How Billionaires Call the Shots in the NBA (and America), with TrueHoop's Henry Abbott
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out, presented by eBay Live. I am Pablo Torre, and today you're going to find out what this sound is. I think transparency is critically important in the league. We try never to be a no-comment league to answer people's questions, to explain as best we can, you know, why we do what we do. Right after this ad.
I do want to clarify that you have no idea what I wanted to ask you about.
What is the significance of transparency in the NBA?
Facts. Henry Abbott, thank you for doing this. It's good to see you, man. Great to see you. How's everything going? You know, it's a lot. Part of the reason why I brought you here is because of what we did on this show, live, in front of a live stream, no net audience, which I consider one of the most important developments in the entire story of the Clippers and Aspiration and Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard and Uncle Dennis and Dennis Wong and this whole cast of characters. Because I was invited to host a panel of some sort at Sloan, the Sports Analytics Conference. It's a 20th anniversary, and we presented documents and new reporting that no one had ever heard of before or seen. And one of them was a whistleblower complaint.
And in that whistleblower complaint, which was filed by not one but two registered whistleblowers with the federal government, They told the SEC in writing, under penalty of perjury, that Aspiration and Steve Ballmer's Clippers were engaged in a capture convention scheme for Kawhi Leonard. It says it in the document that Amin El-Hassan read. Of the $20 million that Aspiration drew from the escrow account, Most was used to pay for carbon credits to satisfy other agreements, either for past agreements with the Clippers or to satisfy agreements with other customers, and to pay for Aspiration's operating costs, and even to pay Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard an incentivized bonus to circumvent the NBA salary cap, disguised as an organic marketing sponsorship agreement.
That's a smoking gun, ladies and gentlemen. That's emphasis added. And that document, crucially, was filed with the SEC in March of 2023, like over two years before I even started this whole investigation on this show. And so I don't even know what a smoking gun is by the NBA standards. I just know that this is proof that credible proof that provided a roadmap for the federal government to prosecute the co-founder of Aspiration, Joe Sandberg, and convict him. of wire fraud in federal court. The question I want to start with, though, to introduce you and to give a sense of why I wanted to talk to you today after the reporting we did on Friday on this show, when did you first meet Adam Silver? Do you remember?
Oh, I do remember. I do remember. I don't know the date. I'm terrible with dates. But, you know, I was newish covering the NBA. I think I was running True Hoop. So that started 2005, but maybe not yet at ESPN. So it was probably like 2006, 2007. And I knew who he was, obviously. He was the deputy commissioner, and he was very tall, looked a little bit like me. I wasn't going to say that that's why we brought you on, but it does help. If you're trying to imagine Adam, just look at Henry and kind of squint a bit. Yeah, he's taller than me. And, well, anyway, let's not get sidetracked on how we look different. But there was some, there's always another NBA media event, right? And I would go to all the league-wide things.
And there was something, I don't remember what it was, that we were in one location in Manhattan, like a group of media and NBA officials. And then we walked down the street to another location for the next part of the deal. I'm sure it was some dumb NBA store thing or board of governors meeting or something. And on the walk, he walked over to me and he kind of like tapped me on the shoulder. And, you know, he smiled and he was like, hey, I just want to say thank you for covering our league. And I'm like, boy, has that vibe changed. I don't think NBA commissioner Adam Silver would ever walk with Henry Abbott, founder of True Hoop, to a second location now. I think that era is probably long over.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:31
2
What is the significance of transparency in the NBA?
0:31–5:21
3
How did the whistleblower complaint impact the Clippers investigation?
5:21–7:22
4
What evidence suggests a cheating scandal in the NBA?
7:22–14:07
5
How do billionaires influence the NBA's governance?
14:07–30:41
6
What is the relationship between Adam Silver and NBA owners?
30:41–40:22
7
How does the media handle NBA scandals?
40:22–49:39
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