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Pablo Torre, the journalist whose reporting led the NBA to crack down on the Los Angeles Clippers for circumventing the league salary cap rules, said he is not done with the story.
“There is more to come than is in the NBA report,’’ Torre said Wednesday, Sept. 2 during his podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out. “This is not everything.”
Torre, 40, and his two co-hosts did not provide specifics. But Torre did offer a couple of possible hints while pointing to the findings of an investigation conducted by referring to a law firm hired by the NBA, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
The investigation has centered one player, Kawhi Leonard, and how the Clippers funneled him money in violation of the league’s salary cap rules after signing him in 2019, according to a summary of the law firm’s investigation. Torre cited mention in the summary of an unidentified second player.
Torre also pointed out the investigation findings did not include Dennis Wong, the Clippers’ co-owner. Steve Ballmer, the team’s controlling owner, has been suspended from all league and team activities for a year.
The NBA issued a statement that in part reads, “more information will likely surface over time.”
Said Torre, “I encourage people to dig in as we continue to cover it and investigate still, especially now that it seems like the story isn’t over yet … I always want more documents. Somehow still I’m unsatisfied with the documents.’’
In May, Torre’s investigative work on the Clippers’ scandal earned him a Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting. But he also has faced criticism, largely from the Clippers.
Clippers took aim at Pablo Torre
David Kelley, an attorney representing Ballmer, last year wrote that Torre’s reporting was a “vitriolic public campaign against Mr. Ballmer” and “principally based on anonymized gossip,’’ according to ESPN. Later in the year, in a statement sent to Torre’s show on behalf of Ballmer and the Clippers read, “Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration. Any contrary assertion is provably false.”
Aspiration was the primary company named in the investigation that held Ballmer responsible for circumventing the salary cap – largely it appears to have secured Leonard’s services after he led the Toronto Raptors to the NBA title in 2019.
“How desperate was Steve Ballmer, the richest owner in American sports, one of the richest people on the planet to get a superstar that would allow him to compete as owner of the Clippers?’’ Torre asked on Wednesday. “And the answer is, look at what he was doing.’’