The National Basketball Association (NBA) has now put an official stamp of validation on a story journalist Pablo Torre has been chasing for over a year.
The Filipino-American journalist has built a career across sports media, with bylines in Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and most notably through his podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out. He broke the news of his investigation into the NBA anomaly in September 2025, pulling at a thread that initially centered on a reported $28 million endorsement deal between Los Angeles Clippers’ star player Kawhi Leonard and the now-bankrupt financial company Aspiration. It then followed an investigation into the Clippers owner, Steve Ballmer, as well as the web of companies that did business with the team. Almost a year later, the NBA finally ruled on the matter after their own independent investigation and penalized Ballmer, the Clippers, and Leonard, among others. The ruling is one of the biggest blows to a franchise and its owners to date and reaffirms the need for proper checks and balances across all of sports.
But how did it all start, and what really happened?
The documents and ‘KL2 Aspire LLC’
Torre’s first deep dive into the scandal started with 3,487 pages of exclusive documents. It was the bankruptcy documents that the green bank, Aspiration, filed in early 2025.
Through the packet, he found a clue that linked Kawhi Leonard to Aspiration. Among the creditors to which Aspiration owed money to was an entity named KL2 Aspire LLC, which Torre later unpacked as a reference to Leonard. KL, his initials, and 2, his jersey number. According to Torre’s reporting, Leonard had the biggest endorsement deal ($28 million) from them by far, but he never actually marketed the brand, calling it a “no-show” deal. But it didn’t stop there.
More and more investigations by Torre — over 15 videos of him discussing evidence and filed under his YouTube playlist Kawhi-Gate — led to speculation that the team’s Aspiration money had a “round trip,” first starting with Ballmer before ultimately reaching Leonard as a way to circumvent NBA salary cap rules. Ballmer also apparently “had personal influence and awareness of Aspiration’s inner workings.”
How does the Salary Cap work?
According to former sports executive David Samson, the NBA salary cap was set to prevent the league’s richest owners from gaining an unfair advantage by providing players with illicit benefits that smaller-market teams cannot afford. In simpler terms, it’s a level playing field for all teams.
It prohibits players from receiving extra benefits such as private planes, paid college tuition for associates, or undisclosed off-court endorsement payments.
For the year 2025-2026, the cap was $154.647 million, while for the 2026-2027 season it increased to $164.961 million.
After interviewing former Aspiration employees and dissecting emails from a member of the Clippers’ finance department, Torre later deduced that the Los Angeles team had indeed been paying one of its star players under the table and beyond the limits set by the league.
What Happened Next?
Torre’s reporting ultimately prompted a separate investigation by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, whose findings affirm those of Torre’s. They reportedly found patterns of misconduct and rule violations by the basketball team, including the arrangement of off-court income opportunities and endorsement deals with Leonard and “four companies doing business with the team: Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance.”
It also found that the Clippers “induced” these companies to agree by offering them business from the team, “paying personal expenses on behalf of Leonard and his representatives,” and failing to report the overall improper solicitations.
So, What Punishment Did the Clippers Get?
The NBA announced on Sept. 2 that the Los Angeles Clippers will be stripped of the first five-round draft picks from 2029 until 2033 and fined a total of $30 million — the largest punishment the league has ever imposed on a team in history.
The NBA suspended Ballmer from all NBA and Clippers activities for a year, as well as the team’s president of business operations, Gillian Zucker. Clippers’ president of business operations Lawrence Frank got a six-month suspension. All suspensions are without pay.
Meanwhile, Leonard was fined $700,000 but did not get his contract voided. “Integrity and respect for this game are fundamental to who I am. I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle and regret the distraction this situation has caused the fans and my family,” the NBA star said in a statement.
A Prize For the Investigative Journalist
Pablo Torre’s podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out, won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting early this year and awarded $15,000 for his investigations, including the Clippers story. The citation read: “For a distinguished example of audio journalism that serves the public interest, characterized by revelatory reporting and illuminating storytelling.”
This marks the end of the scandal’s latest chapter as well as a definitive win for Torre and investigative journalism. However, the journalist is not done yet. Torre has recently hinted at a new investigation he’s conducting into Los Angeles Lakers owner Mark Walter, and sports fans and journalists alike wait with bated breath.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Pablo Torre is a Filipino-American sports journalist and host of Pablo Torre Finds Out, where he does a ‘talkumentary’-style deep dive on investigative reports.
According to investigations, the team reportedly broke the rules by arranging off-court income opportunities and endorsement deals with Leonard and four companies doing business with the team, paying Leonard’s personal expenses, and failing to report the overall improper solicitations. In short, they skirted around the NBA’s salary cap rule.
KL2 Aspire LLC was an entity that the company Aspiration owed money to, which was later revealed to be Kawhi Leonard.
The NBA salary cap sets a limit on how much a team can spend on its players’ salaries. For the year 2025-2026, the cap was at $154.647 million, while the year 2026-2026 had $164.961 million. Any violation of this rule would result in administrative penalties.
Pablo Torre’s podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out, won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting early this year and was awarded $15,000 for his investigations, including the Clippers story.
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