Following the NBA’s official investigation into the fraud allegations against Kawhi Leonard and Steve Ballmer, Pablo Torre, the sports investigator who originally dug out this controversy, has made some additional observations about the situation.
Torre doubled down with allegedly having ‘nine sources’ to confirm The Athletic’s original claims that Steve Ballmer invested an additional $10 million into Aspiration in March 2023, at the same time as when Kawhi Leonard was due his quarterly payment.
“Good morning. According to nine 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,” wrote Torre on X.
“Yes. At this point in the story, Steve Ballmer has personally invested a total of $60M into Aspiration,” wrote Torre in an additional post.
Torre initially accused Leonard of having a second ‘no-show deal with the Clippers. The total of the initial investment by Steve Ballmer and the Clippers was $50 million, of which he hinted $48 million went to Leonard. Now he claims that in March 2023, Ballmer made another $10 million investment during the same time as when Leonard was expected to be paid.
Earlier, a Clippers co-owner was accused of investing in Aspiration at the same time as when Leonard was due his first quarterly payment in December 2022. It allegedly impacted his performance in that season.
But all of this could still be circumstantial, as Ballmer has claimed he had partnered with Aspiration while building the Clippers’ new home arena and was “conned” by Aspiration’s management, just like all the other investors. The league’s official investigation could still conclude that the additional investment had no link to Leonard’s payments.
There have been mixed responses from the NBA world on these allegations. While some players are standing behind Torre’s attempt to dig up the truth, others also criticized him for “snitching” on the Clippers.
Front office executives across the league have reportedly started having backdoor discussions over coming up with ‘shady’ deals of their own to circumvent the salary cap if the league does not take strict action against the Clippers.
The former CEO of Aspiration, Andrei Cherny, claimed that there is no truth behind these allegations and provided details of the company’s expectations from Leonard, explaining how it wasn’t a “no-show” deal.
While the former CEO claimed he was never approached by Torre’s team for information or comments, Torre responded by saying that his team tried on several occasions to contact him, but the former CEO told him that they got lost in the spam emails.
Only the official findings of the investigation will give a clearer idea of how the Clippers could be impacted by these allegations. If these allegations end up being false, Torre and his sources risk losing significant credibility in the future. Therefore, they have a lot to lose here as well, not just the Clippers. But if the Clippers are found innocent, then Torre does owe Ballmer and Leonard an apology, if not more.
