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I am somebody who will only publish things if I have the factual backing that meets the highest standards of publishing.

The crazy part about this, for this who do not understand the power dynamic here, is that on one side of this story is one of the 10 richest people in the world, and on the other side of the story, is me, you [Meadowlark Media] and our lawyer.

So the whole question of “when am I comfortable publishing something?” It’s not like I’m holding back everything I got. I’m actively trying to confirm this stuff in the event of litigation or factual correction.

The smile I had is the smile of knowing that I think I could get this. This is a bad look for them, because they’re not taking the first report seriously — and I don’t think they did, frankly. And so I get to prove, and hold them to account using whatever they want to communicate to the public.

39 comments

  2. I see Pablo getting banned from all NBA events after this no matter what happens. The owners won’t take nicely to someone exposing them to the world.

  3. He is not the first reporter to reveal a scandal in the NBA.

    I think he will be okay.

    They wouldn’t hurt him, it would only bring further speculations that won’t do good for Ballmer and the NBA.

  5. If you ever watched an episode of Pablo finds out, you already know how ridiculously thorough he is in his research for his videos. It’s kinda wild hearing a million NBA talking heads give their 2 cents after clearly not watching the episode that lays everything out. Most people on reddit are more informed about the situation than people paid to talk about it on TV

  8. I think the bigger picture in this is that in a grim world (especially now) sports were supposed to be a distraction, like the gladiator pit. I feel that line is all but gone with the constant raising of prices and capitalistic focus rather than on the game itself. The NBA and sports in general have lost the plot same with video games. Silver has the NBA integrity on the line, but I think he realizes even with all the outrage people will still eat it up anyway. Really Pablo Torre fell on the sword for nothing.

  9. The fact that he, and his sources, obviously have more is why I’ve so surprised to see people at ESPN be so quick to rush to Ballmer’s defense. Pablo’s last pod destroyed some of the defenses they were building (the Wong stuff especially), and also went at the “who even are these employees?”, thanks to one of them saying they were a senior person on the finance team, which is one of the groups that would see something shady is going on before anyone else at the firm.

    The most recent source specifically said they had texts, which Pablo didn’t have or show. The first source said they put a lot of stuff into email. It is very likely that the smoking gun a lot of these talking heads have been demanding, despite that not being a CBA or by-law requirement for punishment, comes out in the future.

    At that point, I hope everyone here remembers which alleged journalists were bootlicking so hard, despite how shady this looked from the jump, all for access or $.

  12. I do really hope he is careful not to make mistake cause im pretty sure it will cost him a lot. But at the same time, keep nimself safe cause hes literally facing an entire organizaton

  13. What would they even sue him for? For defamation and libel, in almost every situation, you have to not just prove he was wrong, you have to prove *he knew he was wrong* and ran with it anyway. I just don’t see how anyone could argue that effectively in a courtroom.

  14. It’s too bad people are going to discredit and shit on Pablo when Silver ends up only taking away a second round pick and $ 1 million from Ballmer.

  16. These recent events really exposed how unqualified the so-called “New Media” is in actually talking about actual media stuff. Keep em yapping about the 1000th time debate on who the GOAT is or Top 10 all time rankings cause that’s all they’re good for.

  19. i’m worried Ballmer is going to get Pablo Charlie Kirked. Anyway Pablo could send us a note that he’s perfectly happy and not suicidal

  20. I find it most amusing that Dan LeBatard, founder of Meadowlark Media, who has an aversion for responsibility and is in a constant state of emotional fear, is embracing this battle against a billionaire – all in the name of journalism, which he hasn’t personally practiced in years.

  22. >The smile I had is the smile of knowing that I think I could get this. This is a bad look for them, because they’re not taking the first report seriously — and I don’t think they did, frankly. And so I get to prove, and hold them to account using whatever they want to communicate to the public.

    This is the kind of career moment people who study journalism dream about. Very few get that story in their career.

  26. He’s also up against the idiots that don’t want to believe anything shady happens in their beloved sport and Silver who’s in look the other way mode.

  27. It’s really a microcosm of our society. Billionaires have bought out every institution and corrupted it. This is something espn may have had and E60 on but they’ve gut their investigative journalism staff and so have most newspapers bc they are all controlled by the same corporations.

    Good on Pablo. I just liked and subscribed to the pod to support everyone who is on his side should do the same

  29. I’ve seen the following take a few times, which I’ll try to summarize:

    ‘If Ballmer knew they were cooked, he wouldn’t have done the interview with Shelburne the way they did. Therefore, either LAC covered their tracks effectively, or they really are innocent.’

    (For eg. starting at around 9:40 on the latest Zach Lowe, Beck admits that he initially thought something like that, and has now changed his mind with the Dennis Wong payment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2LDiviIFsc)

    I was always confused by this reasoning. Giving a milquetoast interview where you project vague confidence is exactly what I would expect Ballmer to do in almost EVERY scenario. Because like, even if he knows there IS a smoking gun, what does he have to lose?

    Is Silver gonna say, “Hey Steve, we found the secret Cayman Islands account. Me and the board have been talking, we wanted to let you off the hook with a single FRP, but since you gave that wack-ass ESPN interview instead we’re gonna ban you for life and move the team to Mexico City.”? No, if they’re cooked, they’re cooked, so he might as well play to win.

    I’m not a fan of the “he wouldn’t say it if he couldn’t back it up” argument in general, but I’d be more surprised at Pablo bluffing that Ballmer.

  31. He has not yet been sued, which is pretty damning for Ballmer. If this wasn’t true, a lawsuit would have been filed immediately.

  34. This gets me fired up. GODDAMN!!! Good on you, Pablo. Nothing gets me going like good sports journalism

  35. This isn’t true at all. There are other owners that want Ballmer brought to justice. This guy is more on the side of owners than he isn’t.

  36. I wonder if the punishment would be lessened if ballmer just came out right now and said it was true, he did it, give the punishment. 

    Or if they would give Missouri the death penalty again

  38. Where are the idiots from the last thread that mods removed who said Pablo “only wrote 5 articles for SI?”

    /u/Imaginary_Crab2034 get in here you dumb bitch.

  39. Great on Pablo. I am going to get on my old man soapbox now but I really hate how all these nobody’s have podcasts and call themselves journalists and then randomly spew every thought or everything they heard 2nd hand. If you are going to be a journalist then you need to have integrity and need to corroborate what you were told….and retract when you are wrong.

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