As the Los Angeles Clippers prepare to open the 2025-26 NBA season next week against the Utah Jazz, new details have emerged involving Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban and his public defense of Clippers owner Steve Ballmer during the team’s ongoing Kawhi Leonard salary-cap controversy.
On a recent episode of The Dan Le Batard Show, journalist and podcaster Pablo Torre discussed how Cuban’s relationship network may intersect with those at the center of the Clippers’ investigation. Torre pointed to Dennis Wong — Ballmer’s longtime business associate, college classmate, and Clippers co-owner — as a potential link between the two billionaire owners.
“I would like Mark to connect these dots for me, which is that something that he never told me,” Torre said. “I did not realize that Clippers co-owner Dennis Wong, who was Steve Ballmer's college classmate, his best friend has been described to me — the guy who put in money into Aspiration despite all these disclosures — having never put money in before in December of 2022. That guy, I didn’t realize, lives in Dallas now.”
Pablo Torre connects Steve Ballmer’s Dallas links amid Mark Cuban’s defense
Torre elaborated on how Wong’s ties extend into Dallas civic and business circles, including the Dallas Museum of Art and the George W. Bush Presidential Center. He also noted that Wong co-owns a Major League Pickleball team that competes against Cuban’s club, further connecting the two within professional sports circles.
“At the end what I end up asking him is whether he knows that Dennis Wong lives in Dallas and whether he knows that Dennis Wong is also heavily involved with all of those organizations,” Torre said. “He laughed. He laughed at all of it.”
Cuban, who sold his majority stake in the Mavericks in late 2023 but remains part of the team’s leadership, has repeatedly defended Ballmer amid the NBA’s ongoing investigation into potential salary cap circumvention involving Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers’ ties to the sustainability-focused company Aspiration.
In September, Cuban publicly pushed back against claims that Aspiration’s $50 million deal with Leonard was part of a cap workaround, arguing on social media that the timeline of payments and investments had been misinterpreted.
“Will you now admit that you and your sources who said it was common knowledge the $50 million was for cap circumvention were incorrect?” Cuban wrote. “A contract paid quarterly is always going to be close to any investment.”
Torre and Cuban debate Aspiration’s role in Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard investigation
Cuban also weighed in on how Aspiration handled its carbon credit operations, suggesting the company used upfront capital to fund tree-planting and other offset projects that could later generate verified credits.
Torre acknowledged that Cuban’s explanation was largely accurate from a financial perspective, though he pointed out that the firm’s wide profit margins on carbon credits could still tie back to Leonard’s compensation structure.
The two later continued their discussion on Torre’s podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out, where Cuban insisted his defense of Ballmer was not motivated by personal ties and reiterated that he believed the Clippers owner had done nothing wrong.
“I don't care if Steve Ballmer is guilty or not,” Cuban said. “It's better for the Mavericks if he is. But I think the way this was presented was wrong. Thank you for letting me say my piece.”
As the league’s investigation continues, Torre’s reporting highlights how the web of business and personal relationships surrounding Ballmer and his associates extends beyond Los Angeles — even reaching figures like Cuban, whose defense has only deepened intrigue around the Clippers’ ongoing Kawhi Leonard saga.
