{"id":160851,"date":"2025-09-29T10:53:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T14:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=160851"},"modified":"2025-09-29T10:53:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T14:53:03","slug":"pablo-torre-drops-new-bombshell-before-clippers-media-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/29\/pablo-torre-drops-new-bombshell-before-clippers-media-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Pablo Torre Drops New Bombshell Before Clippers Media Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There will be plenty of questions about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leonaka01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a>, Aspiration and Steve Ballmer during the Los Angeles Clippers media day. And, like the Grinch himself, NBA journalist Pablo Torre just dropped another bombshell to make things extra spicy. In Part Five of his investigation into possible cap circumvention, Torre reveals that the Clippers owner donated money to Aspiration founder Joe Sanberg <em>after<\/em> knowing the company was under investigation.<\/p>\n<h2>Pablo Torre Drops New Bombshell Before Clippers Media Day<\/h2>\n<p>In the latest episode of <em>Pablo Torre Finds Out<\/em>, Torre outlines how Ballmer donated $1.875 million to another one of Sanberg\u2019s charities in Dec. 2024, 10 months after the federal investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, Ballmer has been trying to say very clearly that he is a victim of Aspiration co-founder Joe Sandberg, who has now pleaded guilty to wire fraud,&#8221; Torre begins. &#8220;That he is a victim as well of Sandberg\u2019s alleged co-conspirator, Aspiration board member, Ibrahim Al-Husini, who got arrested in October 2024 and has since pleaded guilty to wire fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kawhi&#039;s Agent Pushed Aspiration to Pay Up. The Feds Closed In. Ballmer Made a Quiet Donation. | PTFO\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ab7k09CI9qI?start=4&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Around the 55-minute mark, he then explains that the Ballmer Group &#8211;a charitable entity that Ballmer runs with his wife Connie &#8211;donated money to another one of Sanberg&#8217;s organizations.<\/p>\n<p>Torre &#8220;went through donations, grant by grant,&#8221; on the Ballmer Group\u2019s website. Eventually, he found a donation of $1.875 million to the Golden State Opportunity Foundation. The organization&#8217;s mission statement is that they&#8217;re &#8220;dedicated to ending poverty by providing all Californians with the tools to build financial well-being.&#8221; Yet, opening the website now and clicking on &#8216;Learn More&#8217; will result in a &#8216;Not Found&#8217; error.<\/p>\n<p>He then opened a cached version of the page, which displays information as recently as Nov. 2024. There, on the \u201cFind Out More&#8221; page, there&#8217;s a picture of Sanberg and a story about how his life has guided him to start the organization.<\/p>\n<p>Will all of these be enough for the NBA to step in and punish the Clippers? Or will Ballmer <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/05\/steve-ballmer-shuts-down-kawhi-leonard-criticism\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">continue to play the victim<\/a>? We have to wait and see. For the record, Clippers chief communications officer Chris Wallace would tell Torre: &#8220;[All] the issues you raise in your email are germane to the investigation by the NBA, and we will let them conduct their investigation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>All Eyes On Media Day<\/h3>\n<p>Usually, the key members of an organization &#8211;players, coaches, and the front office executives alike &#8211;are available on Media Day. Unless there&#8217;s a health-related, contract-related or family-related reason, they&#8217;re expected to be present. Right now, there&#8217;s no news that either Ballmer and Leonard will miss it.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, the Clippers begin their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/2025-26-media-days-schedule\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Media Day<\/a> at 3pm (Eastern Time), the Leonard subplot hanging over them.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_158076\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-158076\" style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-158076\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/09\/USATSI_24368170_168402037_lowres-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Sep 30, 2024; Inglewood, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) talks with team owner Steve Ballmer during media day at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/09\/USATSI_24368170_168402037_lowres-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/09\/USATSI_24368170_168402037_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/09\/USATSI_24368170_168402037_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/09\/USATSI_24368170_168402037_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/09\/USATSI_24368170_168402037_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/09\/USATSI_24368170_168402037_lowres-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/09\/USATSI_24368170_168402037_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/09\/USATSI_24368170_168402037_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-158076\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sep 30, 2024; Inglewood, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) talks with team owner Steve Ballmer during media day at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>So far, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said the league <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/11\/los-angeles-clippers-aspiration-investgation\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">won&#8217;t rush to judgment<\/a> in its probe of the matter. In fact, there were reports that we shouldn\u2019t expect any results from the investigation <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/18\/nba-protects-los-angeles-clippers-from-losing-all-star-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">until after the All-Star weekend<\/a>. Fittingly, the Clippers host this season\u2019s All-Star Game in their bright, new, shiny arena: Intuit Dome.<\/p>\n<h3>The NBA\u2019s Stance on the Clippers Situation<\/h3>\n<p>Since purchasing the Clippers for a then-record $2 billion, Ballmer has been on a quest to bring the franchise their first championship. The billionaire philanthropist has been actively involved in all the decisions about personnel and coaching. He also helped construct the most technologically-advanced arena in the league.<\/p>\n<p>But did he make mistakes along the way? If so, were they accidental?<\/p>\n<p>To answer their questions, the NBA has hired a third-party law firm to investigate whether the Clippers circumvented the cap with Leonard contract&#8217;s latest contract. Should that turn out to be true, there will be harsh penalties. Some potential ramifications are the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/16\/clippers-face-double-jeopardy-penalty-in-kawhi-leonard-scandal\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">forfeiture of draft picks<\/a>, suspensions of Ballmer (and other team officials), voiding Leonard\u2019s contract, and banning Leonard from re-signing with the Clippers.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, the Clippers don&#8217;t control any of <a href=\"https:\/\/fanspo.com\/nba\/teams\/Clippers\/13\/draft-picks\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their draft picks<\/a> until 2029. So, if the NBA forces them to forfeit any future picks, the team might be set back for years. They&#8217;re projected to have a maximum of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/nba\/cap\/_\/year\/2027\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$155 million in cap space<\/a> in the summer of 2027, when most of their contracts end. Yet, without future draft picks to build around or trade for assets, it&#8217;ll still be difficult to build a contender.<\/p>\n<p>In the new apron era, money cannot buy everything.<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">\u00a9 Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There will be plenty of questions about Kawhi Leonard, Aspiration and Steve Ballmer during the Los Angeles Clippers media day. And, like the Grinch himself, NBA journalist Pablo Torre just dropped another bombshell to make things extra spicy. In Part Five of his investigation into possible cap circumvention, Torre reveals that the Clippers owner donated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":160858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1608,2,62,3],"tags":[168,4975,49680,1145],"class_list":["post-160851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clippers","category-basketball","category-featured","category-nba","category-news","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-nba-contracts","tag-nba-media-day","tag-steve-ballmer"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160851"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160857,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160851\/revisions\/160857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}