Pablo Torre says Steve Ballmer threatened lawsuit over Clippers reporting

Pablo Torre says word circulated around the NBA for a year that Steve Ballmer planned to sue him over his reporting on the Clippers.

The lawsuit never materialized. Torre, meanwhile, has plenty to say about the experience.

Speaking with Maury Povich at the University of Maryland, Torre described hearing about the potential legal action through others.

“One of the things I was told is that he was telling via his various representatives that he was gonna sue me,” Torre said, via Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing. “For a year, this was being communicated all around the NBA.”

Torre’s investigation focused on the Clippers, Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration, examining salary-cap circumvention. The NBA subsequently imposed penalties that included a one-year suspension for Ballmer.

Torre’s account concerns what he heard about Ballmer’s intentions. He did not describe a direct exchange with the Clippers owner or a lawsuit being filed against him.

But the reporting, and the reaction to it, clearly shaped his view of some of the people involved.

“One of the core tenets of what my show has found out is that intense wealth does not equate to intense competence,” Torre told Povich in the interview.

“I simply mean that there is a confusion between how rich someone is and how good they are at telling the truth or even pulling off a scheme in which the truth is meant to be obscured.”

Torre added that his encounters with billionaires had revealed “an underrated comedy in the lives of the richest people in the world.”

Povich asked what he meant. “Sometimes they can be idiots.”

The threatened lawsuit remained something Torre heard about. His response is now very much on the record.

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