Despite the ongoing investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers and their potential salary cap circumvention, the 2026 NBA All-Star Game will go on as planned at their home arena. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Monday that the league has given no thought to moving the event in the wake of the Kawhi Leonard saga, wherein the Clippers may have done business with the outside company Aspiration to violate league rules.
The All-Star Game is set for Feb. 15, 2026. The league picked Intuit Dome as the site in a January 2024 announcement ahead of the arena’s grand opening. It figures to be a highly anticipated event given the potential new format, which would create a United States vs. World setup for the first time.
“There’s no contemplation of moving the All-Star Game,” Silver said, “and planning for the All-Star Game and the surrounding activities are operating completely independently of the ongoing investigation.”
It would be a massive undertaking to relocate the event on such short notice. The Clippers investigation began in September, so any swap in venues would come less than five months ahead of All-Star weekend.
The crux of the Clippers’ potential wrongdoing is the relationship between owner Steve Ballmer, Leonard, the team and Aspiration, and the alleged use of the company as a means to pay Leonard without being subjected to NBA salary cap rules. Ballmer invested $50 million in Aspiration, and the company owed Leonard approximately the same amount for “no-show” jobs.
Ballmer and the Clippers have repeatedly denied the salary cap circumvention scheme and said some of the investments were made by way of carbon credits to offset emissions from Intuit Dome. They also said Ballmer invested into the company for non-Clippers-related reasons and was “duped” into the transaction.
One of the latest revelations in the saga, however, suggested Ballmer may not have been so in the dark as the team implied. Pablo Torre reported last week that Ballmer awarded a $1.875 million grant in December 2024 to the Golden State Opportunity Foundation, which belonged to Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg. That donation came more than a year after the Clippers claimed they ended their relationship with Aspiration.
If the NBA concludes that the Clippers were involved in bad-faith financial dealings leading to Leonard’s benefit, the franchise could see hefty penalties. Salary cap rule infractions give the league the right to institute a fine up to $7.5 million, void contracts and require teams to forfeit future draft picks.
