The fallout from the NBA’s historic punishment of the Los Angeles Clippers was not limited to the league. Its repercussions have erupted into a full-scale media civil war amid Pablo Torre’s revenge press tour. On the heels of the league levying unprecedented sanctions against the franchise, Sports Illustrated senior writer Chris Mannix pulled no punches, directly calling out ESPN and senior writer Ramona Shelburne for publishing what he characterized as a spoon-fed piece of damage control on behalf of the Clippers.

Appearing alongside Rachel Nichols, Mannix torched an August 17 report co-authored by Shelburne, Don Van Natta Jr., and Baxter Holmes that claimed the NBA had found “no evidence” showing owner Steve Ballmer funneled money to superstar Kawhi Leonard to circumvent the salary cap. That story was completely undercut when the NBA’s independent investigation, conducted by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, resulted in a $30 million fine, the loss of five first-round draft picks, and a one-year suspension for Ballmer.

Mannix tore into ESPN’s framing of the story, arguing that the outlet allowed itself to be used as a mouthpiece for a team attempting to shape public perception ahead of a crushing league verdict.

“I like our colleagues over at ESPN, but they just swallowed a big bunch of bulls—t… that clearly came from the Clippers,” Mannix said. “The Clippers, even in their initial statement, they said like something to the effect of that the NBA saying this now is not what they led us to believe, you know, a few weeks ago. Which is basically a tell there that kind of gave away the story there where they said… because that implies they were the ones…”

Nichols interjected, noting the team was “suggesting the story, yes,” to which Mannix agreed.

“The ones that gave up the story. Just… a whole bunch of bulls–t that was out there in that story,” Mannix continued. “And I don’t like to get into media stuff cause it’s a hard job, and so you’re fumbling around, oftentimes you’re fumbling around in the dark. You can’t run a story like that when you’re not getting at least a semblance of the picture from the other side. And it’s very clear that the NBA was not cooperating in any way, shape or form. Sometimes they don’t cooperate publicly, you know this, but they do cooperate privately. They’ll tell you kind of what’s going on behind the scenes. Clearly, they weren’t doing that, and that led to one of the more egregious misses that we’re going to see in NBA reporting.”

Pablo Torre has been everywhere since the NBA verdict dropped, making the rounds on media appearances with obvious momentum behind him. When Dan Patrick had him on, he asked Torre directly: did ESPN ever apologize for dismissing his original expose?

Torre’s answer was more telling than a simple yes or no. Rather than confirming any apology, he revealed that ESPN had left him out of their August 17 story entirely.

“I submitted—I was told after the story published, ‘Hey, if you want to have a comment here because this is effectively refuting your whole deal here, we’ll include a statement from you,'” Torre told Patrick. “And so I submitted a statement and I’ll just paraphrase it. It was, ‘We stand by our reporting and we look forward to the NBA’s ruling. Our investigation continues.’ For whatever reason, ESPN did not include it. And so I don’t expect an apology. I don’t expect anything. Nor do I think I even need or deserve one, right? Like I’m a big boy, as they say.”

“It sure seems to me based on my reporting that they got fed a story by the people who were lying to everybody this whole time, and I got implicated as a result of them,” Torre added. Although he says he doesn’t need it, Torre later admitted to Variety he only feels partially vindicated.

Pablo Torre sounds off on ESPN for Clippers story

The controversy highlights a stark divide in how the Clippers investigation was covered over the past year. Investigative podcaster Pablo Torre originally broke the story on Pablo Torre Finds Out, utilizing internal corporate documents, whistleblowers, and paper trails to demonstrate how off-the-books payments were directed to Leonard via team sponsors, including the now-bankrupt green banking firm Aspiration.

Despite Torre’s detailed, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting, ESPN published its August 17 piece citing anonymous sources who claimed the league’s 11-month inquiry was merely examining whether team “introductions” to sponsors constituted a rule violation, framing the issue as a harmless failure-to-supervise matter.

Confirming Mannix’s statement that the NBA had not been communicating with the media, league spokesman Mike Bass notably took the rare step of publicly issuing a statement declaring ESPN’s article contained “numerous and significant inaccuracies.”

Speaking to Variety, Torre addressed ESPN’s attempt to undermine his work, revealing that the network actively suppressed his response prior to the league’s final ruling.

“My experience with that report was… not great. It was a sign of the power of a mainstream media entity, and the question I always had with this reporting I’ve been doing for a year — which they were not — was why they felt comfortable framing the story that way; and why they never called me before they published it if they were going to frame it that way; and why, after I provided a statement after it published, after being told that they would include it, they never included it?”

Torre pointed out that the narrative pushed by ESPN’s sources bore an undeniable resemblance to the defensive PR statements released by Ballmer’s legal team.

The actual scope of the circumvention ran well beyond what anyone initially estimated. Aspiration accounted for $28 million in cash endorsement money (with additional reports of roughly $20 million in promised equity that largely went unrealized due to the company’s bankruptcy), but that was only the starting point.

League findings and Torre’s continued reporting revealed that other Intuit Dome partners, including Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance, had guaranteed Leonard an additional $18 million (all of which was paid by August 2021).

From there, undisclosed equity arrangements, including a reported ~$20 million in Aspiration stock and a confirmed but unvalued minority stake in the Rhode Island Football Club, helped push the overall value of the off-the-books deals well beyond the initial $28 million figure, with combined cash payments alone reaching about $46 million and equity potentially elevating the total higher.

While ESPN’s reporting relied on team-side negotiators insisting that sponsor introductions were common league practice, the NBA ultimately ruled that Leonard’s camp, led by his uncle Dennis Robertson, actively compelled the franchise to engineer covert financial channels.

By granting Leonard a light $700,000 fine to secure a settlement with the NBPA, commissioner Adam Silver may have blocked Ballmer from taking the league to arbitration, forcing the billionaire owner to accept historic penalties or sue the NBA in open court.

ESPN remains in hot water as Shams Charania claimed that Leonard had no knowledge of the Aspiration dealings, while the contract bearing Kawhi’s signature was displayed. Torre refuted that claim, too and fans are slamming ESPN’s damage control. 

For her part, Shelburne has not referenced the August report. Her recent media appearance was simply reporting the NBA’s punishment of the Clippers.