. Sources at the time said Robertson asked team officials for part ownership of the team, a private plane that would be available at all times, a house and a guaranteed amount of off-court endorsement money that they could expect if Leonard played for their team. League sources with knowledge of that investigation said no evidence was found indicating that the Clippers — who ultimately landed Leonard on a three-year, $103 million contract in the summer of 2019 — had granted any of the lavish requests, but Silver said if further evidence surfaced the league would re-open its investigation.

Teams and players found by the league to have illegally circumvented the salary cap are subject to fines, loss of draft picks, and even suspensions, as well as the voiding of player contracts. In 2000, the NBA punished the Minnesota Timberwolves and Joe Smith for circumventing the salary cap through a series of one-year deals with the promise of a longer, much richer contract afterwards. Then-commissioner David Stern fined the team $3.5 million, took away five future first-round picks, and suspended then-team owner Glen Taylor and then-chief basketball executive Kevin McHale for a year. Stern also voided all of Smith’s one-year contracts with the Timberwolves, which prevented him from being eligible for the $86 million contract he was to get from the team.

Ballmer is the richest owner in the NBA, with a personal fortune of $153 billion, according to Forbes. Additionally, Ballmer’s Intuit Dome is the host for the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, as well as the basketball tournament site for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Four summers before the Leonard-related accusations in the summer of 2019, Ballmer’s alleged handling of a player’s off-court finances first drew the attention of the league office. The Clippers were fined $250,000 in August 2015 relating to the free agency of big man DeAndre Jordan. The league found that the Clippers included a third-party endorsement deal in their pitch to Jordan in the form of a contract with Lexus that would have reportedly paid him $200,000 annually.

It is unknown if Ballmer was aware of the employment agreement between Aspiration and Leonard and what role, if any, that Ballmer played in facilitating the relationship between the environmental start-up and his star player.

Aspiration was a “green bank” that promised to supply carbon credits and plant trees to offset its clients’ carbon emissions. It filed for bankruptcy protection in March after its co-founder, Joe Sanberg, was arrested on charges of wire fraud. Sanberg pleaded guilty last month to defrauding investors of $248 million.

In publicly available bankruptcy filings reviewed by The Athletic, Aspiration’s three largest creditors listed are the Clippers, who say they are owed $30 million by the environmental firm; Forum Entertainment (also owned by Ballmer, claiming it is owed a debt of $11 million); and Leonard’s personal limited liability company, “KL2 Aspire,” claiming a debt of $7 million.

But the Torre podcast, which claims to have reviewed Aspiration’s internal emails and contracts with Ballmer and Leonard, said Ballmer agreed to wire $50 million to the start-up company in September 2021, a month after Leonard signed a team-friendly, four-year, $176 million contract extension with the Clippers. Just weeks after Ballmer agreed to wire the money, the Clippers announced Aspiration as its team sponsor in a 23-year, $300 million deal.

Leonard registered his limited liability company in November 2021 and, according to the podcast, his $28 million contract with Aspiration took effect in April 2022. He could have signed a shorter contract with the Clippers in 2021 that would have allowed him to become a free agent again in 2022 — when he would have been eligible for a $235 million contract. So the four-year deal he agreed to with the Clippers gave the team financial flexibility against the salary cap, as well as the security of knowing their best player was under contract for years.

Leonard again signed a team-friendly deal with the Clippers in January 2024, a three-year, $153 million contract for less money (about $70 million) than he could have earned. The deal was framed as allowing the Clippers to have the financial flexibility to potentially re-sign fellow stars James Harden and Paul George.

According to the Torre podcast, language in Leonard’s endorsement contract with Aspiration gave him “the exclusive right to control and approve all content and distribution,” and gave Aspiration the right to terminate the contract “if Leonard is no longer an employee of the [Clippers] for any reason.”

Additionally, the Torre podcast said, there is no evidence of social media posts, photographs or appearances by Leonard promoting Aspiration, as stipulated in the contract. However, The Athletic found at least one social media post from the Clippers tagging Aspiration and referencing Leonard. (The team did the same for several other players without known ties to Aspiration, and Leonard did not retweet the post.)

Happy Birthday, Kawhi! 🎉

For every comment/retweet, @Aspiration will plant one tree for Kawhi’s birthday! pic.twitter.com/8zvZpj1xic

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) June 29, 2022

“(Leonard) didn’t have to do anything,” the former finance department official at Aspiration, said on the Torre podcast. “Uncle Dennis demanded payment. It was priority one. It was something that had to be done, and it was crucial to our relationships with Ballmer and the Clippers.”

Robertson, Leonard’s uncle, is listed as the “designated representative” on the contract with Aspiration, according to Torre’s podcast. Messages left for Robertson by The Athletic were not returned.

Per Section 3 of Article XIII, which details the ‘Penalties’ within the section that covers salary cap circumvention, any team that violates league rules for a first time, as well as the player, could face the following outcomes (after their case goes to an Appeals Panel).

A fine of up to $7.5 million.
The “direct forfeiture of draft picks.”
The voiding of the player’s contract, “or any Renegotiation, Extension, or amendment of a Player Contract, between such player and such Team.”
A fine of up to $350,000 for the player.
A suspension for up to one year for “any Team personnel found to have willfully engaged in such violation.”
The voiding of any transaction or agreement found to have violated league rules, and the forced forfeiture of funds received in the deal “unless the player establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that he was unaware of the violation.”

“Pablo Torre Finds out” is an independently produced show licensed by The Athletic and distributed on its podcast network. The Torre podcast signed a licensing agreement with The Athletic Podcast Network last month and the episode released Wednesday is the first under the new partnership.

Law Murray contributed reporting.

(Photo: Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)

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007: First Light gets a March 2026 release date and a $300 collector’s edition

Published

2 hours ago

September 3, 2025

Matt Wales

As part of Sony’s big Bond-themed PlayStation State of Play, developer IO Interactive has revealed 007: First Light will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC on 27th March next year. Additionally, the studio has unveiled a collector’s edition with a price tag likely to leave you at least slightly shaken if not completely stirred.

007: First Light was announced all the way back in 2021, under the name Project 007, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that IO began discussing the game in earnest. The gist is that First Light serves as an origin story for IO’s Bond – part of what’s hoped to be a trilogy – charting the iconic spy’s early days as a “young, resourceful, and sometimes reckless new recruit”. It’s promising stealthy espionage, daredevil action set-pieces, cool spy gadgets, and seemingly everything else you might expect from a Bond game.

IO showed off some of that in more detail during Sony’s latest PlayStation State of Play showcase, and you can read more about 007: First Light’s gameplay fundamentals elsewhere on Eurogamer. But perhaps the biggest news of the evening was a confirmed release date. We already knew it was coming next year, but IO has now firmed that up into a 27th March launch. Additionally, it’s also announced a bunch of different editions as pre-orders get underway.

007: First Light gameplay reveal.Watch on YouTube

Anyone that pre-orders 007: First Light’s £59.99/€69.99/$69.99 USD Standard digital edition – which can be purchased for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store) – will be upgraded to the Deluxe Edition at no extra cost. This gets you the game itself, 24 hours of early access, and a Deluxe Upgrade cosmetics bundle featuring four exclusive outfit skins, one new weapon skin, and the Gleaming pack. After launch, the Deluxe Edition will cost £69.99/€79.99/$79.99 USD.

There’s also a physical release – known as the Specialist edition – featuring all the above plus the Classic Tuxedo Skin, for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC. And for the big spenders out there, IO is releasing a limited edition Legacy variant. This physical-only release for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC costs a not-insignificant £259.99/€299.99/$299.99 USD and includes everything featured in other editions, plus a couple of exclusive weapon and outfit skins, a Golden Gun figurine with a stand and secret compartment, a certificate of authenticity, and a magnetic steel case. Oh, and a great big box.

Whether IO Interactive can pull off its ambitious Bond origin story remains to be seen, but Eurogamer’s Alex Donaldson previously opined that signs are good. “In one trailer, [the Hitman studio] has totally proven it ‘gets’ Bond,” he wrote, “and it’s all about the salivating consumerism.”

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