IF STEVE BALLMER IS WRONG, STERLING HIM — IF PABLO TORRE IS WRONG, FIRE HIM
Here we go, hours after Labor Day, wondering if the Los Angeles Clippers owner paid an extra $28 million to Kawhi Leonard — to circumvent the salary cap — or if a podcaster is making up another story
Today was a dirty day in sports. Isn’t every day grimy and scuzzy among cheaters and slimebags? Should we believe a raging report from podcaster Pablo Torre — described as “a little sexy” by his new employer at The Athletic — that Kawhi Leonard was given a no-show job of $28 million so the Los Angeles Clippers could evade the NBA’s salary cap?
Or should we point out that Torre also said Jordon Hudson has been banished from the University of North Carolina football program? That was not true Monday night, when she assembled press-conference-room balloons to celebrate Bill Belichick’s 48-14 loss to TCU and was seen hanging by the 73-year-old grump near the field?
Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Is a look-at-me, wink-wink newsman lying again? Or is Steve Ballmer, who is worth $153.1 billion, actually an unscrupulous owner who arranged a side deal with a fraudulent tree-planting company called Aspiration?
Said the Clippers: “Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary-cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration. Any contrary assertion is (probably) false: The team ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago, during the 2022-23 season, when Aspiration defaulted on its obligations. Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Ballmer was aware of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted (an) investigation. The team and Mr. Ballmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can.”
Next time, try spelling “probably” correctly. Not “provably.” But the Los Angeles Times wrote the team “could prove that Torre’s allegations are false.” Does he have a lawyer?
If Torre is wrong, he should be fired by the website, which supported his “findings” with a story calling him “smart, funny and surprising.” Do his editors realize he has been wrong in the recent past? His podcast is called “Pablo Torre Finds Out.” Somewhere, two famed reporters are laughing, wondering if life would have changed with a boastful addendum: “Woodward and Bernstein Find Out.” Torre has been right. He has been wrong. Most journalists who are wrong don’t last very long, while we ask about editors who overly value impact on Labor Day week.
“We went through a litany of really, really top-tier name contracts, and then (someone would say), ‘Oh, by the way, we also have a marketing deal with Kawhi Leonard, like a $28 million organic marketing sponsorship deal with Kawhi,’ ” a former financial officer with Aspiration told Torre. “And (they’d say) that if I had any questions about it, essentially don’t (ask), because it was to ‘circumvent the salary cap. LOL.’ There was lots of LOL when things were shared.”
And if Ballmer found a creepy way to one-up the cap to pay Leonard — who literally has been a no-show player and sat out multiple Clippers games through the years — he should be run out of the league like his shameful predecessor, Donald Sterling. At the moment, Ballmer wants to help law enforcement. Might he suggest someone is setting up Torre in a suspicious media world? This wouldn’t be the first time Leonard and his representatives have found trouble, recalling when his uncle, Dennis Robertson, wanted to own part of the team and fly in private planes. But did Kawhi take $28 million on the endorsement sly for “the exclusive right to control” and distribute Aspiration’s messages?
“(Leonard) didn’t have to do anything,” said the former finance department official. “Uncle Dennis demanded payment. It was priority one. It was something that had to be done, and it was crucial to our relationships with Ballmer and the Clippers.”
Wednesday also was the day when Streameast was shut down. You might know it as the world’s largest illegal sports streaming platform. The anti-pirates wiped it out, leading to the arrests of two men near Cairo, Egypt. It was LeBron James, of all people, who used Streameast to watch an NBA game last year. His usage, seen online, led to a probe that impacts the NFL, NBA, MLB and the Premier League.
Who says he doesn’t play defense?
Can’t rich athletes pay for streaming like the rest of us?
“Dismantling Streameast is a major victory for everyone who invests in and relies on the live sports ecosystem,” said TV executive Ed McCarthy, in an undoubtedly worthwhile story in The Athletic. “This criminal operation was siphoning value from sports at every level and putting fans across the world at risk.”
How much money is sport screwing with in 2025? Millions, billions, trillions? Gamblers, swindling franchise owners, TV bootlickers? Steve Ballmer? And maybe a “former ESPN contributor,” reported the ESPN story, itching to make noise.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.