The NBA’s investigation into Kawhi Leonard’s deal with Aspiration keeps dragging on, but a new discovery shows the bizarre extent of the situation.
As the Clippers, Raptors, and Leonard await a decision from the NBA over the matter to continue their offseason business, more details of the alleged ‘no-show’ sponsorship deal are emerging.
A new detail is that Aspiration’s marketing team went out of their way to find a way to integrate Leonard into a marketing campaign for their tree-growing initiatives.
Kawhi Leonard was almost marketed as a Groot-like figure by Aspiration
The Athletic has revealed that Aspiration’s employees presumed Leonard would feature in a marketing campaign after signing on to a $20 million endorsement deal. As a result, they came up with a campaign that made Leonard seem like Groot from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.
“The efforts went so far as to create images, reviewed by The Athletic, of Leonard as an offshoot of Marvel’s Groot – Aspiration’s purpose was a promise to plant trees to offset carbon footprints.”
“But after weeks of trying to work with the Marvel concept and brainstorm other ideas, the creative team was told to quit, according to multiple former Aspiration marketing employees. ‘Stop thinking about Kawhi,’ the person said they were told. ‘This feels like a dead end.'”
Leonard has never been the kind of athlete big companies go out of their way to recruit for major marketing promotions, given his non-existent social media presence and quiet personality.
It seems there was due diligence put in to create a campaign around Leonard before higher-ups squashed the plans.
It’s unclear how this plays into the investigation, but the league has an obligation to investigate it thoroughly before taking a step like penalizing the Clippers future assets, voiding Leonard’s contract, or handing out a suspension to Leonard and specific involved executives, and potentially, the owner.
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