OPINION:
It’s been quite a couple of days in the diminishing world of sports journalism.
First, there was the vindication Wednesday of investigative reporter Pablo Torre’s podcast probe into the Los Angeles Clippers running a salary cap scam to pay seven-time All-Star Kawhi Leonard. The NBA investigation into the report found the franchise had indeed violated league payroll rules — a podcast that helped land Torre a Pulitzer Prize.
The next day, The Athletic sheepishly released the findings of its six-month so-called investigation into former Athletic NFL insider Dianna Russini and New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel.
Torre, a former ESPN reporter, began reporting a year ago on his podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” on the Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer’s attempt to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap to keep the high-priced Leonard on the payroll. Leonard signed a four-year $176 million contract extension in August 2021, followed by another three-year deal for $152 million in January 2024.
Leonard, 35, has been traded to the Toronto Raptors, but the deal was put on hold because of the investigation. It has yet to be announced as finalized.
The Sopranos-style scam involved a no-show job in which Leonard signed a $28 million endorsement contract allegedly engineered by the Clippers and did no actual work for the money. The company, Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC, filed for bankruptcy last year, and one of its founders, Joseph Sanberg, was sentenced in June to 14 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors and lenders of at least $248 million.
Commissioner Adam Silver crushed the Clippers for their role in this con, suspending Ballmer, one of the richest men in the world, for a year and fining the team $30 million. There were other front office suspensions and a five-year ban of Leonard’s adviser, Dennis “Uncle Dennis” Robertson. Leonard was fined only $700,000 with no ban accompanying it — a slap on the wrist likely aimed at avoiding a fight with the NBA players union.
The most devastating hammer, though, was the franchise lost five future first-round draft picks from 2029 to 2033.
It may be the harshest penalty for a sports team since Major League Baseball named Jim Bowden as the general manager of the new Washington Nationals after the Expos moved from Montreal in 2004.
The Clippers, dating back to their early days as the Buffalo Braves (whose teams of Bob McAdoo and Ernie DeGregorio were actually competitive and fun to watch), have only had 21 winning seasons over 57 years — a record of 1,935 wins and 2,589 losses, a .428 winning percentage.
They have turned things around with 15 straight winning seasons, but have zero NBA titles or conference championships, and just three division titles. They have been the league’s poster child for futility, although the Wizards have challenged them for that crown.
Silver, who shortly after taking over as commissioner in 2014 banned then-Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life after evidence was discovered of the owner’s racist remarks, said he was “deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations of our rules and by the Clippers’ institutional and leadership failures that led to this misconduct. The severity of the penalties reflects the seriousness of the violations.”
The Clippers denied the charges.
“We vehemently reject the NBA’s findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence,” the team said in a statement. “What the league told us privately differs from what it announced today publicly, and they have not held themselves close to the standard Commissioner (Adam) Silver set at the start of this investigation to ensure its fairness and accuracy.”
The Clippers said they will “now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence. We intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward to an ethical and impartial arbitration process.”
It’s not clear how they will fight it. The wind went out of their sails when Leonard, who was probably elated at how he skated when the punishments were being handed out, jumped at the chance to cop to the whole affair.
“I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle and regret the distraction this situation has caused the fans and my family,” Leonard said in a statement.
Then on Thursday, The Athletic reported that their former NFL insider Dianna Russini, who resigned in April, was “noncompliant” in her relationship with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel when it came to their standards.
The story made note of the “lengthy inquiry” The Athletic conducted, though their probe “did not determine the full extent of the Russini-Vrabel relationship and “also found scant evidence that it impacted Russini’s or The Athletic’s reporting on Vrabel and his teams” — which really isn’t the point.
I’m not sure what they accomplished here. This so-called investigation could have been concluded days after the photos surfaced of Russini and Vrabel embracing and holding hands at a luxury resort. Russini resigned shortly after.
The Athletic had to admit as much in their investigation. “The totality of the public photographs are enough to conclude a violation of company policy,” the report said.
Yet Athletic executive editor Steven Ginsburg, a former Washington Post editor, initially gave this dismissive response to the New York Post photos, claiming they were “misleading and lack essential context.”
Here we are now, six months later, and it turns out The Athletic had all the “essential context” they needed a long time ago. So did the NBA, thanks to Torre.
• You can hear Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
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