Pablo Torre: Kawhi/Clippers/Ballmer/Aspiration Thread (part 2)

[G R E Y]

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[Caneman786]

AURA KAWHI.

Cook em Klaw

[Sofia]

Crazy how Ramona Shelbourne, lifetime LA hack, has moved on from being the Jeanie Buss’ Laker mouth piece to Balmer’s mouth piece.

Guess those Laker fans claiming Clippers were picking up Laker castaways had a point

[Sofia]

“Yeah he got arrested trying to break into a bank, but he couldn’t open the vault and didn’t get any money, so there’s really no charges here”

- Officer Doofus Mark Cuban.
-

[brutalitops]

The responses are gold:

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[brutalitops]

If he is using his non profit, on which he writes off his taxes to pay an employee under the table, there maybe a tax crime there. Not big but not nothing either. The IRS would want to closely scrutinize The Ballmer Group and all its donations for similar reach arounds.

Thats the big one.

to donate 1.85 Million to his charity when the company was pretty much under the dirt, when Ballmer has claimed multiple times had found out he had been defrauded 18 months previously, the rough amount which Kawhi is owed every quarter,

That has some Tax implications for Ballmer AND Sandberg, Again you cant convict people for circumstantial evidence so Ballmer might be able to push back and say in court "Hey, I didn't know and you have to prove this"

For the clippers to be nailed by the NBA it's less then, its another really fishy payment, Plus if Sandberg is being hit up for financial crimes, They will 100% start looking at his charity and it may add a couple months stay on his vacation

[RyderMike]

Kawhi: None of us did no wrongdoing and that’s it,”

None did no wrongdoing. So all you you did wrongdoing

[ForeverTFC]

Crazy how Ramona Shelbourne, lifetime LA hack, has moved on from being the Jeanie Buss’ Laker mouth piece to Balmer’s mouth piece.

Guess those Laker fans claiming Clippers were picking up Laker castaways had a point

Pretty good get for her honestly. She needed to leech off someone else once Jeanie sold her majority stake and found herself a new owner to shill for and didn't even have to change cities in less than a season.

BTW Lakers fans, what's McMenamin's post Lebron plans? Has he already pivoted to Luka?

[jbk1234]

If he is using his non profit, on which he writes off his taxes to pay an employee under the table, there maybe a tax crime there. Not big but not nothing either. The IRS would want to closely scrutinize The Ballmer Group and all its donations for similar reach arounds.

Thats the big one.

to donate 1.85 Million to his charity when the company was pretty much under the dirt, when Ballmer has claimed multiple times had found out he had been defrauded 18 months previously, the rough amount which Kawhi is owed every quarter,

That has some Tax implications for Ballmer AND Sandberg, Again you cant convict people for circumstantial evidence so Ballmer might be able to push back and say in court "Hey, I didn't know and you have to prove this"

For the clippers to be nailed by the NBA it's less then, its another really fishy payment, Plus if Sandberg is being hit up for financial crimes, They will 100% start looking at his charity and it may add a couple months stay on his vacation

There are plenty of people in prison right now based on circumstantial evidence.

[dballislife]

everyone knows the rich dont set up these foundations for charity lol...the main use is to funnel tax free dirty money

[jbk1234]

Crazy how Ramona Shelbourne, lifetime LA hack, has moved on from being the Jeanie Buss’ Laker mouth piece to Balmer’s mouth piece.

Guess those Laker fans claiming Clippers were picking up Laker castaways had a point

She has access because she practices journalism that way. When she stops, she'll stop getting access, and then she won't have a job.

[dballislife]

the scary thing is literally every day since the story broke more and more and more incriminating evidence is being discovered...and every day the league and silva is getting quieter and quieter about it

[Kent]

The court of public opinion is worth something.

Even if nothing comes of this in terms of punishment, this is pretty damning and will have fans feeling some kind of way (they already do) toward the parties involved.

[ryguy613]

Hearing Kawhi just blatantly lying in his Clippers media day press conference saying right now he has a hard time remembering details about the Aspiration endorsement deal or how he would receive money from it. Hilarious.

Paraphrasing: Q: "Can you describe what you did for your endorsement deal?" A: "Uhh.. a lot. It was a while back so I just don't remember details".

According to him this is all just "clickbait journalism".

Looks like Ramona Shelburne was the only reporter allowed to ask anything about the investigation. And there were no follow-ups. All softball questions.

The way he spoke down to the public about it was also very cool.

Asked specifically by ESPN if he ever performed services for what Torre reported was a four-year, $28 million contract, Leonard said, "I don't think it's accurate. But it's old. This is all new to you guys. The company went bankrupt a while ago."

This dude thinks the public is a collection of morons. "Its old but new to you guys" "The company went bankrupt a while ago". Im sorry, did he think he was breaking news with that? oh **** really? the company went bankrupt? well ****, why didnt Pablo report that part?! Wait wait wait... this is OLD?! PABLO YOU ****! Take back your clickbate bull **** right this instance! Wild... absolutely **** wild that Kawhi thought these were good responses to rebut the literal weeks and thousands of pages of in depth reporting. "its old but new to you guys" give me a **** break. And of course, zero pushback from Ballmer's ass trumpet... uh sorry... i meant Ramona Shelburne. Doing her due diligence as always!

[The Corey's]

This league is cooked. Everyone will move on. Nothing will happen but as the wealth gap grows more by the year in this country, the bubble will meet the needle soon enough.

They did it to them self.

[inonba]

I'm not sure the NBA can sweep this under the rug even if they wanted to. The investigation involves the FBI and thus far, Ballmer had played victim. While the FBI probably can't nail Ballmer for anything involving Aspiration due to lack of evidence (not enough to prove in a court of law), I'm willing to bet Ballmer has probably perjured himself already with the lies upon lies he must have told investigators.

Ballmer story so far has been, Aspiration emailed the Clippers requesting a meeting with Kawhi to talk about a possible endorsement deal. Internal documents show Aspiration had no knowledge or interest of Kawhi Leonard endorsement until after the deal was done. Which means initiation of the interest came from one person and one person only: Joe Sanberg. If Ballmer's recount is true, that means Joe Sanberg went behind Aspiration, but used Aspiration's name to sign Kawhi to an endorsement contract way above what everyone else is being paid, and went back to Aspiration to hard sell it to the company. Why? Why was Sanberg so desperate to pay Kawhi at an inflated price for doing nothing? If this series of events doesn't make sense, it means the email Ballmer claims is evidence Aspiration requested a meeting with Kawhi was fabricated and there's only one reason you would fabricate evidence.

The prevalent theory right now for the Ballmer defenders including Cuban seems to be Aspiration paid Kawhi independent of any knowledge from Ballmer to "Keep Kawhi Happy". I have a couple of questions I would accept this as plausible if the defenders can provide an answer. How do you arrive at Kawhi's "Happy" number without Ballmer? How did Aspiration know the dollar amount it would take to make Kawhi "Happy". Why didn't Kawhi's "Happy" number change with each payment? Today, I can be happy with $50 million, why not $150 million tomorrow? We already know Uncle Dennis asked for team ownership, mansions, private jets. Does that seem like a person that has a limit to what he would ask to remain "Happy"? What happened when the "Happy" money was late? Does that sound like something someone would do for "Happy" money?

Perhaps the funniest take I've read thus far was Aspiration did the deal to ensure the value of the Clippers deal remains high. Besides the math saying that's nonsense, to think someone actually believes the Clippers with a $154 billion net worth owner requires charity from a $2.3 billion fraudulent company is laughable.

I have a feeling the smoking gun everyone is asking for is there and Pablo has it. Right now, he's just tightening the noose slowly as the defenders of Ballmer move the goal post back with every release.

[Mephariel]

the scary thing is literally every day since the story broke more and more and more incriminating evidence is being discovered...and every day the league and silva is getting quieter and quieter about it

It is only scary if you have no idea how companies work. There is already an internal investigation going on, with lawyers involved. Why the heck would Silva constantly comment on internet discourse?

[xinxin]

too much mental gymnastics just to prove the innocence or ignorance of the Clippers/ Ballmer at this point.


there's enough circumstantial evidence (which appears to be the test & not proof beyond reasonable doubt) to fry the Clips..

[BruttoNostra]

Put option on the stock guaranteed by the founder. Jesus

WTF, man...
As a former employee of 3 public trading companies, basically a senior/staff level IC, nowhere near decision making or any higher management - I, just as any other employee, was prohibited to deal with ANY options - not only PUT, but even CALL as well.
Paying someone with PUT options is shady AF

[BruttoNostra]

If he is using his non profit, on which he writes off his taxes to pay an employee under the table, there maybe a tax crime there. Not big but not nothing either. The IRS would want to closely scrutinize The Ballmer Group and all its donations for similar reach arounds.

Honestly the fact that the Trump administration hasn't seized on this to humiliate the NBA and LA as punishment for 2020 "wokeness" suggests to me that Ballmer and potentially Silver have made some "charitable contributions" upwards too.

It's highly suspicious to me that this hasn't broken containment into national headlines.

Yea, the big tech (I'm talking about Ballmer mostly, but NBA itself is deeply involved with big tech money for years now, much more than any other pro league) was never really "woke" because it's what they believe in.
See how fast most of them stopped DEI initiatives earlier this year (and I'm not getting into an argument whether it's good or not - it's such a destraction from real things happening...).
Big Tech need to be friends with the government, that's why they will always be in a bed with whoever is in the White House.
That dinner a month ago was such an embarrassment to watch: https://fortune.com/2025/09/05/trump-tech-dinner-full-attendee-list/ (I mean, whoever missed, google a video of it)