Pablo Torre has earned praise from many corners for his reporting on the Kawhi Leonard scandal, but not everyone has been a fan. Former NBA player Channing Frye had a controversial reaction to Torre’s reporting on the Road Trippin’ podcast, as he called him out for snitching on Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers.
“First of all, why are you snitching?” Frye asked. “Why are you snitching? Who cares? Do you know how much this lemon perfect bottle was? Probably 28 cents. This is what Steve Ballmer thinks of $28 million. He’s like, ‘Oh, here you go. You want this?’ He don’t care. Also, why are you snitching?”
When co-host Richard Jefferson asked who he was calling out here, Frye pointed to Torre. Jefferson then made it clear that Torre was just doing his job.
“The reporter’s job is to snitch,” Jefferson said. “Our job is to keep it quiet, right?” Ballmer didn’t tell. Kawhi didn’t tell. So, Pablo’s doing what he’s supposed to do, and he’s doing an absolute great job. Shout him out for this investigation.”
While Jefferson’s comments didn’t make it to social media, Frye’s did. They didn’t go down too well and eventually came to Torre’s attention. He couldn’t believe that Frye was asking why he was snitching and who cared about this story.
“I don’t know which of these two questions is worse tbh.”
I don’t know which of these two questions is worse tbh https://t.co/9lr35mmQLA
— Pablo Torre 🕳️ (@PabloTorre) September 12, 2025
A whole lot of people do care. Frye later agreed with Jefferson’s statement on X about Torre doing an outstanding job, but the damage had been done.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Clippers have been accused of cap circumvention. It’s been alleged that they funnelled money to Leonard via Aspiration, a now bankrupt environmental company.
Clippers team owner Steve Ballmer had invested $50 million in Aspiration in September 2021, and the company later gave Leonard a $28 million no-show endorsement deal, which kicked in from April 2022. Ballmer has made it clear he had no idea about any such deal.
This was a bad enough look, but there is more. It was later reported that Aspiration also gave Leonard $20 million in company stock. That takes the total amount to $48 million.
While Ballmer has looked to distance himself from Aspiration, his ties to the company seem to be deepening. It has been reported that 18 months after that initial investment, he invested a further $10 million.
Ballmer isn’t the only one from the Clippers’ hierarchy who might have financial ties with Aspiration, too. Co-owner and alternate governor Dennis Wong is said to have invested $1.99 million days before Leonard was scheduled to be paid $1.75 million by the company.
This has turned into quite a story. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has addressed this Clippers scandal, and it will be interesting to see what the official investigation unearths. The league has hired the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the investigation.
There is a possibility that the Clippers get away scot-free here, but that might lead to more problems. Rival executives are threatening to pursue shady endorsement deals of their own if the NBA doesn’t penalize the Clippers. Silver will have a pretty big call to make here.
