"Circular reporting" - Mark Cuban doubles down, challenges sources about claims of Steve Ballmer's illegal payments to Aspiration

Although he's no longer a majority owner in the NBA, Mark Cuban finds himself swept up in the league's biggest ongoing scandal. In a recent social media post, he called out the reporting and sourcing of information regarding Kawhi Leonard and the LA Clippers.

Over the past few weeks, there has been news of the Clippers' potentially attempting to circumvent the salary cap and get more money to Leonard. He's been receiving payments from a company funded by Steve Ballmer in what has been dubbed a "no-show" deal.

On paper, Leonard has a marketing contract with the tree-planting company Aspiration. However, despite being paid upwards of $28 million, the Clippers star has done no actual promotion.

Early on in this saga, Mark Cuban joined Pablo Torre on his podcast to discuss his reporting. He brought up other ways the Clippers could be funneling money to Leonard through the company, which eventually led to new findings. This resulted in Cuban calling out Torre's sources in an elongated post on X Thursday.

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"Glad I could help," Cuban wrote. "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 your source, when asked why they didn’t uncover the fraud , said they took it to upper mgmt - who happens to be the sr people who signed your letter. See the circular reporting you are doing there ?"

Since Torre's initial reporting, the NBA has announced that it will launch an investigation into the Clippers' dealings with Aspiration and Leonard.

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Mark Cuban continues to defend Steve Ballmer amid Kawhi Leonard saga

Since the initial reports hit the public, many have been quick to condemn Balmmer for shady dealings to get Kawhi Leonard to LA. However, Mark Cuban has been one of his biggest supporters through the early stages of this ordeal.

Cuban has stood firm on his belief that Ballmer didn't willingly go out of his way to circumvent the NBA's salary cap and secure Leonard more money. Instead, he feels he was duped by the people running Aspiration in what he believes is a scam.

Days removed from his sit-down with Torre, the longtime Dallas Mavericks owner continues to preach Ballmer's innocence on social media.

Now that the investigation has begun, time will soon tell just how involved Ballmer was and if he committed any wrongdoing.

Edited by Kevin McCormick