Pablo Torre Is Changing Sports
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What is Pablo Torre’s background and why did he win the 2026 Pulitzer for audio reporting?
This is On the Media's Midweek Podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone. Every now and then we like to feature the work of our colleagues at WNYC Radio. This week it's the turn of the New Yorker radio hour, hosted by David Remnick, who spoke to the host of a YouTube show with a quarter of a million subscribers, who this year collected one of journalism's biggest prizes. David.
The sports journalist Pablo Torre once described what he does as quote taking stupid things seriously. Now he's being kind of a smart ass, he certainly doesn't think sports are stupid, but he does take them very seriously. In fact, Tori just won the Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting. And that's a feat because the number of Pulitzer's given for sports journalism in Any medium. It's tiny. He investigated a scheme by one NBA team to circumvent the salary cap. And that story aired on his podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out. Now, that kind of work is hard to do. The industry of sports, the leagues, the team owners, the top players, none of them, none of them like it when a journalist asks too many questions. Too much money is at stake.
Torrey got his start as a staff writer on Sports Illustrated in the twilight of that magazine's tremendous reach and influence, and he later became a familiar presence on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, as debate shows were replacing old-fashioned sports reporting.
I got it at the end and I could taste the exhaust pipes. Yeah. Of what this great institution used to be. Um what if we argued instead of reported? Yeah. Really it it got to the point of being I would say um It got to be such big box office that the question became Who is left to make it deeply uncomfortable using journalism for the people in power?
So now we get to the crux of the matter. Because there's plenty of entertainment around. I can go all over the place and get podcasts about the NBA. But you did something extraordinary this year. You won a Pulitzer Prize in audio for rigorous journalism, sports journalism.
How did Torre’s investigation expose a secret salary‑cap circumvention involving the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard?
And you know, for listeners should know that I'm on the Pulitzer board. I I'm I'm raising my hand and being transparent about that. But I just an amazing piece of work. Tell me about the story and take us through it. What happened and what you found out?
Yeah, so I did not launch my show to investigate a guy with $145 billion.
We're talking about Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft uh executive and innovator who now owns a professional basketball team.
The Los Angeles Clippers. Uh so I got a tip at some point that said, Hey, there's a team sponsor with a very on the nose sort of brand name called Aspiration. And they are a big sponsor of the Clippers. You should look into them.
What does Aspiration do?
Aspiration is a carbon credits company, which means that they plant trees to help zero out the footprint of your company. And they were started by these two. Democratic power players, Joe Sandberg and Andre Cherny. This is one of these good guy companies with a good guy name. And when I was told, yeah, check this out, I didn't really know what to do with it. Because I was like, okay, they have a $300 million 23-year deal with the Clippers to be their sponsor. And I was like, okay, this seems, I don't know, kind of banal. But then what happens as I go through my life is I see that this company eventually files for bankruptcy. And in the bankruptcy filing, which I go and I'm the type of guy who As the show indicates, wants to find out stuff.
I love documents. I went and pulled the bankruptcy filing for aspiration and saw a list of creditors. And on the list of creditors, there is Meta, there's the Red Sox, there are the Clippers. And also there's this LLC called KL2 Aspire LLC. And I'm a basketball fan, and all you need to know about basketball in this case is that the star player of Los Angeles Clippers is this guy. This enigmatic character named Kawhi Leonard, and his jersey number is you will be shocked to hear two. So KL2 Aspire LLC led me to this question of: Okay, so why is this LLC if it is in fact Kawhi Leonard's LLC? Owed seven million dollars outstanding by this now defunct carbon credits company.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Pablo Torre’s background and why did he win the 2026 Pulitzer for audio reporting?
0:01–2:23
2
How did Torre’s investigation expose a secret salary‑cap circumvention involving the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard?
2:23–5:02
3
What documents and whistle‑blower evidence did Torre uncover to prove the scheme?
5:02–7:21
4
How did the NBA and the Clippers respond to the allegations?
7:21–10:25
5
Why do fans care about hidden deals and what was the public reaction to the story?
10:25–12:57
6
What does the case reveal about the growing influence of private‑equity and billionaire owners in sports?
12:57–15:16
7
How is the value of sports franchises reshaping media rights and the future of sports coverage?
15:16–17:42
8
What challenges and opportunities does investigative sports journalism face moving forward?
17:42–19:56