Since Pablo Torre released an episode of his investigative podcast last week alleging that the Los Angeles Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer circumvented the salary cap to give illicit benefits to star forward Kawhi Leonard, it has been a rare national NBA story to break through in September.
Responses have been strong and mixed. Dallas Mavericks part-owner Mark Cuban staunchly defended the Clippers in a follow-up interview with Torre and went so far as to call himself “Team Ballmer.” Other NBA reporters, like ESPN insider Shams Charania, have insisted that “no-work” roles like the one given to Leonard by Clippers sponsor Aspiration are more common than Torre made it seem. Some have brushed Torre’s reporting off based on the belief that he did not provide enough evidence to pin the behavior on Ballmer or the team.
Meanwhile, the NBA launched its own investigation into the Clippers. And online, most NBA fans appear to believe Torre and see an opportunity to lay the hammer on a rich guy who cheated.
In his latest public comments regarding the fallout from his report, Torre joined Nothing Personal with David Samson to defend his reporting and challenge the doubters across sports media.
“The frustration I have is, if you didn’t do reporting on this but you’re speaking very confidently and you’re showing your a** but you may not realize it, just know that it’s obvious to the people who did do the reporting,” he said.
The main issue Torre has with how mainstream media has digested his coverage is that Torre believes many commentators are not actually listening to his podcast episode all the way through. Torre also accused analysts who are skeptical of his reporting — and failing what he called “an IQ test” over the information he uncovered — of having a broken BS detector.
Still, Torre is glad the doubters are going on the record. When his reporting, which he says took seven months to complete, is investigated by bigger entities, Torre believes it will age well. And the doubters will have egg on their faces.
“I think what I am really feeling is just, if you’re going to talk about this and weigh in on it from a national-media perspective, I just feel like we’re taking an IQ test,” Torre said. “Maybe that’s mean, but I think in some ways the Main Street setting is pretty useful here.”
Torre also implored NBA reporters digging around on the loose ends from his reporting to not take the company line.
“The next step is, if you are hearing from people who are saying this is normal, I ask those people if their radar is functioning,” Torre said. “Like, why would they be telling you that? Because it’s just absurd.”
For anyone who believes Torre should have provided more direct evidence, like the signed contract at the center of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ infamous Joe Smith promise, Torre issued a reminder that most rule-breakers are smart enough not to write down their violations.
Torre also addressed the argument, which came most prominently from Cuban, that Torre’s reporting could not be trusted because it came from within a company that the federal government is investigating for fraud. However, Torre insists his sources were simply workers within Aspiration who were bystanders in all of the company’s impropriety.
“Maybe my failure was not to say ‘none of my seven sources is going to jail, or ‘none of my seven sources has pled guilty,'” Torre chuckled. “And I feel comfortable declaring that now … these are people that I stake my reputation on.”
While Torre acknowledged that he will at times make mistakes, the final step of his reporting was to acquire copies of the contracts between Aspiration, Leonard, and the Clippers. Once he did that, he felt comfortable going to air with the allegations.
That is why, seemingly, Torre made a show of placing the contracts upon his studio desk during the PTFO episode.
With countless hours of work and a published report all made public, Torre is prepared to defend his Clippers reporting in any venue,
“I would love to talk about what we had reported on Wednesday with anybody in any setting, under any amount of spotlight that you’ve got.”