After Pablo Torre's tell-all report on the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard went viral Wednesday morning, Mark Cuban was one of the few to push back against Torre's claims.

The former Mavericks majority owner specifically criticized Torre for blaming Clippers owner Steve Ballmer for his involvement in Leonard's lucrative endorsement deal that paid the star millions while intentionally "circumventing the NBA salary cap," Torre reported Wednesday.

According to Torre's reporting, Leonard endorsed an environmental start-up called Aspiration, for which Ballmer was one of the primary financial backers. Seven anonymous former employees of Aspiration said Leonard received a four-year, $28 million deal in 2022 for a "no-show job" that allowed the Clippers star to be paid more outside of the NBA's salary cap restrictions.

Many on social media applauded Torre for his comprehensive and detailed reporting, but Cuban had a contrarian take and defended Ballmer instead.

Cuban explained his reasoning in a post on X (formerly Twitter):

"I’m on Team Ballmer.

"As much as I wish they circumvented the salary cap, First Steve isn’t that dumb. If he did try to feed KL money, knowing what was at stake for him personally, and his team, do you think he would let the company go bankrupt ? Knowing all creditors would be visible to the world ?

"They got scammed by Aspiration, along with many others. Crimes for which they pleaded guilty last week."

Cuban went on to rebuke Torre for not going deeper and finding out how exactly Aspiration pulled off the scam.

"It’s sad that [Pablo Torre] didn’t take the time to find out how these scammers pulled off their scam. The idea that the default is Ballmer is the bad guy is going to back fire on him," wrote Cuban.

Aspiration filed for bankruptcy in March after co-founder Joe Sanberg was arrested on fraud charges. Sanberg ultimately pled guilty to defrauding investors of $248 million.

Based on the evidence from Torre's podcast, it's clear that something fishy was going on with Leonard's endorsement deal with Aspiration. Whereas Torre accuses Ballmer of being complicit in Leonard receiving improper payments, Cuban, once an NBA franchise governor himself, seems convinced Ballmer's hands are clean.

The Clippers said as much in their released statement in the wake of Torre's report:

"Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary-cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration. ... Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Ballmer was aware of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation," the statement read.

Given the high-profile nature of the case, expect more details on the Clippers-Leonard report to come to light in the following days.

More NBA on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mark Cuban Fires Back at Pablo Torre’s Clippers, Kawhi Leonard Report.