{"id":726685,"date":"2026-05-05T23:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T23:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/726685\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T23:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T23:09:15","slug":"pablo-torre-wins-pulitzer-prize-for-report-on-clippers-kawhi-leonard-scandal-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/726685\/","title":{"rendered":"Pablo Torre Wins Pulitzer Prize for Report on Clippers&#8217; Kawhi Leonard Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Back in September, reporter Pablo Torre of the podcast \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d exposed the Los Angeles Clippers for using an <a href=\"https:\/\/lasportsreport.com\/news\/246620\/bombshell-kawhi-leonard-report-accuses-clippers-of-violating-nba-salary-cap-rules\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">allegedly fraudulent four-year, $28 million endorsement deal<\/a> with Aspiration to circumvent NBA salary cap rules and pay superstar Kawhi Leonard more money.<\/p>\n<p>Torre released multiple episodes that included legal documents and quotes from former Aspiration employees to prove his claim against the Clippers.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Torre was named the winner of the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a pioneering and entertaining form of live podcast journalism that investigated how the Los Angeles Clippers seemingly evaded the NBA\u2019s salary cap rules by funneling money to a star player through an environmental startup,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pulitzer.org\/winners\/staff-pablo-torre-finds-out\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Pulitzer Prizes said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Clippers have consistently denied the allegations Torre made about the endorsement deal. In a letter he sent to U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer said he was \u201cduped\u201d by Aspiration founder Joe Sandberg.<\/p>\n<p>The NBA is still investigating the claims against the Clippers, and there is no timeline for when a decision will be made. However, it is reportedly no longer expected that Leonard\u2019s contract with Los Angeles will be voided, despite initially being listed as a potential punishment if found guilty.<\/p>\n<p><img data-od-added-loading=\"\" data-od-removed-fetchpriority=\"high\" data-od-replaced- data-od-xpath=\"\/HTML\/BODY\/DIV[@class='elementor elementor-246476 elementor-location-single post-253747 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-clippers tag-clippers tag-kawhi-leonard tag-pablo-torre tag-steve-ballmer mv-content-wrapper']\/*[2][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[3][self::DIV]\/*[8][self::FIGURE]\/*[1][self::IMG]\" loading=\"lazy\" data-dominant-color=\"4a403d\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/kawhi-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) looks on during the game between the Mavericks and the Clippers at American Airlines Center.\" class=\"wp-image-252304 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #4a403d; width:610px;height:auto\" \/>Mar 21, 2026; Dallas, Texas, USA; LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) looks on during the game between the Mavericks and the Clippers at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lasportsreport.com\/news\/246885\/possible-punishments-by-nba-for-kawhi-leonard-clippers-revealed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Possible punishments<\/a> include million-dollar fines, loss of draft picks and suspension of Ballmer and other franchise staff members.<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in September, reporter Pablo Torre of the podcast \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d exposed the Los Angeles Clippers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,529,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,18659,3677],"class_list":["post-726685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-basketball","tag-clippers","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-nba","tag-pablo-torre","tag-steve-ballmer"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116524494028826249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}