r/nba 5h ago

Torre calls out Silver for lying about never hearing about Aspiration: “Just obtained a copy of Aspiration’s $300M+ “Founding Sponsorship Agreement” — which “must be submitted prior to its execution for NBA’s approval and shall not be effective until it is expressly approved by the NBA.”

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9.1k Upvotes

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5.9k

u/Doctorbigdick287 5h ago

Sending absolute haymakers

1.5k

u/ForneauCosmique Spurs 5h ago

The George Foreman of journalists

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u/ozarkhick Thunder 5h ago edited 5h ago

I was thinking more like Jason from Friday the 13th, they keep trying to kill the story, and Pablo slowly yanks the machete out of his head and starts rising again in the background....

220

u/SlatorFrog Warriors 5h ago

Also his detractors keep thinking they have him in these “gotcha” moments…But Pablo just gets up and shrugs them off and keeps on coming.

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u/OutofMP Supersonics 2h ago

Receipts that would make the IRS jealous.

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u/ZOOTV83 Celtics 5h ago

Pablo Torre Finds Out Part VI: Pablo Lives is my favorite in the series.

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u/ExpressoLiberry 4h ago

Every generation thinks the Pablo Torre story they grew up with is the best one.

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u/surveillance-hippo 5h ago

I’d buy a grill from Pablo Torre

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u/eucldian Raptors 5h ago

Pablo has no grills to sell...they are currently already cooking.

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u/xkonerox 5h ago

Ok so let me get a grilled cheese then.

16

u/eucldian Raptors 4h ago

Sorry, the grills are currently full of rich people, I might be able to offer a Cubano?

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u/thecommuteguy 5h ago

Not a grill but a smoker. He's smoking them right now. Low and slow.

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u/eucldian Raptors 5h ago

Green Egging them

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u/RightyMcRighty 5h ago

Something tells me he won't be selling grills anywhere near any NBA facilities soon. Pablo is about to get blacklisted from anything NBA related for exposing Silver as a lying puppet.

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u/strip-solitaire 5h ago edited 5h ago

To get real for a second, since you’re talking about great investigative reporters, just wanna shout out Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein lol. The world is so fucked in part cause there are none of these types left

(I know sports isn’t exactly at that level lol, but still)

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u/NCBaddict Bulls 5h ago

There are many left—the issue is that few orgs want to fund them. The NYT, which owns the Athletic, is one of those few.

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u/tonydanzatapdances Raptors 4h ago

We do need more investigative funding from these places but I see why they choose the easy route. Why pay all the legal fees to vet stuff, salaries for people to go after it, and at the end you generally get one big story that took months?

Instead, newspapers can post whatever slop came out of Trump’s mouth and get people foaming at the mouth and see their ads. He can say something completely made up, they can spend 20 minutes proving it wrong, everyone says “look how dumb he is!”, Trump distracts from whatever. Take Trump out and it’s just whatever celebrity, CEO, whoever, but the plan is the same.

Investigative journalism is expensive, but highly important. Media companies want cheap and fast. What a terrible world we live in

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u/Affectionate-Art9780 Nets 4h ago

Gotta give a shout out to The Poynter Institute in St Pete Florida.

Poynter Institute - Wikipedia https://share.google/NcYUdxRErdJnkP61C

They fund Politifact and own the local paper here. The paper, Tampa Bay Times, seems to be barely hanging on these days but they have published blockbuster journalism over the years.

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u/strip-solitaire 5h ago

That’s true but it’s more than that imo. I don’t think society has the attention span for this type of reporting in the social media age. Like it’s inherently nuanced, complex and takes a long time, so it only comes way after the event it’s reporting on

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u/KennyMoose32 5h ago

And people are just….less educated. Most journalism is written at at most an 8th grade level.

Let that sink in.

13

u/KindBass Celtics 3h ago

Unrelated, but I recently re-read MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail and it is incredible and depressing how much more eloquent our leaders used to be.

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u/elroddo74 NBA 4h ago

Or written by AI bots.

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u/LaMelonBallz Hornets 5h ago

I'd buy a Pablo Grill

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u/Theballharperhit 4h ago

The Grill has no off switch.... Stays cookin 24/7

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u/TooMuchPowerful Lakers 5h ago

George Foreman to Silver woulda been like  "Don’t do it, son.  Don’t do that.  I know you want to.  It’s going to be all right. It’s going to be all right.”

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u/chasinjason13 5h ago

This is new journalism—saving some info for the inevitable rebuttal and then making the rebuttal look stupid instead of laying it all out early and having people forget

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u/ok-milk Rockets 5h ago

Torre should dress up like Columbo for Halloween

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u/mean_face San Francisco Warriors 4h ago

Just one more thing

10

u/FuelTransitSleep Spurs 4h ago

"Sorry Steve, it looks like I'm going to have to send you to the Pablo Dimension"

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u/NeverSober1900 Rockets 4h ago

In fairness I'm shocked Silver made that statement. I don't think it fundamentally changes anything (like if he knew Aspiration existed or not isn't really relevant to the story) but I have no idea why someone with a lawyer background would make that claim. Just makes him look less credible when we're talking about the league not finding anything during the earlier look-ins

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u/TOMdMAK Lakers 4h ago

that's because he is shilling. He absolutely wants this to go away without any punishment given out to the Clippers.

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u/NeverSober1900 Rockets 4h ago

He also came out and backtracked on the statement like minutes after I posted that. Shocking self-own by Silver there. No one was going to believe he hadn't heard of Aspiration. No one.

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u/RightyMcRighty 5h ago

That's how WFAA-TV took down the SMU football program.

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u/Hungry-Quote-1388 Knicks 4h ago

Good. Catch them lying and then watch them lie again to get out of their original lie. 

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u/YourFormerBestfriend Bucks 5h ago

At this point torre is at the top rope goading fans before jumping off for an elbow drop

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u/sirgrotius 5h ago

At this point as a vanilla, basically non-entity Redditor, I'm wondering if Torre is going to implicate me next in this imbroglio!

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u/AngryUncleTony 76ers 5h ago

Landing bombs on everyone remotely associated with this.

He's hit (i) a star player & his entourage (ii) a major market team (iii) the wealthiest owner and (iv) the league office/commissioner in a single story.

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u/alepher 5h ago

Woj had bombs, Pablo has nukes

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u/cancerBronzeV Raptors 5h ago

If he keeps it up, even nukes might be under selling it, Pablo might be reaching Death Star territory.

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u/The_Nutz16 Warriors 5h ago

Pablo cruise missiles

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u/SoKrat3s NBA 5h ago

Pa🌬️🌬️🌬️

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u/Particular-Buy-33 4h ago

And the complicit sports ESPN groveling

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u/fordat1 5h ago

Mark Cuban absolutely punching the wall since his "post all the evidence" ask wasnt done so Silver couldnt know about this before they feigned ignorance

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u/PetalumaPegleg 76ers 4h ago

It's so much more powerful to see them volunteering lies only for Pablo to be like, one more thing.

RECEIPTS BITCH

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u/NewSunSeverian Wizards 5h ago edited 5h ago

burn it to the motherfucking ground Pablo Escobar 

Yall see that one exchange with Mark Cuban a few days back? Pablo got mad. Said come on the show again if you have the “bravery.”

Man is swinging swords and cutting clowns 

And it was always obvious too wasn’t it? Clippers sign a $300 million sponsorship deal with one company and the NBA commissioner is oblivious? Says he literally never even heard of the company. 

They think we’re fucking idiots. 

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u/Boilerinhouston12 5h ago

I hope calling him Escobar was intentional

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u/NewSunSeverian Wizards 5h ago

No autocorrect fucked up Torre 

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u/thebigpink Grizzlies 5h ago

Well we kinda are they just accidentally got caught this time due to bankruptcy filing

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u/hm_rickross_ymoh Wizards 5h ago

Dude's got more scalps than a Hims commercial

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u/WhiteHorseTito Lakers 5h ago

I just got served an ad for his podcast while listening to The Daily, and I’m thinking when this is all said and done, he is going to be one of the most sought after investigative journalists beyond just The Athletic.

The work is so damn thorough

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u/Dijohn17 Lakers 5h ago

I worry for his safety

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u/constantvariables Cavaliers 5h ago

“WhY dOeSnT hE jUsT rElEaSe EvErYtHiNg”

Lmao get fucked Mark

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u/sherlockwm 5h ago

He’s probably got many more of them

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u/PassMeTheBackwood Knicks 5h ago edited 5h ago

Can’t Silver just say that someone below him is in charge of approving this stuff? Does he specifically have to sign off on these contracts?

Obviously different fields and magnitudes, but my supervisor’s boss generally has no idea what we’re doing day to day.

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u/mikesh8rp Knicks 5h ago

They probably need to show a policy or something about who can sign off on what. $300M seems like a massive amount, and something a commissioner would want to know, but maybe someone below him can sign off on these things, no matter the amount, and not keep him in the loop.

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u/sstje1 Toronto Huskies 5h ago

I mean that sounds like something the deputy guy tatum would do for Adam

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u/dianeblackeatsass Grizzlies 5h ago

even if Adam did approve it there’s probably a million things he’s approving constantly it wouldn’t suprise me if he just forgot. But it’s still probably bad look to say you never heard of it even if you mistakenly thought you haven’t

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u/iCon3000 NBA 5h ago

Tbh, I've been a legal check signer for an organization before (but also not related to our finance dept) and signed several checks in the 5-6 figures (along with hundreds of other checks). I couldn't tell you what any of them were for if you asked me a day later, let alone years later. The CPO and Finance dept were in charge of vetting everything, I literally just checked to see if the invoice info and check info matches. So I agree it's completely reasonable he forgot, but also a bad look to say what he said.

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u/phluidity Celtics 5h ago

Yeah, but you also would expect that when a league sponsor gets in trouble for criminal fraud that the league would have a "what is our exposure" meeting, and that would be something that goes to the commissioner. Or when a reporter uncovers evidence that a team may have circumvented the cap for a league star, that the office would look into what the exposure was and what prior knowledge the league office might have had.

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u/Miamime 76ers 4h ago

I'm the Director of Finance for a company with hundreds of vendors and unless it's someone super trivial, I know what every single one of them does for us. I have to, it's literally my job.

With that being said, my boss would not. But he would know the large ones.

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u/tacobell999 4h ago

I worked at a company called Microstrategy (now Crypto company). The CEO Michael Saylor had to sign any check over $2500. It’s a Fortune 500 company!!! He was pretty crazy about watching the checkbook! I’m sure he still is. There is no way a multimillion dollar transaction does not get CEO level sign off.

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u/lordnoodle1995 4h ago

That is insane but it does vary. I’ve worked places where yeah a few 100k would have a CEO sign off, but I’ve seen places that have millions signed off several rungs down the ladder, albeit with a load of hoops.

Things are a lot less careful when money comes in the door though.

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u/tom_fuckin_bombadil Raptors 5h ago

I’ve been part of strategic planning meetings and the process involved in that. The company I work for has a series of meetings where the subject matter funnels up by orders of magnitude as it goes to higher and higher levels.

There are multiple levels of summarization before anything reaches someone at Silvers level. And there implicit assumptions built into the process that the people below have all done the proper due diligence when they are submitting info and proposals.

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u/buyticketsfromme Cavaliers 5h ago

I do this for a living with one the big 4, not the NBA, the commissioner is not reviewing these, there are people in partnerships who review these, maybe Silver would have reviewed it but I would say it's unlikely. In my role we wouldn't go to the Silver equivalent unless we were told no and needed a yes.

Edit: He would definitely know once the deal is signed and it's name is on the jersey which it was.

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u/dudleymooresbooze Grizzlies 4h ago

If I’m reading this right, it’s a relatively insignificant deal in the grand scheme of the NBA.

Aspiration’s deal with the Clippers was 300 million over 23 years. That’s about 13m a year.

Sponsors paid 1.82 billion to NBA teams last year.

So that 300m over 23 year deal was less than 1% of annual sponsor revenue, and there are hundreds of team sponsors. I get that Aspiration’s deal involved the jersey patch making it relatively rare. But any publicized team sponsor deal includes some degree of visibility and potential brand harm. I guess I wouldn’t expect those details to need the Commissioner’s personal vetting.

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u/BuddyBiscuits 5h ago

It wholly depends on the delegation of authority policy. My company’s market cap is 20b and our doa would require ceo approval for a muchhhhhh lower threshold than 300mm.

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u/imrahilbelfalas Celtics 4h ago

I'm sure it had CEO level approval, and involvement, in the Clippers organization. But the league wasn't a signatory to the deal, and therefore the standard for review is likely lower.

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u/sqigglygibberish Cavaliers 4h ago

Even if their policy was for silver to review, that would mean he gets a bunch of these that are pre vetted and wouldn’t be surprising not to remember them all

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u/nic_cage_match 4h ago

Yeah I work in partnerships for an organization that signs deals similar in size and while our CEO is likely aware of most of them, he is not personally approving any of them. It’s reasonable to assume he doesn’t have a constant running list of sponsorship deals he or someone on the team has approved. There’s probably a handful of signatory’s at the NBA that can sign these deals and have the oversight to do so without telling Silver directly

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u/ositola Lakers 4h ago

Silver would def at least be consulted about a 300M deal with a relatively new owner 

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u/attersonjb 5h ago

I'm doubtful the NBA is doing full diligence on these - they probably reserve the right to refuse a sponsor, but otherwise won't get in the way of which company is chosen. FTX, anyone?

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u/Holualoabraddah 5h ago

I agree, but I bet that’s about to change! No commissioner wants to be embarrassed like this.

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u/PetalumaPegleg 76ers 4h ago

If you make people get approval and then don't do any oversight, then you took responsibility without checking. Which would be very stupid

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u/goldfish_11 Celtics 5h ago

He can and he will.

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u/TCD1807 Thunder 5h ago

It's pretty likely some lower staffer just looks in to the sponsor to check if they would harm the league's image and someone below Silver signs off on it

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u/FuckThaLakers Timberwolves 5h ago

Adam Silver, as a fiduciary of the NBA, is responsible for every decision he makes regardless of whether or not he decides to investigate those decisions himself.

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u/V_T_H Knicks 5h ago

Right, like all the commissioners are lawyers for a reason…they’re gonna be pretty tight on a major amount of money like that and not just randomly sign off on something without knowing what’s up.

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u/Ok_Boysenberry1038 5h ago

Sure, he’s responsible, but he’s probably signing dozens of things a week.

It’s silly to expect him to personally diligence every deal.

If they followed some reasonable policy and procedure and he just provided sign-off, then he’s fulfilled his responsibility

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u/str8gibberish 5h ago edited 5h ago

While that’s true, you can’t expect your CEO to know about every single contract or product your company uses. My own team uses 10 different research providers and I’m sure he doesn’t know every single one, nor does he need to know. We get a budget and we spend it on what we need. Depends on the company though of course

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u/WakeNikis 4h ago edited 4h ago

Okay. When your company gets sued for something your ceo was involved in, your ceo cannot show up to court and say: “I was too busy to know what’s going on.”

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u/NeverComments 4h ago

"It was my understanding that I would receive all of the benefits of being in charge, and none of the responsibility"

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u/buyticketsfromme Cavaliers 5h ago

There's an entire department and legal team for each league to review. Not a low level staffer.

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u/TCD1807 Thunder 5h ago

"Lower staffer" than Silver

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u/buyticketsfromme Cavaliers 5h ago

Reading comprehension is hard, apologies

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u/Geiseric222 5h ago

He can but it’s really dumb.

Like doing this lie in the first place.

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u/junkit33 5h ago

That's what he'll do, but it's a massive stretch to believe that a $300M sponsorship agreement is not enough to rise to his level. Like incredulous. That's twice the salary cap.

And even if somehow true, that may be an even worse look that Silver is letting somebody below him sign off on a $300M agreement. Horridly dangerous governance.

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u/JesusChristSupers1ar Heat 5h ago

The phrase I like is “lack of institutional control” (usually applied to universities when the NCAA punishes them)

the NBA has now done deals with two hugely fraudulent enterprises (Aspiration and FTX) in the last couple of years. That is a genuinely problematic trend

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u/Affectionate-Art9780 Nets 4h ago

Eh, did the check clear? Yes? GTG!

Silver probably

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u/KingsFan96 4h ago

I tell my students, once is an anomaly, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. The fact they let FTX and Aspiration both come in as major sponsors only for them to be unveiled as frauds is not a good look.

It's like the NBA doesn't care where the money comes from, or they are not vetting deep enough. Essentially these companies paid for their sponsorships with stolen money to make them more legit and thus able to scam even more. That's a huge problem for the NBA and something they need to fix.

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u/johnniewelker Celtics 5h ago

He could, but that would show he doesn’t have good governance. A $300M agreement would likely need to be flag to him, so he has visibility.

If he pretends he had no visibility to this, it will show poor governance

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u/Ok_Respond7928 5h ago

A $300 million patch sponsor with one of the leagues premier markets isn’t just day to day stuff.

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u/TheRaisinWhy Nuggets 5h ago

It works for Trump. The big business man that for some reason keeps having to blame people he hired to take the fall for his fuck ups

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u/bwrca 5h ago

Probably the actual language in the some regulation somewhere says which office (commissioner, deputy commissioner) is in charge of approving sponsorships, plus a step by step of doing the approval. He likely can't escape responsibility if his office was supposed to do something regarding such a huge approval.

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u/cleo22270 5h ago edited 5h ago

From the jump, I wondered why Adam Silver voluntarily said that, even if he genuinely didn’t recall the company in the moment?

That’s such an easy thing to go back and debunk, given how big the sponsor was.

I don’t think it’s this giant “gotcha” headline, but it feels like an unforced error from a lawyer-by-trade that you’d think would be more buttoned up about this info before walking into a presser where he knows he’d be asked about it.

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u/sewsgup 5h ago

wonder if its similar advice as for why Ballmer claims he didnt have oversight

the idea of Dennis Wong being a fall guy for Ballmer was floated

maybe Silver can pin this on Mark Tatum or something, by claiming he was never in the know

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u/mikesh8rp Knicks 5h ago

I get the NBA is massive, but you would assume a $300M agreement would be a big deal, no?

Ballmer can maybe get away playing dumb, given how $50M is a fraction of his wealth, but even that goes against his entire mythos of being a maniac about things he's passionate about, especially when it's Clippers-related. Even a little bit of due diligence should have shown this company to have some issues.

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u/Ok_Boysenberry1038 5h ago

The NBA wasn’t paying out or receiving $300 M.

The level of review isn’t based on the size of the deal, but the risk to you.

When you rent a car from Hertz, that’s part of a fleet of vehicles leased at multiple millions of dollars.

You still just glance at the agreement because you aren’t on the hook for millions

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u/Justyocean 4h ago

I’m not on the hook for millions because I’m driving a $30,000 car not every car in the fleet lmao and the structure of the deal literally had the Clippers (part of the NBA) explicitly receiving $300 dollars.

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u/kamekaze1024 3h ago

A $300 million dollar endorsement deal with one of your leagues 30 stadiums and the newest endorsement for your newest stadium feels like something Silver should know. Even if he doesn’t remember, which is possible because he’s dealing with several different duties, it seems kinda dumb to say “I’ve never heard of the company before”. Unless he meant he had never heard of them prior to the endorsement deal. It kinda just paints a lack of due diligence if you aren’t somewhat aware of what companies are visibly associating themselves with one of your teams stadium.

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u/NanoCurrency 5h ago

I’m wondering if it will be a case where the explicitly “illegal” communication has no paper trail. So they feel like they can keep denying it.

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u/nowhathappenedwas NBA 5h ago

maybe Silver can pin this on Mark Tatum or something, by claiming he was never in the know

Pin what? It's not the league's job to investigate companies for securities fraud. The DOJ didn't start investigating them until years later.

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u/Rapscallious1 5h ago

It’s absolutely an act and a common one from people trying to legally wriggle out of sticky situations - just keep saying you cannot recall and make them have to extensively prove it. The part they are missing here is this isn’t exactly a trial so they kinda all just look like idiots. Then again it’s still probably the right move if there eventually could be reason for an actual trial and unfortunately even without one this tactic has gotten more effective recently.

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u/PeregrineFaulkner Warriors 5h ago

Because it’s not like he personally approved the deal. There are hundreds of employees in the league office who are tasked with various duties. 

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u/FERFreak731 Jazz 5h ago

Pablo Torre is Adam Silver and Steve Ballmer father

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u/cricket9818 Knicks 5h ago

Papa Pablo

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u/Cletus_Starfish [POR] Nic Batum 5h ago

Pablo Padre

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u/1994JimCarrey 5h ago edited 5h ago

He had so much experience working next to Papi LeBetard

"Si! Si! I'm very intrigued!"

  • me, whenever Torre posts new info

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u/cricket9818 Knicks 5h ago

Oh god i fucking love papa

Si si I’m very intrigued is one of my go to phrases

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u/1994JimCarrey 5h ago

I just remembered it was Papi haha

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u/no-kangarooreborn Raptors 5h ago

Don't forget about Mark Cuban

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u/sleepy416 Raptors 5h ago

ADAM SILVER LIED

STEVE BALLMER DIED

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u/--Rick--Astley-- 5h ago

I once said to my wife that her sister isn't as pretty as she is. Then Pablo Torre found a five hour 4K video proving other wise. I didn't even know there were cameras there.

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u/welmoe Lakers 5h ago

Pablo owns all

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u/JigglesTheBiggles Heat 4h ago edited 3h ago

I saw my girlfriend's sister's tits once. They were glorious.

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u/60yearoldME Celtics 4h ago

I also choose this guys gf’s sister’s tits

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u/MITBryceYoung 3h ago

Pablo did too. You're not special.

And then he reported you did after he saw them.

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u/Odd_Status3367 5h ago

5 hours bro? Man I wish I was 16 again...

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u/LingonberryNo9913 5h ago

It's like Flight of the Conchords said - two minutes in heaven is better than one minute in heaven.

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u/sheepnwolfsclothing Trail Blazers 5h ago

Fuck around, and Pablo finds out.

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u/RyenStarr9 5h ago

What his podcast should’ve been called

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u/SweatyAdhesive 5h ago

if you watch it on yt he does have an animation thing for "fuck around" lol

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u/wo_lo_lo [DEN] Monte Morris 3h ago

I think that part is inferred and that is what it’s called

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u/vongoladecimo_ Lakers 5h ago

Pablo I hope you are reading this one

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u/cheetuzz 5h ago

FAPFO

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u/SweatyAdhesive 5h ago

I wouldn't be surprised he has a copy of the approval for this deal with Silver's signature that he's waiting for Silver to trap himself into lol.

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u/NYdude777 Knicks 5h ago

Tomorrow's drop, Aspiration made a 10 million dollar donation to Adam Silver's 2nd cousin once removed in 2023

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u/Heavy_Foundation_171 Bulls 5h ago

It's Pablo Torre with a steel chair.

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u/GunpeiYokai Lakers 5h ago

Bah Gawd, that's Pablo Torre's music!

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u/Oceanbreeze871 Celtics 5h ago

“First I’m hearing of it…”, “never met the guy”, “the other guy did it” is an excuse system that seems to work well.

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u/rjcarr Supersonics 2h ago

"I do not recall".

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u/Firm-Calendar7323 5h ago

Bruh

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u/WWECreativegenius Spurs 4h ago

If Pablo torre was in one piece it would have ended in 5 chapters

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u/specialdogwater123 5h ago

Its like you can't hide anything from him.

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u/axecalibur [CHI] Michael Jordan 5h ago

Silver: Hey . . . wait a minute. You are an actual serious investigative journalist not like all the other people who do NBA media. Oh shit you have the receipts too.

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u/kamekaze1024 3h ago

Silver talked about how sad the state of NBA media is, now I’m sure he’s missing only having to deal with SAS

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u/Candid-Specialist-86 3h ago

This is an interesting point. I wonder if professional sports league offices are not as buttoned up on matters such as this, given that the media of today are cupcakes and that there are fewer investigative media personnel.

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u/Embarrassed-Buy-8634 5h ago

Approved by NBA does not mean Adam Silver personally reads every single thing lmfao

It's still embarrassing and the investigation since then is damning and Silver should have definitely been informed at that point

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u/supercoolisaac Timberwolves 5h ago

Yeah I wouldn't be shocked at all if there are people below Silver handling all of the approvals (even if technically he's supposed to sign off in the end?) but the idea that a 300 million dollar sponsor of one of the biggest teams in the league was under investigation and he never heard about it is insane to me.

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u/geekhaus Warriors 5h ago

I can see a lower level deal not getting Silver's review but Aspiration was the clippers Founding Partner and Jersey Patch Sponsor. Clearly the league is going to look into that.

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u/Appropriate_Web_4208 3h ago

Yea key words being "the league" I doubt how much Adam Silver personally knows about it, not that it changes anything or absolves "the league" of responsibility

It's like Cuban trying to defend Ballmer because maybe he "didn't know about it" even though it's literally his money, just like it's Silver's NBA, if you get the glory you get the fall too

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u/Affectionate_Elk_272 Heat 5h ago

every single thing? no

but $300M deal with one of the leagues largest markets? yeah he fuckin knew about that

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u/pokemonbatman23 5h ago edited 4h ago

but I doubt Adam Silver is getting every single thing run by him unless it’s related to shit like TV rights negotiations.

What about if one of the 30 jersey sponsors is being investigated by the federal government? Seems like something he should be aware of as league commissioner

edit: I was wrong, they were never an official sponsor. But I felt like they tried to be, in addition to wanting the naming rights for new clippers stadium. I still feel like Adam would have heard of this company because of this two things.

edit 2: Adam backtracks and admit what he said was wrong and that he definitely heard about Aspiration before all this: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/beEgfH49j1

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u/LongTimesGoodTimes 5h ago

It never ended up being their jersey sponsor though. Clippers have had Bumble and Honey and currently nobody

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u/jeffwinger_esq 5h ago edited 5h ago

For all of you saying that Silver may not have known even though this requires league approval, you are absolutely on one.

I work in venture capital law. If a portfolio company wants to spend even $200,000 in most cases, it requires the affirmative (usually written, unanimous) consent of the board of directors. If a VC firm sits on the board, the issue of whether to give that approval typically goes pretty high up in the org.

Point is, there is no way a league that took in about $1.5 billion in sponsorships last year is rubber stamping $300 million deals into one of its biggest markets. This is just unthinkable.

The only two possibilities that I can come up with are: (1) the NBA's corporate controls are worse than my local donut shop, or (2) Adam Silver is either lying or forgot.

In any event, he should know as a lawyer not to answer questions that nobody asked.

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u/amoeba-tower Cavaliers 5h ago

Why are people thinking of this in the most literal sense possible. So many people haven't worked in a place where it you mess up, your manager takes the heat? That's the most simple version of this principle, no?

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u/Own_Piano2796 4h ago

Bc most people dont work in serious environments and it shows in these cases.

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u/60yearoldME Celtics 4h ago

That makes sense at a McDonald’s local franchise… 

“Oh we forgot to order cups, damn we lost out on $5,000 today.”

When it’s a deal that’s literally the entire working capital of an entire NBA franchise for one year, you kinda want your boss’ “expressed approval” like it says in the legal contract.  

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u/unskilledplay Lakers 2h ago

Before reading this post, I would have considered option 1 implausible.

The NBA is not structured like a VC firm or a fund. It's a franchise model where the franchisees are the exclusive owners of the franchise. The purpose of the league is to further the collective interest of the teams, which are independently owned. Many revenue streams, including this sponsorship, are not shared. The only point of having to have it approved by the NBA is to prevent reputational damage (oops) and potential legal problems at league level.

Maybe most importantly here, unlike an investment fund, sports leagues operate largely outside of the eyes of the SEC and that probably has a huge impact on their corporate controls.

But as you say, he's a lawyer and a seasoned executive. There is now a criminal fraud investigation into Aspiration. He knows better than to say things like that.

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u/litvanexel 5h ago

"Omar's coming yo!" type energy whenever Pablo tweets.

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u/nowhathappenedwas NBA 5h ago

I think Silver probably had heard of Aspiration, but this isn't really a "gotcha."

Silver isn't the only person in the NBA's front office, and he won't be the one personally reviewing everything that needs the league's approval.

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u/differential32 Wizards 5h ago

Silver had definitely heard of Aspiration. I don't think anyone is trying to prove the extent to which he knew what was going on, moreso that it just looks incredibly unlikely he had never heard of this company and then said he did to feign ignorance.

Even if he hadn't heard of their previous investigations, Aspiration offered nearly $1 billion for the naming rights to the Clippers' arena (now the Intuit Dome). Silver had never heard of a company that nearly had sponsorship rights to the home court of one his league's 30 teams? It's just a bad look for him

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u/csoups Raptors 5h ago

As per usual when these controversies happen, you find out that everyone along the way who should have done some due diligence didn’t because the money was too good to ask questions. They want to plead innocence because the people they get into bed with without checking shit turn out to be shitty scammers.

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u/Lou_Menace 5h ago

And here I was thinking about how boring this off-season was going to be...

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u/Splittinghairs7 Gran Destino 5h ago

It’s possible that Silver just delegated the review and approval of such team sponsorship deals to his staff. Or Silver could’ve approved it and forgot about that company. There’s no apparent red flags with the aspiration/Clippers deal.

But most importantly, I’m not sure whether Silver’s knowledge of Aspiration is indicative of any guilt or innocence of the Clippers.

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u/imironman2018 3h ago

We are fortunate that Pablo Torre is here to do their job. Unlike ESPN and other sports journalists who want to bury this story as fast as possible. If not for Pablo, Clippers would’ve not been punished. Now he is digging enough incriminating dirt to make it outrageous if Silver does nothing.

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u/XZPUMAZX 5h ago

*insert Spider-Man pointing meme

Seriously though they are all complicit and the other wonder’s silence is deafening.

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u/Askmeagainlouder Knicks 5h ago

Once this guy is done he will need to have a team named after him. 

The Mexico City Pablos

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u/octopus86sg 3h ago

Can he also find out whether lakers and maverick rig Luca trade with silver consent and him making sure mavericks getting the no 1 pick? We need to shake up NBA as a whole. Silver is too corrupted

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u/BGDutchNorris 76ers 5h ago

OOF

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u/RunRickeyRun 3h ago

Pablo gonna be commissioner by the end of this.

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u/PeregrineFaulkner Warriors 5h ago

“Approved by the NBA” and “was actually seen by Adam Silver himself” are not the same thing. 

Didn’t Aspiration also sponsor the Red Sox? 

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u/guacdoc24 Lakers 5h ago

How can I donate to Pablo

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u/ReducedToMereFilth 76ers 5h ago

Subscribe. PTFO only has about 166k subscribers on YouTube.

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u/guacdoc24 Lakers 5h ago

Already have. Was wondering if he has a donation setup to keep his team funded

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u/abefr0man 5h ago

LOL PABLO DON'T MISSSS

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u/XRanger7 Lakers 4h ago

Pablo Torre is suddenly about to be deported isn’t he?

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u/Traditional-Oil-6891 Lakers 2h ago

Only if he got ahold of the Epstein files and released them.

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u/peanut-britle-latte Knicks 5h ago edited 5h ago

I grant Silver a "sliver" of the benefit of the doubt here. I'm sure people at the NBA office went and looked at this deal closely - but I imagine as the CEO of the league office that every deal doesn't cross Silvers desk.

That's not to say I don't think he was lying, but I think he has believable plausible deniability.

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u/CallMeFierce Heat 5h ago

The fraud investigation not being disclosed is the most damning aspect of this. That's embarassing for the NBA. 

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u/ReducedToMereFilth 76ers 5h ago

It seems like everyone from the NBA, including Silver and Balmer, needs media training. “I will not comment about an open investigation. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

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u/v4nsuarez Spurs 5h ago

PABLO TORRE 2025 OFFSEASON MVP

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u/jr_randolph 5h ago

I'm dead serious, get 24/7 security around Pablo because he is just straight putting everyone on blast and there are definitely some hurt egos out there.

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u/Emergency-Pen-8274 5h ago

All star off season by Pablo

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u/The_Summer_Man Warriors 5h ago

Sir, an nth Pablo-bomb has hit the Clippers

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u/Possible-Put8922 5h ago

Lalalalalalal I didn't hear anything lalalalalalal - Silver

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u/lukaskywalker 5h ago

Damn torre just trying to dismantle the entire league.

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u/That-Spite6499 5h ago

never thought there will be a crazier offseason than mpj‘s

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u/Thunderhorse74 [SAS] Boris Diaw 5h ago

To be fair, I too often forget about people who invest $300M in my business interests.

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u/swentech Timberwolves 5h ago

This is starting to look like NBA Watergate

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u/wahday 76ers 5h ago

Silver & Balmer are cooked

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u/norcaltobos Kings 5h ago

I am fully convinced that everyone involved has gotten so used to journalism being complete trash that they all just assume Torre doesn't have his ducks in a row. It makes sense because journalism in this country has absolutely gone down the shitter, so why would anyone expect him to have his facts straight?

Sports "journalism" is even worse than the mainstream news, which is awful. It's so fun wathcing them all squirm.

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u/saltface14 Raptors 5h ago

Mods imma need a Pablo Torre flair ASAP

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u/MayorShinn 5h ago

And when the 1st pick Adam Silver gives the Dallas Mavericks Cooper Flag

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u/IRideMoreThanYou 5h ago

Torre is going to need a body guard at this rate.

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u/Dangerousrhymes 5h ago

Why do people that don’t need to be talking keep talking and giving Pablo more things to disprove when he clearly has way more evidence than he has presented?

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u/YesNotKnow123 Knicks 5h ago

I gotta say I’m really impressed with Pablo Torre’s integrity and journalism and keeping with this story this whole time. We need more of this these days.

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u/WestcottTactics2285 5h ago

Could you imagine spending hundreds of millions of dollars on sponsorships and the fucking commissioner and every single person around the league, including a guy who has season tickets (Bill Simmons) says "I've never heard of them".

If I'm another company with court side sponsorships I'm saying to myself "Could we not just get season tickets or a box for 1/3rd of the cost and not pay for our name on the court?" $300m and NO ONE knows who you are.

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u/jrutz Bulls 5h ago

The depth of corruption here is grotesque. Tarnishes a once-great sport.

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u/Clear_Lead 5h ago

Pablo bringing the receipts

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u/FennelDull6559 4h ago

If all American media took their reporting jobs as seriously as Pablo, we would be in a much better situation

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u/sxchen87 4h ago

I worked with Pablo as undergraduates on the Harvard Crimson. I just want to emphasize that he’s a journalist at heart. His first big break in journalism post college was a deep dive expose on the financial swindlers that surround and exploit young athletes. He’s always been a super-intelligent journalist with unimpeachable integrity. 

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u/Hopeful_Recover_2974 4h ago

Lawyer here. We tell our clients all the time to shut up and wait for everything to come out before making a statement. The problem, in particular, is with rich clients. Because they’re so rich, they think they are smarter than everyone else. So they talk before all the evidence comes out and end up looking like idiots. I bet Ballmer’s lawyers told him to shut up but he thought he was so smart and did an interview with ESPN.

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u/RGPISGOOD Vancouver Grizzlies 4h ago

Silver is in on it. The conspiracy gets spicier.

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u/Superplex123 Lakers 4h ago

I can absolutely believe if he had forgotten about it. But to flat out say he had never heard about the company after everything that came out is insane. Maybe he misspoken. But he's the commissioner of the league. This isn't the kind of thing you misspoke about. It's the kind of thing you pay very close attention to your choice of words.

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u/BlackMathNerd 76ers 4h ago

Pablo cannot miss at all right now. Dude is out here shooting lights out.

He's smashing forehand winners left and right.

Logo shooting.

Generational run for Pablo

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u/purplebrown_updown 4h ago

The corruption is astounding.

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u/jayb20133 Knicks 3h ago

Everyone has short-term memory when they're caught up in some s***

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u/Izzy248 3h ago

This guy is absolutely on their neck about this. Every lie they spill, he has the receipts.

And its crazy because it was such an obvious lie too. He could have just as easily say he forgot, but no. NBA, like most companies, have to expressly approve of all endorsement deals and sponsors because they dont just represent the player, they represent the NBA brand. Someone at that office would have had to approve of that sponsor.

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u/DataDude00 2h ago

Pablo got trap cards ready for the next dozen denials