Overview
- Pablo Torre Finds Out won the Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting on Monday, honoring its series on the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard’s finances.
- The reporting said Aspiration, a Ballmer-backed startup with a $300 million team sponsorship, gave Leonard a four-year $28 million endorsement with no real work to route extra pay outside the cap.
- The NBA opened an outside investigation led by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz that remains active with no timeline, and commissioner Adam Silver has called the case enormously complex.
- Leonard, the Clippers, and Steve Ballmer deny wrongdoing, with Ballmer saying he was conned by Aspiration and lost his investment.
- Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg has pleaded guilty to wire fraud, and potential league penalties reported include fines or loss of draft picks rather than voiding Leonard’s contract.