Podcaster Pablo Torre has spoken to Variety after the NBA handed down its harshest-ever penalty against a franchise, ruling that the Los Angeles Clippers committed "multiple significant rules violations" over a scheme in which star player Kawhi Leonard received payments via a sham endorsement deal to circumvent the salary cap. The ruling vindicates a monthslong, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by Torre's podcast "Pablo Torre Finds Out", which had faced fierce public pushback from figures including Mark Cuban and was contradicted by his former employer ESPN in an August story claiming there was no evidence of wrongdoing.

The NBA's investigation, conducted by law firm Wachtell Lipton, found Leonard's uncle, Dennis Robertson, pressured the Clippers into arranging off-court income for Leonard, including a $28 million no-show deal with Aspiration, a company whose co-founder was later jailed for 14 years for defrauding investors, among them Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. Leonard accepted "full responsibility" for lapses by those in his inner circle, NBA commissioner Adam Silver condemned the "flagrant violations", and Ballmer hit back, calling the investigation "heavily biased" and vowing to pursue "every legal remedy". Torre told Variety he felt both vindicated and uneasy about journalism needing validation from those it investigates, while also teasing his next major sports investigation.