The saga surrounding the Los Angeles Clippers, Steve Ballmer, and Kawhi Leonard has taken another twist, this time involving the media. Dan Le Batard, co-founder of Meadowlark Media, admitted on Pablo Torre Finds Out that he has real concerns about how deep Ballmer’s pockets run and what that means for his company if they get anything wrong in their reporting.
“And I’m learning this for the first time. I have not actually been involved in the innards of this story. Pablo and his team inform me largely after things are over that, yes, perhaps Balmer can bankrupt you if you get a thing wrong. Yes, they tell me afterward. That’s the way everyone does good business, I’m sure.”
It was a tongue-in-cheek admission, but one rooted in reality. Ballmer is worth over $151 billion and has the financial muscle to unleash an army of lawyers.
If any of Pablo Torre’s explosive reports about the Clippers, Ballmer, and Kawhi Leonard are proven false or defamatory, litigation could be devastating for Meadowlark Media.
So far, however, nothing has pointed to Torre fabricating stories. His reporting has been backed up by documents, timelines, and multiple sources, with details that paint a damning picture of the Clippers’ relationship with the now-bankrupt fintech company Aspiration.
The scandal began when Torre revealed Leonard had signed a $28 million “no-show” endorsement deal with Aspiration, a tree-planting and carbon-credit startup. Around the same time, Ballmer invested $50 million into the company. Ballmer has since claimed he was “duped” by Aspiration’s executives, but the timing of those investments raised eyebrows across the league.
Then more details trickled out. A $1.75 million payment to Leonard was made only after Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong invested $1.99 million into the company in late 2022, at a time when Aspiration was reportedly struggling to make payroll for its own employees.
The most recent bombshell came when Torre revealed the Clippers, Ballmer, and associates funneled a staggering $118 million into Aspiration between September 2021 and March 2023.
One deal in June 2022 saw the Clippers’ CFO sign off on a $21 million carbon-credit purchase just two weeks before Leonard’s first scheduled Aspiration payment was due. Torre noted the timing was too convenient to ignore, saying the influx of cash “kept Aspiration afloat” and ensured “Board Man got paid.”
For Ballmer, the implications are serious. While the team has denied wrongdoing, rival executives and even former Clippers staffers have called this latest scandal different, one that “directly calls into question Steve Ballmer’s character.” The NBA has opened its investigation, and if the league finds evidence of salary-cap circumvention, penalties could be severe, ranging from fines to voided contracts.
As for Le Batard, his comment underscores the risks of independent sports media taking on billionaires. The reporting may be accurate, but even accuracy isn’t always a shield against costly legal battles. Right now, Pablo Torre’s work has put the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard era under a microscope.
The question is whether Steve Ballmer decides to fight the story in court or in the court of public opinion.
