People out there wanted Pablo Torre to fail. Wednesday afternoon, Torre silenced a conglomerate of his critics.
Torre has become the face of a dying art — investigative sports journalism. He skyrocketed into the upper echelon of sports media over the past year with his coverage of the Kawhi Leonard-Aspiration scandal, which he originally broke on his podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out.
Criticism of Torre and his work is easy to find. Many people these days have a hard time believing that anybody is doing something simply because it’s the right thing to do anymore. Yes, Torre is accruing popularity and wealth via the growth of his name, brand and podcast (that’s his job), but he’s not fabricating lies to do so. His reporting is sound.
But on Aug. 17, when ESPN dropped an article claiming that “The NBA has found no evidence that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through team sponsors to pay Kawhi Leonard and circumvent the salary cap”, there were plenty of people who used their report to try and bury Torre on the spot.
Those people should look themselves in the mirror and practice their apologies for Pablo Torre while they’re there.
Why ESPN’s Story on Clippers, Ballmer Is Wrong
Shams Charania, the NBA’s lone news breaker these days, reported on Wednesday that, “The NBA has ruled on the Los Angeles Clippers in for salary cap circumvention investigations on Kawhi Leonard after yearlong probe — stripping the franchise of 5 first-round picks, issuing a $30 million fine to owner Steve Ballmer and suspensions for Ballmer, Lawrence Frank and Gillian Zucker, sources tell ESPN.”
Charania followed that up with a statement directly from the NBA which read: “Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is suspended from all league and team activities for one year for knowingly seeking to help Mr. Leonard obtain off-court income opportunities, for approving a business deal that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement agreement with Mr. Leonard, and for his failure to create conditions under which his organization abided by the NBA’s circumvention rules.”
The part of that statement that most pertains to ESPN’s story is: “…for approving a business deal that he knew was a precondition for Aspiration to enter into an endorsement agreement with Mr. Leonard…”
Doesn’t that constitute “funneling”, as ESPN put it?
It doesn’t take a lawyer to connect the dots there — the NBA believes they have enough evidence to punish Steve Ballmer for giving Aspiration enough money to then give Kawhi Leonard a sponsorship.
ESPN got it wrong. The language in their article may be sound enough to escape true blame, but take half a second to read between the lines, and it’s clear that they stuck their necks out to get ahead of the story, and the NBA went the other way.
Jay Mariotti Among Those Who Were Eager to Slander Torre
Even the most die-hard ESPN fans of the 2000s might not remember who Jay Mariotti is. He was a regular in the come-up days of the show Around the Horn. His time on ESPN ended abruptly after he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge connected to an alleged domestic violence incident against his girlfriend.
On the day that ESPN posted their article, Mariotti sprinted to his own keyboard. On his personal Substack, brilliantly coined The Sports Column, Mariotti wrote an article titled: STEVE BALLMER IS SAFE — PABLO TORRE AND THE PULITZER PRIZE BOARD ARE NOT.
Mariotti wrote in his harangue: “Look, Torre is wrong about Ballmer. Just as he was wrong that North Carolina removed Bill Belichick’s girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, from the football program. Just as he was incorrect that Antonio Gates, an NFL Hall of Famer, organized a rigged poker game in Miami. Torre shouldn’t have suggested Ballmer rigged the cap to pay star Kawhi Leonard, which means The Athletic — which signed him to a multi-year licensing contract — should ponder its future in a crippling year when it also employed Dianna Russini.”
Sounds personal. But it goes to show that by putting out such a bold article, ESPN validated the thoughts of many who believed they would find personal salvation in Torre failing.
But it’s not the Mariottis of the world — the washed, “old man yells at cloud” personalities — that Torre will have any worries about. It’s those in the NBA sphere that he might.
Is Pablo Torre Going to Feel Heat from NBA Owners/Players?
Shortly after Torre first broke all this news, he had Mark Cuban on his podcast. Cuban, in his own words, was “Team Ballmer.” His interpretation of the situation was, essentially, that Steve Ballmer is too smart of a guy to let something like this happen on accident, or to think the “risk-reward” ratio was great enough to do it on purpose.
“If I’m wrong on this, and you’re right, then Steve is not as smart as I think he is,” Cuban said to Torre.
Cuban has already made his amends.
But Cuban represents the NBA social circle, at least to a degree. As a former owner (and maybe someone who wants to be one again?), it’s not crazy to expect Cuban to defend one of his own in Ballmer.
Now owners will be a lot more scared to try anything like what Ballmer, Aspiration and Leonard’s team pulled. That might not be a big deal to the owners, since most of them don’t have $40 million to throw at a wall like Ballmer, one of the world’s richest men.
What Do NBA Players Think?
In the back half of their article, ESPN shared the following excerpt: “One league insider with direct knowledge of league business said a salary cap circumvention penalty based on player introductions is ‘an outrageous overreach’ and that ‘it’s the job of players’ agents to ask for introductions to sponsors and potential endorsers.’ The person also said that if the league punishes the Clippers for introducing a player to a team sponsor, it ‘will be felt across the league — and players and their management won’t stand for it.'”
The real question in all of this is how will it affect NBA players in the future? The scrutiny with which these sorts of deals will be looked at moving forward could take money off the table for them in one way or another. Who knows how many little deals like this one could be going on? At the very least, the eyes on sponsorships should at least muck up the cadence of it all.
But that doesn’t mean Torre’s work shouldn’t have been done. Rules have to be rules, because without them, the NBA is just a pay-to-play toy for those with the means to stretch it that far. There’s plenty of argument to whether or not the second apron is good for the growth of the league, but on Wednesday, at least the NBA stuck to their word and administered punishment that was in line with their priors that parity is a part of the league.
ESPN tried to call their bluff, and in the process validated a lot of hatred towards Pablo Torre.
They should get in the line that Mark Cuban formed and apologize.
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