Add The California Post on Google The Los Angeles Clippers have entered its lowest point in franchise history.
The NBA’s year-long investigation resulted in confirmation that the team violated the league’s salary cap circumvention rules, which resulted in the loss of five first-round picks and being fined $30 million.
Pablo Torre, the podcaster and journalist who began investigating the scandal in 2025, believes Clippers owner Steve Ballmer won’t walk away quietly.
“What can Steve Ballmer do? He can literally sue the NBA,” Torre said.
“When the NBA tried to settle with Steve Ballmer, and they said, ‘Hey we have a narrow scope, we have undeniable evidence, we want to just make sure that you have the opportunity to take your punishment, admit wrongdoing, and let us all move on.’ Steve Ballmer — according to everything that we’ve seen now play out in public after that ESPN story two weeks ago — decided to fight,” Torre said on the Dan Patrick Show.
“And the NBA said, well in that case, we’re going to do something that perhaps caught Steve Ballmer by surprise. They found a way to settle with Kawhi Leonard and the Players’ Union…They got Kawhi to settle.”
In the NBA, arbitration can only be activated by the Players’ Union, according to Torre. Because of the league’s settlement with Leonard, arbitration isn’t an option for Ballmer.
Ballmer, who was suspended for one year from all league and team activities, is reportedly angry over the results of the investigation, which falls in line with the team’s statement rejecting the NBA’s findings.
“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. What the league told us privately differs from what it announced today publicly, and they have not held themselves close to the standard Commissioner Silver set at the start of this investigation to ensure it’s fairness and accuracy,” the statement read.
“For the past year, we cooperated fully and in good faith and we 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.”
