Vince Staples delivered a hilarious breakdown of Kawhi Leonard’s tree-planting saga, and Pablo Torre, the reporter who put the situation on the map, backed him up immediately. Staples spoke on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast about helping the Clippers recruit Leonard, revealing that he voiced a character in an animated pitch the front office hoped would help land the superstar.
“They was doing the most, man,” Staples said while describing how aggressive the team looked during that chase. He added that the approach made sense considering how badly they wanted him.
Then the conversation shifted to Torre’s reporting, and Staples took the situation straight into comedy. He joked about Leonard’s deal with a tree-focused company that Torre said received Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s money. Torre previously reported that the contract tied to the group totaled $28 million.
“Nobody wants to take the case, man,” Staples said. “They should have planted them trees, bro. Everything would have been different.”
I've been waiting for @vincestaples to weigh in on the Aspiration/Ballmer/Kawhi investigation and he is, in fact, not wrong https://t.co/UGHBRM9TZL
— Pablo Torre 👀 (@PabloTorre) November 14, 2025
He kept the bit going with a Home Depot line. “Twenty dollars a piece, fifty dollars a piece. Put them trees in the ground, and everything would’ve went away.”
Torre reposted the clip later and gave Staples a nod. “I’ve been waiting for him to weigh in on the Aspiration, Ballmer, Kawhi investigation and he is, in fact, not wrong,” Torre wrote on X.
Torre breaks down the Aspiration timeline
During a September episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, Torre walked his audience through his findings about Leonard’s involvement with Aspiration, which he described as a “tree brokerage” company. The business filed for bankruptcy in March, listing Leonard’s LLC, KL2 Aspire, as a creditor for $7 million.
Torre added that Leonard never publicly endorsed the company even though several celebrities, including Drake and Robert Downey Jr, appeared in partnerships with it. He also said the agreement began in 2022 and tied to Leonard’s presence with the Clippers. Torre said employees told him the arrangement aimed “to circumvent the salary cap.”
The Clippers released a statement that denied the accusations.
