No reporter has gained more respect this week than former ESPN personality Pablo Torre.
For exactly a year, Torre has been reporting about the Los Angeles Clippers circumvent the salary cap by orchestrating a $28 million endorsement deal between Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration. Although the Clippers denied any wrongdoing, the NBA hammered them with a historic punishment.
Not only was Clippers owner Steve Ballmer fined $30 million and suspended for a year, the team has been forced to give up its first-round picks for the 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033 drafts.
A few weeks prior to the NBA’s announcement, ESPN reported that no evidence has been found that shows Ballmer and the Clippers circumventing the salary cap.
During an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show”, Torre said ESPN was most likely fed that story by the Clippers.
“What ESPN had done, according to my reporting, is they were fed a story by the Clippers that the Clippers may have known was not true,” Torre said, via Awful Announcing. “And why do you do that? Well, perhaps it’s because that’s the available territory that you have, having been beaten on the other part of this landscape. Perhaps you really believed it, because the Clippers looked you in the eye and for months, for a year, said to you, ‘We’re telling the truth, that annoying, clout-chasing podcaster is lying to you.”
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports.
The Clippers are still fighting back.
On Wednesday, the Clippers made it clear they won’t accept the punishment handed out to them. They plan on fighting back and proving they didn’t conduct shady business.
“We vehemently reject the NBA’s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence. What the league told us privately differs from what it announced today publicly, and they have not held themselves close to the standard Commissioner Silver set at the start of this investigation to ensure it’s fairness and accuracy,” the Clippers said in a statement.
“For the past year, we cooperated fully and in good faith and we will now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence. We intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward to an ethical and impartial arbitration process.”
For now, the ball remains in the NBA’s court.
