For the past few weeks, Pablo Torre Finds Out (PTFO) has been investigating the Los Angeles Clippers and team owner Steve Ballmer for allegedly trying to circumvent the NBA salary cap. Torre broke the story, alleging that the Clippers paid millions more to Kawhi Leonard through a no-show job with a now-bankrupt company, Aspiration.
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Meanwhile, former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been the most visible and vocal supporter of Ballmer, even appearing once on PTFO to question Torre’s reporting. Since his appearance, Cuban has been tweeting more frequently at Torre, though he has refused invitations to appear again on the show.
Cuban’s reluctance to believe this story, which has been meticulously reported on and researched by Torre and his team, seems to stem from his unwillingness to believe that Ballmer would do something so stupid. Six days ago, he suggested that if Ballmer really wanted to make it easy to get extra money from the Clippers to Kawhi, he would have done it through carbon credits for the Clips’ new Intuit Arena.
It turns out Cuban was on to something. And the intrepid reporter that Torre is, he realized it.
“And so what Mark Cuban is saying there does actually make a ton of sense, I must admit,” Torre said on today’s episode of his show. “Because Aspiration, for those not familiar, was functioning as a broker for carbon credits.”
EXCLUSIVE: Two weeks before Kawhi’s first “no-show” payday, the Clippers bailed out Aspiration with a $21M deal signed by the team CFO.
(Yes, @mcuban sent @PabloTorre down this rabbit hole: “He literally described exactly what they did,” a source says, “to circumvent the cap.”) pic.twitter.com/5lQNMLm8Or
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) September 18, 2025
Torre found out that Aspiration was charging $1 per credit to plant a tree, even though it only costs $0.10 to $0.20 to do so. That margin gave them the wiggle room to pay Kawhi what they did.
Here’s the smoking gun, though. Torre went down that rabbit hole and found a contract with the Clippers logo on it, signed by the team’s chief financial officer and Aspiration. In the document, the Clippers were stipulated to pay just under $21 million for carbon credits for the arena. The contract is dated June 14, 2022, just 16 days before Kawhi received a payment of $21 million.
Torre also found out that this deal was put into motion “very promptly,” which is unusual for a deal involving so much money. The reason for the rush should be obvious: Aspiration reportedly needed to pay Kawhi, and so the Clippers hastily sent them what was needed. And they did it in exactly the way Cuban said would make the most sense if they were trying to circumvent the cap.
Every time Torre comes out with another episode or another piece of reporting, it feels like checkmate all over again for the Clippers and Ballmer. And the reporter may not even be done yet.
Torre has already provided more than enough for the NBA to act. Say a prayer for Billy Crystal and Paul Scheer tonight, because this is not looking good for their favorite team.
