Mark Cuban Defends Steve Ballmer Amid Alleged Bogus Endorsement Scandal

Mark Cuban is standing firm in Steve Ballmer's corner after a report claimed he got Kawhi Leonard a bogus $28 million sponsorship to skirt the NBA salary cap ... saying he truly believes the billionaire is solely a victim in the whole fiasco.

Pablo Torre dropped the bombshell report on Wednesday ... which claimed Ballmer orchestrated a way to get Leonard more than his nearly $150 million contract through an endorsement with Aspiration, a tree-planting company that ultimately went bankrupt.

Cuban weighed in just now ... pointing to issues he has with the report.

"As much as I wish they circumvented the salary cap, First Steve isn’t that dumb," Cuban said on X. "If he did try to feed KL money, knowing what was at stake for him personally, and his team, do you think he would let the company go bankrupt ? Knowing all creditors would be visible to the world ?"

Cuban -- who owned the Dallas Mavericks until 2023 -- noted the Aspiration co-founder owned up to scamming partners ... and pleaded guilty to a $248 million scheme to defraud lenders and investors just over a week ago.

Cuban also pointed out how Aspiration had a massive deal with the team dating back to 2021 ... which would explain why Leonard's money was specifically tied to his relationship with the Clippers.

"The better the team does , the more value the sponsorship has," he added. "It actually makes perfect sense that if they stole money from investors and want the clippers to succeed, why not give stolen money to help keep their best player ?"