Pablo Torre Provides Proof After Shams Charania Defends Kawhi Leonard’s Involvement in $28 Million Scandal

When Pablo Torre first revealed that the Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard were allegedly circumventing the salary cap, many were quick to dismiss those claims.

Even though ESPN was not directly addressing those claims, they did bring on owner Steve Ballmer to clarify his side of the story. Naturally, the billionaire ended up revealing that he was scammed by Aspiration, the company that allegedly helped funnel millions to Leonard.

Soon, others, such as Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban, came forward to challenge Torre’s claims, suggesting that Ballmer did nothing wrong on his part and that the player should be investigated.

Two weeks earlier, ESPN came out with a report revealing that the Clippers had been apparently cleared of any wrongdoing, only for the NBA to shut down those false claims.

Now, after the league came down hard on the franchise, punishing them severely, the network has seen allegations of collusion being thrown around. However, they have been at the forefront of calling out the Clippers for creating this mess. However, while doing so, Shams Charania said this:

The investigation, I do have to make it clear, did show that Kawhi Leonard did not have any knowledge of this salary cap circumvention that was going on. He had essentially given all of the power to his uncle, Dennis Robertson, for years now.

Charania said on Get Up

👀 https://t.co/lwzJJ9Tzwq pic.twitter.com/iSuFOADfVS

— Pablo Torre 👀 (@PabloTorre) September 3, 2026

Basically, ESPN’s leading insider was justifying why Kawhi Leonard only received a $700,000 fine. But then, clips of this went viral enough to draw Pablo Torre’s attention.

He replied to one of the clips with a picture of the two-time Finals MVP’s signature on one of those documents involving the $28 million Aspiration salary cap circumvention scandal.

LeBron James’ former teammate also felt Shams Charania was lying about Kawhi Leonard

It would have been better had Pablo Torre posted this response on the original Get Up post on X. Even fans added a community post to make sure the claim was treated as false. But that was what other news aggregators faced, not ESPN.

But it so happens that those pages have a bigger following and broader reach than Get Up’s own X page, which is why Shams Charania’s claim caught the attention of one former player.

Cap! Too much money not to know! Ain’t that much basketball in the world! lol.

Markieff Morris wrote on X

Having won a championship beside LeBron James, he has seen enough to know that the claim cannot be true. Any player will know what sort of deals are being made in his name.

Cap! Too much money not to know! Ain’t that much basketball in the world! lol https://t.co/to6BbcJvTY

— Keef Morris (@Keefmorris) September 3, 2026

The only time they do not is when they are being scammed. But this was Kawhi Leonard’s uncle and manager, which means the money was being discussed with the family.

ESPN did not carry Pablo Torre rebuking its initial story clearing the Clippers

While Pablo Torre has been out to prove how ESPN has been deliberate in trying to create different narratives around the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard, Dan Patrick asked the investigative journalist whether he received an apology from the network.

I was told after the story published, ‘Hey, if you want to have a comment here, because this is effectively refuting your whole deal here, we’ll include a statement from you.’ And so, I submitted a statement, and I’ll just paraphrase it. It was, “We stand by our reporting, and we look forward to the NBA’s ruling. Our investigation continues.” For whatever reason, ESPN did not include it.

Pablo Torre replied

This was because ESPN’s initial report clearing the Clippers was basically refuting Torre’s entire line of reporting. But what he reveals now is that he did give them a statement, only for them not to publish it.

Pablo Torre did publish the same statement on social media while everyone was vilifying him for trying to make something out of this scandal. Now, it is clear that the worldwide leader in sports has become the laughing stock, while the journalist is getting all the praise.

Also Read:

• Celtics Superfan Mark Wahlberg Wants LeBron James’ 76ers to Beat the Knicks
• LeBron James’ New 76ers Teammate Had Epic Reaction to the King’s Signing: “Really Thought It Was Fake at First”