Kawhi Leonard reportedly had another secret endorsement deal tied to Clippers

As if the Kawhi Leonard-Clippers saga weren’t complicated enough, there’s another wrinkle worth catching up on.

Leonard reportedly had a secret, multimillion-dollar endorsement agreement with Daktronics, the company that manufactured the massive “Halo Board” scoreboard at the Clippers’ Intuit Dome, according to Pablo Torre and Sam Koppelman of Hunterbrook Media.

Perhaps more notable: Torre and Koppelman said they found no evidence Leonard actually performed endorsement work for the company.

The deal is separate from Leonard’s previously reported agreement with now-defunct Aspiration, which prompted the NBA to investigate whether the Clippers circumvented the salary cap by funneling additional money to Leonard outside his NBA contract.

That investigation has now lasted nearly a year.

According to Torre and Koppelman, the Daktronics arrangement wasn’t publicly disclosed but was known by some people involved with the Intuit Dome project. One source told them it was openly viewed internally as a means of circumventing the cap.

The Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

The NBA’s investigation has taken on even greater significance since Los Angeles agreed to trade Leonard back to the Raptors this offseason for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and draft assets.

That deal remains on hold while Toronto waits to see whether Leonard could face discipline, potentially including a suspension or even the voiding of his contract.

So yes, the Leonard story somehow keeps getting stranger. And until the NBA finishes its investigation, one of the summer’s biggest trades remains stuck in neutral.