[Pablo Torre] PTFO can now confirm that Aspiration gave Kawhi a secret $20M side-deal. Combined with Kawhi’s secret $28M no-show endorsement deal: that’s $48M. PTFO previously reported that Steve Ballmer’s personal Aspiration investment was… $50M.

41 comments

1. Holy shit this is going to be huge

2. Pablo Torre is determined to make this shit stick

3. This may be one of THE biggest scandals in sports history honestly.

4. this is getting ugly for the clippers

5. A 2 million dollar handling fee sounds about right.

6. Yeah the Clippers might be cooked

7. Did paul george get the cut?

8. Ballmer expects you to believe that despite his legendary business acumen, he believed this company deserved another $50 million investment, and that $50 million investment just so happened to line up with the amount of money Kawhi got from the Aspiration.

   Sure thing Steve

9. Pablo also tweeted this before Steve Ballmer scheduled his PR interview with Ramona Shelburne:

   **One thing I’ve been wondering about, as the NBA officially announces its investigation and the scope of our Aspiration investigation continues to crystallize:**

   **When is Steve Ballmer going to try and appeal to public sympathy with a sit-down interview?**

   **His reaction after ESPN PR’s tweet about the scheduled Ballmer interview: Oh.**

10. Somewhere steve ballmer just instinctively groped his coworkers

11. Short seller Pablo. Love the energy piercing through the corporate veils. RIP Pablo.

12. What’s PTFO?

13. pablo torre is on a generational run

14. Ballmer about to get mad and release Windows Vista again

15. Yeah the Clippers are cooked. Wonder how they are going to handle Kawhi’s contract situation- and if the punishment will be as severe as it is for gambling

16. The $20m in stock was from the CEO’s (that just pled guilty to fraud) personal equity according to the Boston Sports Journal. Not from the company itself. Wonder if the CEO ever intended to give it if true.

17. First instinct is to get out in front of the allegations but it was clear as day that a little more digging, a little more eyes, that there was more to uncover so it would be stupid to lock in your position this quickly but billionaires think they are the smartest, not true, and untouchable, which is largely true.

18. $20m of Sanberg’s (co-founder of aspiration) personal shares were to be given to Kawhi, which I think is extremely notable

    So we have Ballmer investing $50m in this company that weeks later has the CEO personally hand out a $28m contract without going through the rest of the executive team and a co-founder giving $20m of his shares to Leonard as a kicker.

    Now why would two co-founders of this company give a completely lopsided no-show contract (that they made personal interventions in) to the star player of a key investor’s team that they recently got backing from? Hmm…

19. Can anyone dumb this way down to Celtics fan level

20. Ballmers coke dealer on a generational run rn

21. I think I know how to fix this and make everyone happy:

    Move the Clippers to Seattle.

22. I’m imagining Steve offering Pablo 10m just to shut up. Torre LFG!

23. Shoutout to Pablo for the actual breaking news lately!!

24. Pablo cooking the Clippers franchise harder than they have ever been cooked before.

25. All that for a mother fucker who barely legit fucking plays. PG played more than him LMAOOOO

26. Clippers can say goodbye to their picks for the next decade.

27. At this point I’m expecting a video of Ballmer repeatedly yelling cap circumvention to a hyped Clippers office.

28. Fully enjoying my popcorn right now

29. Part of me still expects Silver to give them a slap on the wrist because the dude has been the most spineless commish in all of sports.

    This is actually fucked. No wonder the Lakers and Raptors stood no shot. Should result in loss of numerous picks, suspension for Kawhi, and probably some form of a suspension for Ballmer for a few years (not sure how that would work).

    Watch Silver slap a fine on a guy worth 150B and take away like 1 pick lol.

30. Pablo Torre you are the absolute man. Keep up the real work. You are respected.

31. Pablo Torre is in his 2021 Khris Middleton generational run rn

32. Let’s play devils advocate and say Ballmer actually had no idea

    So the company he invested in, *secretly* went and endorsed Kawhi as some sorta thank you? And failed to ever mention it to him?

    And it so happens it’s the same amount said investor originally invested???

    It’s so fucking obvious because they thought no one would give a fuck. AND NO ONE DID. Until Pablo was doing work on aspiration and it led down to this

33. This isn’t the main thing but the idea that Kawhi Leonard — one of the least marketable superstars in NBA history — would be worth tens of millions of dollars for a few social media hits is *preposterous*.

    Kawhi barely has 350k instagram followers, less than half of his teammate Bogdan Bogdanovic

34. Adam silver: well, $50 is not equal to $48, so no issue here

35. Throw the book at em. The North remembers.

36. “Do not commit crimes with checks, use cash” – Charles Barkley

37. are the owners…

    a) more pissed off that ballmer was able to cheat like this?

    b) or more pissed that ballmer was caught cheating and they fear that they might be next to be “found out”?

38. This may sound weird but it’s so cool to see an investigation happen in real time. Social media may have it’s issues but it does let us see stuff like this unfold.

39. Expel KW and Ballmer outta this league

40. Pablo Torre is about to become the first sports journalist to ever shoot himself in the back his head.

41. I understand this happened in 2021, but this $48mil seems to nearly cover the bird rights exception that Kawhi could’ve had if he re-signed with the Raptors in 2019.

    5 year max with Raptors: ~$190mil

    4 year deal with Clippers: ~$141mil (he declined 4th year player option to re-sign in 2021)

    So my guess is Ballmer guaranteed an under the table deal to cover the bird rights loss.