Pablo Torre did what the name of his show implies, finding out quite a bit about Aspiration, a bankrupt sustainability-as-a-service company with deep financial ties to Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. According to Pablo Torre Finds Out’s reporting, the company allegedly acted as a middleman to funnel millions of dollars from the Clippers to star player Kawhi Leonard in the form of a no-show job as a way to circumvent the NBA salary cap.
Torre’s initial report, which was met with both praise and skepticism, was followed up with a “smoking gun” that seemed to show Clippers ownership was well aware of the arrangement.
While Torre’s reporting has been thorough, he’s received plenty of pushback. Ballmer went on ESPN and flatly denied any wrongdoing. Fellow NBA owner Mark Cuban has been defending Ballmer vociferously. Former NBA player Channing Frye even accused Torre of “snitching.”
Now, Andrei Cherny, co-founder and former CEO of Aspiration, has issued a statement declaring that Torre’s reporting is “false.”
“With the many ‘hot takes’ in the past 10 days about the Clippers/Kawhi Leonard, it’s been surprising (though maybe it shouldn’t be) that until now no reporter has bothered to reach out to me for the facts about that contract,” Cherny wrote on X Friday in a post that included a screenshot of his statement.
With the many “hot takes” in the past 10 days about the Clippers/Kawhi Leonard, it’s been surprising (though maybe it shouldn’t be) that until now no reporter has bothered to reach out to me for the facts about that contract. This is what I told the NY Times/Athletic today: pic.twitter.com/VuhlM02fCQ
— Andrei Cherny (@AndreiCherny) September 12, 2025
In the statement, Cherny says the claim that Leonard’s contract was a “no-show” arrangement is “false,” pointing out that it contained “three pages of extensive obligations that Leonard had to perform” and that it could be terminated if he failed to do so.
According to Torre and The Athletic’s reporting, Leonard never fulfilled any of the contract’s requirements, and it was never terminated.
Cherny also said, “I don’t remember conversations about the NBA salary cap” during sponsorship negotiations, that the contract was signed shortly before he left as CEO of the company, and that he remembered “numerous” conversations about plans involving Leonard.
“I can’t speak to what was done or not done after I left — or why,” he wrote.
He also referenced Joe Sanberg, Aspiration’s co-founder, who was arrested and pleaded guilty to defrauding investors, leading to Aspiration filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year, saying that “it is those of us who worked at Aspiration and gave years of our lives to its mission who were hurt most by what Sanberg did.”
Torre, as he is wont to do, took to social media to respond to Cherny and offer a rebuttal to his side of events.
First, Torre took Cherny to task over his claim that no one reached out to him over the story.
“Hi Andrei — Your tweet is, obviously, false,” Torre wrote on X. “[Pablo Torre Finds Out] requested an on-camera interview with you via LinkedIn. We then e-mailed you a series of detailed questions. (You told me they got lost in your spam filter.)”
Torre then went for the kill shot, asking, “This is you, right?” and including a screenshot of a 2024 AZCentral article about federal investigators looking into Cherny over his role in whether Aspirtation defrauded consumers with its claims of offsetting carbon footprints.
Hi Andrei —
Your tweet is, obviously, false. @pablofindsout requested an on-camera interview with you via LinkedIn. We then e-mailed you a series of detailed questions. (You told me they got lost in your spam filter.)
Also: this is you, right? https://t.co/rtjg4NbiIg pic.twitter.com/kEMxAG0lM6
— Pablo Torre 🕳️ (@PabloTorre) September 12, 2025
Cherny, who spent many years in politics working on several presidential campaigns, served as Chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party from 2011 to 2012 and has run for political office on several occasions, losing each time. He most recently lost the Democratic primary for Arizona’s 1st congressional district in 2024.
Meanwhile, despite what Cherny, Ballmer, and the NBA would probably prefer, this story isn’t going anywhere, and, according to Torre, there’s “more to come.”
Good morning.
According to 9 sources with direct knowledge of the deal, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer personally invested another $10M into Aspiration in March 2023 — the same month Kawhi Leonard was owed his quarterly payment. (First reported by @TheAthletic.)
More to come 👀 https://t.co/zpc4sEfgXT
— Pablo Torre 🕳️ (@PabloTorre) September 13, 2025