In response to Pablo Torre's latest update on Kawhi Leonard's shady dealings with Aspirations, Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban sprang to Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer's defense on social media. Amid the NBA's investigation into Leonard, Cuban defended Ballmer's alleged non-involvement in Kawhi's deal with Aspiration.

The reported no-show endorsement deal has led to a back-and-forth between Cuban and Torre, which was followed by the Mavericks owner's vague explanation as to how Aspiration raised funds through carbon credits as a means to pay Leonard instead of using Ballmer's investment, Cuban explained, on his X, formerly Twitter.

“Will you now admit that you and your sources who said it was common knowledge the $50m was for cap circumvention were incorrect ? And the Wong 2m and 10m weren’t directed to KL ? And You focus too much on the dates,” Cuban said. “A contract paid quarterly is always going to be close to any investment.”

Then, Cuban explained Aspiration's approach in the best way he could.

“I’m not an expert here but generally, When you buy carbon credits, the way aspiration was selling them, it wasn’t like buying a physical product, unless they had purchased already verified credits. Which are really expensive,” Cuban added. “They are supposed to plant the tree or whatever kind they bought , and you get the credits at a certain point after they are verified. So putting up the cash would allow aspiration to spend the money to start the CC process.

“BUT you have to confirm what they truly cost to figure out how much cash they had to put up front and what, if any, profits or losses they had on them.”

Pablo Torre responds to Mark Cuban's Steve Ballmer defense

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Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) talks with team owner Steve Ballmer during media day at Intuit Dome
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

After Pablo Torre outlined Steve Ballmer's involvement with Aspiration, the tree-planting company that signed Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard to an endorsement deal, Mark Cuban continued to defend Ballmer. Fans questioned why. However, it didn't prevent Cuban from doing so, which came in response to Torre's Pablo Finds Out segment.

“What Mark Cuban is saying there does actually make a ton of sense, I must admit, because Aspiration, for those not familiar, was functioning as a broker for carbon credits,” Torre said. “According to my sources, they were charging a dollar a tree — that's five to ten times what it cost to plant a tree — the 10 to 20 cents — reportedly. That is the margin that Mark is referring to in his tweet. Just get more carbon credits. All that margin is what you'll use to pay Kawhi Leonard.”

An update to this story will most likely come soon.