After Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban revealed he passed on an ownership stake of the Portland Trail Blazers, he got into a heated back-and-forth with Pablo Torre amid the Kawhi Leonard and Los Angeles Clippers drama.
Cuban, who posted about the now-bankrupt company in question, Aspiration, on his X, formerly Twitter, got Torre's attention on Friday.
“Sanberg, a founder of Aspiration, in 2020, and then 2021, pre Clippers, borrows a total of $145m from a bank, using his Aspiration shares as collateral,” Cuban said. “The bank says that’s not enough. So he pays a guy $12.3m to go Madoff and falsify statements to make it look like he has 86m in stocks and $25m in cash, and uses that fake info to “guarantee” the Sanberg loan. By the time he gets an investment from Ballmer or Wong, he knows he is going to jail at some point.
“Then he puts the guy he paid the 12.3m to, on the Aspiration Board of Directors , and they get the CEO, who had a background of as a prosecutor of financial crimes, to leave in 2022, right as Sanberg defaulted on his fraudulently acquired loan EVERYTHING that happens with the clippers is from 2 guys who knew they were f***** and would do anything to stay out of jail,” Cuban said.
Pablo Torre questions Mavericks' Mark Cuban's motive
After Mavericks' Mark Cuban warned Clippers' Steve Ballmer about Uncle Dennis' involvement with Aspirations, he's been giving Ballmer the benefit of the doubt amid the NBA's investigation into Kawhi Leonard's reported endorsement deal. Investigative reporter Pablo Torre, who had Cuban on his Pablo Finds Out podcast, says he invited Mark back onto his show, where he could have shared the newfound information that was revealed to the public.
Then, Cuban replied, “So I have responsibility to your show ? I emailed you what I thought. And you had all this info available to you already. There isn’t anything new. Took me five minutes to find. Same to post. A lot less time than doing your show again,” to which Torre said, “You had all this info available to you already” and “There isn’t anything new” is just false.
“And not what you emailed me. You have no responsibility to me. Just thought you enjoyed respectful, fact-based dialogue. Standing offer if you find the courage.”
Still, for Torre, none of this explains why Aspiration would pay Clippers' Kawhi Leonard such a large amount for doing essentially nothing in terms of endorsing the company, he replied.
“Mark… The Clippers gained *Kawhi Leonard* — in exactly the way that Kawhi and his reps pitched Toronto in 2019 [no-show job + equity]. The Clippers *also* gained a $300 million sponsorship deal that is all over “public articles.” Here’s a question: Why are you doing this?
Cuban, describing his own findings as a cross-word puzzle, replied “because it's fun.”
