Pablo Torre asks why ESPN trusted Clippers over the reporter investigating them

Pablo Torre has a question for his former employer. Actually, it’s the question.

“How did you guys not smell this earlier when I have been doing this for a year?” Torre said during an appearance on Breaking Points.

Torre was referring to ESPN’s August report⁠ that the NBA had found no evidence Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through team sponsors to Kawhi Leonard. The league immediately disputed that characterization, calling the story significantly inaccurate.

Two weeks later, the NBA stripped the Clippers of five first-round picks, fined the organization $30 million and suspended Ballmer for one year. Not exactly a clean bill of health.

Torre previously said he believed the Clippers fed ESPN a misleading account⁠ of the investigation. His criticism now goes one step further: Why did ESPN seemingly place greater trust in the people being investigated than in the journalist whose reporting helped trigger the investigation?

That doesn’t mean every word of ESPN’s report was false. Its narrow claim about Ballmer personally funneling money wasn’t necessarily disproven. ESPN investigative reporter Don Van Natta Jr. has defended the work⁠, saying it accurately described the investigation’s direction at that time.

But journalism isn’t merely stenography with a prestigious logo attached. Sources have motives. Powerful organizations leak stories for reasons. Skepticism is supposed to be part of the job.

ESPN trusted its sourcing. Torre trusted his reporting. The Clippers’ missing draft picks suggest which approach aged better.