[Pablo Torre] “Steve Ballmer flying to Bristol to do the ESPN interview reflects a desire to be in a setting in which there would be maximum persuasion. I have more reporting to do on it. There’s never been a deal like this one. No. Never. This is bigger than Kawhi’s New Balance contract, I am told”

24 comments

  2. So the deal is a scam we know that for sure. Can the player or agent be punished in any of this if the team had no knowledge of what was happening? That’s what I’m confused about.

  4. The only thing the league needs is a link from the Clipper’s side. 

    Ballmer making the investment and introducing Kawhi to Aspiration is fishy, but if you have (credible) people from Aspiration AND Clippers saying it was circumvention, game over. 

  5. If Kawhi went out of his way to seek ways of circumventing the CBA can he be thrown out of the NBPA for bad faith? 

  6. Pablo’s answer to the so-called experts saying “Oh, it’s seven sources. That’s it. They’re all from inside the company. What do they know? They’re totally unreliable.”

    **Do these people think that I’m talking to the scammers? Like maybe my failure was not saying that none of my seven sources are going to jail or none of my seven sources has pled guilty and I feel comfortable declaring that now my sources are not Joe Sandberg or Ibrahim al- Husseini who’s the other guy who plead guilty in that scheme with Joe.**

    **These are people that I stake my reputation on and so the question then for me and how I vet is how can I cross-check whether what they say is true and that’s why I took seven months to do this and why there are seven of them which is by the way like more than typically is required right to go with something but at the same time what I also demanded was like the highest because again the show is not called Pablo Torre is right. The show is Pablo Torre finds out.**

  7. If people think the Clippers are going to get some massive punishement they have not been following the Silver era.

    Outside of the easiest layup in sports history in Sterling and the other layups in gambling Silver does fuck all to hold anyone in the league accountable.

  8. it’s pretty apparent that there’s owners and ‘others’ who want nothing to do with this story and want it to go away asap

  9. Ballmer will not be punished. The league is going into overdrive to hide it.

    In America billionaires can do w/e they want.

    The amount of water people are carrying for Balmer is insane.

    This was 100% cap circumvention. No investigation is needed if facts presented already are legit and they appear to be.

    But we will dance around and pretend it is not because billionaires do not get punished ever.

    I will be shocked if punishment is anything greater than a slap on the wrist.

    This is the league that has refs controlled by organized crime and glorifies rapists.

    This is the league that will do anything for money. No ethics or morals so of course they will minimize any misconduct.

  10. I think Ballmer is guilty and the circumstantial evidence would be enough if it was a less powerful owner. I’m not sure if that even needs to be debated. There’s just no credible explanation for a team owner making an investment in a shady company that also endorses a player for doing next to nothing.

    I think the only real question left is what are Silver and the other owners going to do considering how much influence Ballmer can exert.

  11. My biggest issue that I don’t see people mentioning is that if Aspiration just wanted to sponsor Kawhi to do nothing, why not just give him 2 million? 3? Are they claiming Kawhi wouldn’t have signed a sponsorship deal for 25 million and that he held out for 28? Would he not take that money and be the same exact no show sponsor for that amount? Why does it have to add up to 48 million dollars?

  12. I was curious that PTI never mentioned the Kawhi thing. Even with Pablo being one of their regular fill ins. Maybe there’s a suing fear factor involved.

  13. But but but all the clock punching couch potatoes told me this happens all the time in the NBA and Ballmer just got caught

  15. Guess this means Pablo wont fill in on PTI anymore 😅. Espn shady as fuck tryna protect balmer

  16. I only came across Pablo because of this story and his 2 hours with Cuban made Cuban look like an average intelligence dummy who was only defending his billionaire buddy Balmer

  18. Honestly the only ethical response from the league is to force Balmer to sell the team. Zero tolerance is the only way to restore belief in the league.

  19. The stuff about Uncle Dennis’s requests in 2019 from the Raptors kinda closes the door on this investigation. Ballmer gonna be suspended for a year and a big fine and draft picks.

  21. The fact that these media outlets keep interviewing the defendant instead of the investigator/reporter blows my mind. Like, imagine if there had been some huge drug bust, is NBC calling up the gang leader and flying them out to NYC for an interview and to deny the charges on live TV?

    I’m so fucking fed up with this shit.

  22. He flew to Bristol just for that interview? No wonder he invested in Aspiration to offset his carbon footprint.

  23. We are seeing a mass emperors new clothes. The rich are trying to get away with something again just because they’re rich

  24. I would like to hear about: how is Luka going to Lakers and soon, Mavericks get first pick. Anyone else? Come on, picking on the Clippers is easy. How about going after the sacred cows?

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