Kawhi and Aspiration Needed Cash. Ballmer and the Clippers Sent $118M in 18 Months
September 18, 2025
Kawhi and Aspiration Needed Cash. Ballmer and the Clippers Sent $118M in 18 Months
32 comments
Lmao so Ballmer did exactly what Cuban suggested but it failed anyway.
Pablo is the gift the keeps on giving. its refreshing to have proper sports journalism in 2025.
One of the major things I agreed with Cuban on was that it would have made sense for Ballmer to try to save the company and prevent this from ever coming to light.
Well, he tried.
Lol the number keeps going up. Pablo keeps cooking.
At this point it’s unfair to call Kawhi’s deal no-show job, he gave them more exposure than any of those A-list celebs ever did, lmao.
Adam Silver will be shocked when he finally hears about this!
Babe! New Pablo Torre just dropped!!
Love to see how Cuban, Ballmer, and Silver try to weasel out of this one lmao. Crazy how Pablo read these guys like a book and made them walk themselves right into his trap of lying before dropping the remaining information
“They conned me!” Jesus Christ Steve how stupid can you be
Knowing all this, it’s insane Ballmer went on ESPN to talk. He must be so hubristic to think it wouldn’t come out.
I just wanted to highlight Dans statement about those criticising the story or playing devils advocate omit the facts, it’s something I’ve noticed on here frequently. Those that try to defend Ballmer always omit a fact that collapses their defense. It’s usually Pablo’s sources.
Mark Cuban gonna be bagging the mental gymnastics gold, silver and bronze at this rate.
Kinda wonder of Ballmer is paying Cuban to be the mouthpiece for this shit because he can’t actually really be hurt lol
Pablo is my GOAT.
Pablo finds out once again.
Been an awesome series so far.
Hopefully the nba punishes Kawhi.
PABLO IS NOT SUICIDAL. REMINDER.
Welp, work is gonna have to wait. I have a business to attend now.
r/laclippers Marc Cuban and the ESPN higher execs on suicide watch
That Kawhi style laugh at the start is amazing.
Pablo dropping hydrogen bombs at 5am with some scathing social commentary by Dan LeBatard
10/10
It’s fucking over. Over.
more proof that being a billionaire doesn’t make you smart/ not stupid, but a sociopath?
The best part is Pablo’s shit-eating grin when he opens the episode knowing he’s about to lob a grenade in a foxhole. Hahahah
Pablo is on a generational run right now.
Watergate
The Pentagon Papers
The History of Standard Oil
And now the Aspiration Affair
Cuban’s main fallacy was believing Ballmer couldn’t be that brazenly stupid
Well guess fucking what? Some people really act in a fuck you manner once they get fuck you money.
Pablo remains one step ahead of Cuban, Balmer, Silver. Journalism at this level in 2025 is so rare.
Pablo don’t miss. Half way through and this is incredible.
It will be an absolute fucking scandal if the NBA does not hit the Clippers with Mjolnir at this point.
Can he get the Epstein files?
Props to Dan Le Batard for funding the many billable hours for the one lawyer Pablo is using for this story.
Why does this feel like Balmer made this shady ass deal for Kawaii then got blackmailed by this guy into paying absurd amounts of money to keep this failing company around? I’ve been watching too much scandal lol
Silver will say he hasn’t heard about the Clippers as a team by the time this investigation is over.
Uncle Dennis texts are with Pablo. He was calling and texting the executives at Aspiration that his payment is 14 days late.
Balmer, Silver and Cuban probably don’t know about that as well.
Just released and listened. Pablo answers Cuban’s question about following the money. Cuban’s entire premise is that if Ballmer really did this, he would keep pumping in money into Aspiration so as to pay off Kawhi before the company went under so as to cover his tracks. TBH this one is the most damning of all since it goes into details.
What Pablo addresses:
– Company employees knew that the company was a scam which is why a lot of them left and turnover was extremely high. By 2022 most people were gone, and a lot of C-Suite executives left and were not replaced.
-Pablo addresses Andre Cherney’s statement that it was a legitimate contract and was negotiated over a long period of time. Pablo has a text message from Uncle Dennis to Joe Sanburg pushing Sanburg to get legal to sign the contract for $20 million in shares. In the end Sanburg had to offer his own shares in order to get legal to sign off. Text message suggests there really wasn’t any negotiation, just get contract signed.
-Aspiration was burning money at an incredible pace. The $300 million funding round that had Ballmer put in $50 million of his own money in 2021 was already completely spent by the time Kawhi signed the no-show deal in 2022.
-Cuban asked why didn’t the Clippers just buy carbon credits from Aspiration to pay Kawhi? Cuban also notes that if the Clippers purchased carbon credits up front then that would be a big red flag as carbon credits themselves are very messy. Pablo shows that was exactly what happened. Clippers spent $60 million in carbon credits for Intuit Dome in 2022 over 3 payments, coincidentally always a week before Kawhi gets paid. These payments were all signed off by Clippers CFO. Also, a note here Intuit Dome wasn’t completed yet, so there was no need to rush payments for carbon offsets.
-Pablo notes that at this point it’s becoming obvious that Joe Sanburg was scamming Ballmer. Forcing the Clippers to pay them every quarter in order to pay Kawhi. No matter how much the Clippers put in it would be gone by the time the next payment was due.
-Pablo has a copy of Joe Sanburg’s deposition transcript with the DOJ in October 2024. Anytime any question with the Clippers and Ballmer were raised Joe Sanburg would plead the 5th.
-Pablo notes that Ballmer’s additional $10 million investment into Aspiration was also very weird. At this point it was publicly known Aspiration was shady and mostly likely going under. The company was already saying that to its shareholders, but Ballmer put in an additional $10 million at a valuation of $23/share. At this point majority of shareholders in the company were selling off their shares at $10.10/share. $10 million that Ballmer put in coincidentally was a week before Kawhi needed to get paid.
-Pablo notes that at this point Ballmer, Dennis Wong, and the Clippers have put in $118 million into Aspiration in 18 months.
-Ballmer’s investment also came at the very end of the 2022-2023 NBA season after the Clippers had already ended their relationship with Aspiration. By March 2023 Aspiration laid off majority of employees and was only being ran by a small skeleton crew.
-Pablo theorizes the reason payments stopped after this was because the US government formally opened it’s investigation into Aspiration in March 2023 and Ballmer putting any more money into Aspiration would put up red flags.
That’s all the hard evidence brought up. Afterwards was a discussion on the tough position this has put Ballmer and the league in. Dan Lebetard, the guest for this episode, noted that from his own sources most NBA owners hope Ballmer didn’t do this because they overall like Ballmer and believe Ballmer has been good for the league.
32 comments
Lmao so Ballmer did exactly what Cuban suggested but it failed anyway.
Pablo is the gift the keeps on giving. its refreshing to have proper sports journalism in 2025.
One of the major things I agreed with Cuban on was that it would have made sense for Ballmer to try to save the company and prevent this from ever coming to light.
Well, he tried.
Lol the number keeps going up. Pablo keeps cooking.
At this point it’s unfair to call Kawhi’s deal no-show job, he gave them more exposure than any of those A-list celebs ever did, lmao.
Adam Silver will be shocked when he finally hears about this!
Babe! New Pablo Torre just dropped!!
Love to see how Cuban, Ballmer, and Silver try to weasel out of this one lmao. Crazy how Pablo read these guys like a book and made them walk themselves right into his trap of lying before dropping the remaining information
“They conned me!” Jesus Christ Steve how stupid can you be
Knowing all this, it’s insane Ballmer went on ESPN to talk. He must be so hubristic to think it wouldn’t come out.
I just wanted to highlight Dans statement about those criticising the story or playing devils advocate omit the facts, it’s something I’ve noticed on here frequently. Those that try to defend Ballmer always omit a fact that collapses their defense. It’s usually Pablo’s sources.
Mark Cuban gonna be bagging the mental gymnastics gold, silver and bronze at this rate.
Kinda wonder of Ballmer is paying Cuban to be the mouthpiece for this shit because he can’t actually really be hurt lol
Pablo is my GOAT.
Pablo finds out once again.
Been an awesome series so far.
Hopefully the nba punishes Kawhi.
PABLO IS NOT SUICIDAL. REMINDER.
Welp, work is gonna have to wait. I have a business to attend now.
r/laclippers Marc Cuban and the ESPN higher execs on suicide watch
That Kawhi style laugh at the start is amazing.
Pablo dropping hydrogen bombs at 5am with some scathing social commentary by Dan LeBatard
10/10
It’s fucking over. Over.
more proof that being a billionaire doesn’t make you smart/ not stupid, but a sociopath?
The best part is Pablo’s shit-eating grin when he opens the episode knowing he’s about to lob a grenade in a foxhole. Hahahah
Pablo is on a generational run right now.
Watergate
The Pentagon Papers
The History of Standard Oil
And now the Aspiration Affair
Cuban’s main fallacy was believing Ballmer couldn’t be that brazenly stupid
Well guess fucking what? Some people really act in a fuck you manner once they get fuck you money.
Pablo remains one step ahead of Cuban, Balmer, Silver. Journalism at this level in 2025 is so rare.
Pablo don’t miss. Half way through and this is incredible.
It will be an absolute fucking scandal if the NBA does not hit the Clippers with Mjolnir at this point.
Can he get the Epstein files?
Props to Dan Le Batard for funding the many billable hours for the one lawyer Pablo is using for this story.
Why does this feel like Balmer made this shady ass deal for Kawaii then got blackmailed by this guy into paying absurd amounts of money to keep this failing company around? I’ve been watching too much scandal lol
Silver will say he hasn’t heard about the Clippers as a team by the time this investigation is over.
Uncle Dennis texts are with Pablo. He was calling and texting the executives at Aspiration that his payment is 14 days late.
Balmer, Silver and Cuban probably don’t know about that as well.
Super summarization from r/LAClippers
[shortsteve](https://www.reddit.com/user/shortsteve/)
Just released and listened. Pablo answers Cuban’s question about following the money. Cuban’s entire premise is that if Ballmer really did this, he would keep pumping in money into Aspiration so as to pay off Kawhi before the company went under so as to cover his tracks. TBH this one is the most damning of all since it goes into details.
What Pablo addresses:
– Company employees knew that the company was a scam which is why a lot of them left and turnover was extremely high. By 2022 most people were gone, and a lot of C-Suite executives left and were not replaced.
-Pablo addresses Andre Cherney’s statement that it was a legitimate contract and was negotiated over a long period of time. Pablo has a text message from Uncle Dennis to Joe Sanburg pushing Sanburg to get legal to sign the contract for $20 million in shares. In the end Sanburg had to offer his own shares in order to get legal to sign off. Text message suggests there really wasn’t any negotiation, just get contract signed.
-Aspiration was burning money at an incredible pace. The $300 million funding round that had Ballmer put in $50 million of his own money in 2021 was already completely spent by the time Kawhi signed the no-show deal in 2022.
-Cuban asked why didn’t the Clippers just buy carbon credits from Aspiration to pay Kawhi? Cuban also notes that if the Clippers purchased carbon credits up front then that would be a big red flag as carbon credits themselves are very messy. Pablo shows that was exactly what happened. Clippers spent $60 million in carbon credits for Intuit Dome in 2022 over 3 payments, coincidentally always a week before Kawhi gets paid. These payments were all signed off by Clippers CFO. Also, a note here Intuit Dome wasn’t completed yet, so there was no need to rush payments for carbon offsets.
-Pablo notes that at this point it’s becoming obvious that Joe Sanburg was scamming Ballmer. Forcing the Clippers to pay them every quarter in order to pay Kawhi. No matter how much the Clippers put in it would be gone by the time the next payment was due.
-Pablo has a copy of Joe Sanburg’s deposition transcript with the DOJ in October 2024. Anytime any question with the Clippers and Ballmer were raised Joe Sanburg would plead the 5th.
-Pablo notes that Ballmer’s additional $10 million investment into Aspiration was also very weird. At this point it was publicly known Aspiration was shady and mostly likely going under. The company was already saying that to its shareholders, but Ballmer put in an additional $10 million at a valuation of $23/share. At this point majority of shareholders in the company were selling off their shares at $10.10/share. $10 million that Ballmer put in coincidentally was a week before Kawhi needed to get paid.
-Pablo notes that at this point Ballmer, Dennis Wong, and the Clippers have put in $118 million into Aspiration in 18 months.
-Ballmer’s investment also came at the very end of the 2022-2023 NBA season after the Clippers had already ended their relationship with Aspiration. By March 2023 Aspiration laid off majority of employees and was only being ran by a small skeleton crew.
-Pablo theorizes the reason payments stopped after this was because the US government formally opened it’s investigation into Aspiration in March 2023 and Ballmer putting any more money into Aspiration would put up red flags.
That’s all the hard evidence brought up. Afterwards was a discussion on the tough position this has put Ballmer and the league in. Dan Lebetard, the guest for this episode, noted that from his own sources most NBA owners hope Ballmer didn’t do this because they overall like Ballmer and believe Ballmer has been good for the league.