The Sporting Class: All the President's Grizzly Men
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is.
I love your show. I love being on it, but don't overestimate. Right after this ad.
David is furiously, frantically...
Well, I'm trying to track down people because you screwed up on time, and I'm very structured. I know. And this was the window.
The window is shattered. We are holding space, as they say, for John Skipper. There's a microphone that is pointed at nothing because John is not here, despite saying he would be here. I'm not taking it personally. And now Nadir is wheeling the chair. That's a bad sign. I thought he was like in the elevator. Yeah, this is going to be a different kind of sporting class. But it is one that I am very excited to do with you, David, because we've done this story on the show this week in partnership with Hunter Brook Media and my friend Sam Koppelman that I've been truly curious. What does David Sampson think about this?
Well, let me just start with a part that you glossed over on the show that to me was spectacular because it resonated so well that someone mentioned, hey, Justin Timberlake owns the Grizzlies. And he was not too happy about that. That is a guaranteed true story. And I have like four things I want to talk about with that.
So the character, the main character of the story is Robert Pera, who's the owner of the Memphis Grizzlies. He is the founder and CEO of a company called Ubiquity. Ubiquity, and I'm going to TLDR this. Please watch the episode. It is detailed and deliberate and structured and reported. And it's the product of six months of investigative journalism with Hunter Brook doing so much good work that I just want to continue to shout them out. Is it by or with Hunter Brook? They did a six-month investigation, and then we added some fun stuff. Some cheese to melt on their broccoli is how I would put it, including what you just referred to, which is that— The LP story. Yeah, and— I like that. And the Tony Allen one-on-one stuff.
And so Robert Pera is the owner of the Grizzlies, and nobody knows who the f*** this guy is. An NBA owner told Hunter Brooke, you know— No one knows where their sales come from. Spoiler alert, it turns out a big chunk of them are coming from the war in Ukraine, specifically the Russian side, because through a process of essentially sanctioned circumvention, allegedly, they have been getting these very effective Wi-Fi routers and antenna. The dildo satellites. The dildo satellites is how we refer to them. It's a very good investigation. I mean, this is just the kind of rigor that we bring to the table. And that stuff has, according to both thank you notes from Russian soldiers, as well as in-depth undercover journalism that reveals a third-party organization
distributors are willing to ship these devices to the war front in Ukraine to be used by Russian soldiers, that this stuff is enabling a drone war, which has resulted in, like, legitimate crimes against humanity, as the United Nations has called them.
Did you not watch your episode thinking about Lord of War? Do you watch? So you did the episode. I don't rewatch my episodes generally, and I assume you don't have the time to rewatch once you've put them to bed and they're edited. But did you take a step back and say, wow, this is sort of Lord of War-like?
It feels cinematic in ways that are both quite, yeah, entertaining and also terrifying because modern warfare is drones. Modern warfare is reliant on technology that it turns out is most effectively produced and shipped online. originating from a place here in America with this company called Ubiquity. So anyway, that is the crimes against humanity side of the ledger. But the question of who is this guy who is now a top five richest owner in sports, David? $30 billion.
It's like you're going down the list. I think it's good to be a poor owner in the NBA because maybe you won't get to them.
Well... Unless you get a new contract. We are constantly, it turns out, refreshing, like, oh, Bloomberg's live list of the richest people on the planet.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:45
2
What does being Robert Pera's 'co-owner' of the Grizzlies mean?
4:45–6:19
3
Why is Robert Pera's ownership style controversial?
6:19–9:26
4
How does Ubiquity's business model impact the Grizzlies?
9:26–18:42
5
What are the implications of the Grizzlies' ownership structure?
18:42–50:22
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Pablo Torre Finds Out
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