The NBA has hired New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct an investigation into allegations that LA Clippers star Kawhi Leonard’s endorsement deal with a now-bankrupt environmental company was made to help his team and its billionaire owner, Steve Ballmer, circumvent the salary cap, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Athletic.

The decision is a clear sign that the league is taking seriously allegations made by anonymous employees of San Francisco-based green bank, Aspiration, who told the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast that the four-year, $28 million endorsement deal Leonard received from the company in 2022 was for a “no-show job” intended to “circumvent the (NBA) salary cap.” Subsequent reporting by the Boston Sports Journal alleged that Leonard also had a second deal worth approximately $20 million that was set to be paid in company stock belonging to co-founder Joe Sanberg, who has since agreed to plead guilty to defrauding investors of $248 million.

In addition to Wachtell Lipton, which will lead the investigation, the league has its own investigator working out of its legal office who will consult on the investigation, the source said.

Wachtell Lipton is the same law firm the NBA used to investigate two high-profile cases of misconduct by team owners — both of whom were later forced to sell their teams. In 2014, the law firm investigated former Clippers owner Donald Sterling for accusations of numerous racially insensitive remarks made about NBA legend Magic Johnson, revealed by TMZ. In 2022, the firm investigated former Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver for multiple instances of inappropriate language or behavior after an ESPN report on the matter.

In both of those cases — with Sterling and Sarver — ownership of those teams changed hands. Owners voted to remove Sterling, and Sarver was suspended for one season but chose to sell the team.

The Sterling investigation lasted a year, with Silver announcing a lifetime ban and a $2.5 million fine for the then-Clippers owner on April 29, 2014. The Sarver investigation lasted 10 months, with Silver announcing on Sept. 13, 2022, that the then-Suns owner was suspended for one year and fined $10 million. A week later, amid immense pressure from the public and sponsors, Sarver announced that he would sell the team (which was sold to Mat Ishbia in February of 2023). More recently, Wachtell Lipton was one of the firms that handled the legal work for the $6.1 billion sale of the Boston Celtics in March.

Ballmer, 69, is the NBA’s richest owner, with a personal worth of $153 billion, according to Forbes, and has on numerous occasions denied any wrongdoing in his dealings with Aspiration. He has said he introduced Leonard to Aspiration executives, at their request, but had no knowledge of the employment agreement between the company and Ballmer’s star player.

Ballmer agreed to invest $50 million with Aspiration in 2021. Aspiration was announced as the Clippers’ new jersey and arena sponsor, a deal that was supposed to be worth $300 million over 23 years. Aspiration and Leonard agreed to a four-year, $28 million endorsement deal in April of 2022. There does not appear to be evidence that Leonard did any work for Aspiration. His contract, obtained by The Athletic, included a provision that allowed Leonard to decline any and all requests from the company.

The Clippers and Forum Entertainment (both owned by Ballmer) are the top two creditors in Aspiration’s bankruptcy case. Leonard is owed the third most money, according to bankruptcy filings, claiming a debt of $7 million.

The root of the suspicions dates back to Leonard’s free agency in the summer of 2019, when his uncle and representative, Dennis Robertson, requested a litany of off-court perks from several teams that were outside the boundaries of the league’s rules en route to Leonard signing with the Clippers. The NBA investigated the matter, but found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the teams.

In January of 2024, Leonard signed an extension with the Clippers that raised eyebrows around the league because it was not a maximum-salary deal. The team-friendly choice, which paid him a combined $153 million over three years, allowed the Clippers to have more flexibility with their roster.

If the league ultimately levies punishment on Ballmer, the Clippers and/or Leonard, the CBA allows for several options. And because they have already been disciplined for breaking league rules of this kind — they were fined $250,000 in August 2015 relating to the free agency of big man DeAndre Jordan — the outcome could be more severe.

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 second 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.”

NBA and basketball business writer Mike Vorkunov contributed to this story.

(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams held a news conference Friday afternoon at Gracie Mansion to insist he was staying in the race amid speculation he was set to drop out. 

Sources told CBS News New York the Trump administration has been exploring possible job offers for both Adams and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in an effort to lure them out of the race and clear a path for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to face Queens Assemblyman and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani one-on-one. 

“I am in this race and I’m the only one that can beat [Zohran] Mamdani,” Adams said. 

Adams claimed credit for reductions in crime since the COVID pandemic, and accused Cuomo of trying to push him out of the race. He blasted “two spoiled brats running for mayor.” 

“The reason people are having these conversations is because I made this city safe. I committed myself and dedicated myself to a city that I love, and I’m going to continue to do that,” Adams said. “What we have done in three and a half years shows why we have to continue the success we have. I have two spoiled brats running for mayor. They were born with silver spoons in their mouths, not like working class New Yorkers. I’m a working class New Yorker. They are not like us.” 

CBS News New York has reached out to the Cuomo and Mamdani campaigns for a response. 

Mamdani, the Democrat candidate and frontrunner, responded to Adams’ news conference on social media with a clip from the movie “Wolf of Wall Street” in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s character says “I’m not leaving.” 

Cuomo’s campaign said they do not have a comment. 

“It’s almost ‘Groundhog Day'” 

Adams said he was not planning a trip to Washington Monday. 

“I am running for reelection, and I’m going to tell New Yorkers every day why I believe I should be the mayor of the city of New York in 2026,” Adams said. 

Acknowledging his own poor performance in most recent polls, Adams said that polls had also shown Cuomo ahead of Mamdani by double digits prior to the Democratic primary, which Mamdani then went on to win handily.  

“Those are the same polls that stated [Cuomo] was going to walk into becoming the mayor of the city of New York, who he believes is a consolation prize because he made the determination to step down,” Adams said. 

Adams likened speculation of his potential exit from the race to the movie “Groundhog Day,” in which the main character lives the same day over and over. 

“It’s almost ‘Groundhog Day,’ folks. How many times have I been told throughout this journey to step aside, to surrender, to give up, to give in,” Adams said. 

Adams then left without taking questions. 

President Trump may be trying to lure Adams out of the race

The news conference came after a close friend and adviser of Adams told CBS News New York’s Marcia Kramer that even though Adams is still publicly in the race, he speculates Adams will be out of the election within a week.  

All of this is against the backdrop of President Trump possibly trying to lure Adams away from the mayor’s race with a government post. 

The New York Times is reporting close advisers to Mr. Trump have discussed nominating Adams for the role of ambassador to Saudi Arabia if he drops out of the race for mayor. 

The same source told Kramer other diplomatic posts are also on the table. 

President Trump on the race 

Mr. Trump was asked about the New York City mayor’s race Friday afternoon. He again referred to Mamdani, a democratic socialist, as a communist.

“It would seem to me that if [Adams] stays in, if you have more than one candidate running against [Mamdani], it can’t be won. If you have one candidate, if he’s the right candidate. I would say that Cuomo might have a chance of winning, if it was a one on one. If it’s not one on one, it’s going to be a hard race. And we’ll get used to a communist, and we’ll get used to a communist, and he’s going to have to go through the White House and get approvals for everything, and we’re going to make sure New York is not hurt. We want to make sure that New York is cherished and taken care of,” Mr. Trump said. 

The president flatly denied offering Adams an ambassadorship. 

“I didn’t do that. No, I wouldn’t do that. There’s nothing wrong with doing it, but I didn’t do that,” Mr. Trump said. 

“No formal offers have been made” 

Despite low poll numbers, the refusal of the Campaign Finance Board to grant him matching funds, and a president anxious to stop Mamdani’s campaign, Adams said prior to his news conference he still intended to seek reelection. 

“Serving New Yorkers as their mayor is the only job I’ve ever wanted. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made lowering crime, improving schools, building housing, and cutting costs for working families — and I remain the best person to lead this city forward,” Adams said prior to his afternoon announcement. “While I will always listen if called to serve our country, no formal offers have been made. I am still running for reelection, and my full focus is on the safety and quality of life of every New Yorker.”

“He’s not a kingmaker,” Hochul says

Adams’ insistence that he’s seeking reelection comes Gov. Kathy Hochul urged him not to accept help from Mr. Trump. 

“Well, contrary to what the president thinks, he’s not a king, he’s a not a kingmaker, and he should be not anointing the next mayor of New York City. That is the right of New Yorkers to determine,” Hochul said. “And no one should be accepting that assistance. It should be rejected. Otherwise, there’ll be a sense that people are compromised if they’re getting the road cleared because of who the president wants as the next mayor.”

The rumors escalated after Adams flew to Florida to meet with one of the president’s top aides, Steve Witkoff. 

“I want to make sure that our elections continue free and clear without that kind of interference, and I reject those efforts wholeheartedly,” Hochul added.   

Two months before Election Day, Mamdani leads the polls in virtually every scenario. Last week, however, a poll by Tulchin Research showed that in a one-on-one race, Cuomo would defeat Mamdani.  

Businessman John Catsimatidis, who recently spoke to Mr. Trump about the race, says the president told him he doesn’t want Mamdani, a democratic socialist, to run the financial capital of the country.   

“He’s going to do everything in his presidential powers to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” Catsimatidis said. “The time frame is, well, it’s only eight weeks to the election, so it’s going to happen in the next few weeks.” 

Cuomo has not commented on the apparent White House efforts to make the race a one-on-one contest, and challenged Mamdani to a series of debates across the five boroughs of New York City. Friday, Cuomo posted on social media photos of a breakfast meeting he had with Rev. Al Sharpton. 

Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, a callback to the department’s original name used from 1789 to 1947.

The directive will make Department of War the secondary title, and is a way to get around the need for congressional approval to formally rename a federal agency, an administration official said.

“We won the first world war, we won the second world war, we won everything before that and in between,” Trump said at the signing. “And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to the Department of Defense.”

The administration has already begun implementing the symbolic changes: visitors to the Pentagon’s defense.gov website are now automatically redirected to war.gov.

The move comes days after a deadly US navy airstrike killed 11 people on a small boat in international waters, which the military said involved a drug vessel operated by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Some legal experts questioned whether the strike was lawful under international law.

The combination of aggressive military action and symbolic rebranding goes in contrast with Trump’s repeated claims to be “the anti-war president” who campaigned on promises to end conflicts and avoid new wars. Trump said during the signing of the order that his focus on strength and trade has improved America’s position in the world..

Trump has argued the original name better reflects military victories and honestly represents what the department does. The rebrand would reverse the 1947 name change made as part of postwar reforms that emphasized defense over warfare.

Seven US warships and one nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine were reported to be heading for the Caribbean following Monday’s strike, another layer in the measures Trump has taken to combat what he claims is the threat from Tren de Aragua.

Congressional approval would ultimately be required for any permanent name change, though the House member Greg Steube from Florida and the senator Mike Lee from Utah, both Republicans, introduced legislation to make the switch official.

“We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct,” the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, said in the Oval Office. “We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders. So this war department, Mr President, just like America is back.”