Thepublished a long look at the Kawhi Leonard-Clippers-Aspiration story on Sunday. It was mostly a recap of the alleged cap circumvention story on the eve of the NBA season, but it did contain one nugget which the NBA and everyone paying attention should find interesting buried more than half-way into the story.
In a portion of the article with the subhead "Unusual deal," bylined writers Robert O'Connell and Harriet Ryan reveal what could be an important new detail about the story. Via:
As noted by Torre, who was not mentioned until the final paragraphs of the article despite the fact that his reporting both uncovered and has driven this story since early September, this "directly contradicts what Steve Ballmer told ESPN."
When this story originally broke in early September, Ballmer appeared on for an interview with Ramona Shelburne. During that interview he claimed that the Clippers did separate deals with Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration and then Aspiration asked the Clippers to make the introduction. Ballmer told Shelburne that there were texts previously shared with the Department of Justice showing this. You can watch that here:
If the has confirmed that Ballmer and the Clippers were the ones to approach Aspiration about the deal as Torre says he has "been circling," that's pretty big. People like Mark Cuban haven't been impressed by Torre's sources thus far, so maybe this strand will change that.
Stay tuned.