Mark Cuban spent much of the past year arguing Pablo Torre had gotten the Kawhi Leonard story wrong.
Two words were enough to signal how much had changed Wednesday.
“Congrats Pablo,” Cuban wrote after the NBA handed the Clippers one of the harshest punishments in league history, seemingly conceding a very public debate with the journalist whose reporting helped launch the investigation.
The reaction carried extra weight because Cuban had been among Torre’s loudest skeptics since the first bombshell report surfaced in September 2025.
Torre and his “Pablo Torre Finds Out” team reported that Leonard received a $28 million endorsement agreement from Aspiration, a company backed by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, despite apparently performing little visible work for it.
Cuban quickly came to Ballmer’s defense.
“I’m on Team Ballmer,” the former Mavericks majority owner wrote at the time, arguing Ballmer “isn’t that dumb” and had been victimized by Aspiration’s fraud rather than knowingly participating in salary cap circumvention.
The disagreement eventually spilled onto Torre’s podcast and social media. Cuban later lashed out at Torre’s presentation of their debate, accusing him of relying too heavily on information from scammers and insisting he remained “Team Ballmer.”
Torre kept digging.
His reporting subsequently uncovered a $21 million Clippers-Aspiration paper trail and later raised questions about another Leonard endorsement involving Intuit Dome scoreboard provider Daktronics.
The work eventually earned the staff of “Pablo Torre Finds Out” the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting.
Then came Wednesday’s vindication.
The NBA stripped the Clippers of five first-round picks and fined the franchise $30 million after determining Los Angeles violated its circumvention rules. Ballmer received a one-year suspension, while Lawrence Frank and Gillian Zucker were also suspended. Leonard must pay $700,000 in restitution.
Torre responded with only a hamburger emoji — an inside joke that functions as a universal catchphrase, filler word, and a substitute for profanity.
Others were less restrained.
Former NFL lineman and ESPN analyst Damien Woody wrote, “Well well well…@PabloTorre.” Journalist Sam Stein offered, “Score one for @PabloTorre,” while football analyst Brett Kollmann predicted Torre’s next podcast episode “is going to be incredible.”
Ben Axelrod of Front Office Sports perhaps summarized the reaction most directly.
“I think Pablo Torre is owed some apologies.”
Cuban didn’t quite offer one.
But after a year of telling Torre he was wrong, “Congrats Pablo” came pretty close.
