Pablo Torre's Redemption Should Be an Important Lesson for Fans and Sports Media

The NBA's investigation into the LA Clippers' dealings with Kawhi Leonard is finally over. It wasn't the outcome the organization or the fanbase wanted. Looking at the findings of the investigation, however, it's difficult to blame the league for bringing down the hammer on the Clippers.

What the future holds for Steve Ballmer, Lawrence Frank, and the Clippers organization remains to be seen, but there will surely be a period of uncertainty and darkness. A lot of difficult questions need to be asked, and many tough decisions have to be made to get out of this mess.

But the Clippers leadership isn't the only ones who have to learn an important lesson from this saga. Most of the sports media failed miserably during this one-year investigation, and a lot of sports fans directed their frustration at the wrong people. It's time everyone takes a long, hard look in the mirror.

It's Time We Start Taking Corruption By Billionaire Team Owners More Seriously

Even though Pablo Torre was releasing important, damning information regularly, winning a Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award in the process, not many of his colleagues took him seriously. His reporting didn't get the coverage it deserved in mainstream media. It was a common talking point to say, "this is boring" or "this doesn't matter", as well as blaming Torre for "clout chasing."

There were very few national media members giving this story the attention it deserved. Despite the fact that a billionaire owner violating the league rules to gain a competitive advantage should have been a massive story, most people had the attitude of "everyone does it, who cares?" If journalists aren't going to care about textbook corruption like this one, then who will?

ESPN deserves a lot of this blame. A couple of weeks ago, they released a report saying that the league found no direct evidence of funneling funds from Steve Ballmer to Kawhi Leonard. This was clearly leaked by the Clippers organization to win the public relations war.

In reality, direct funneling of funds was just a small part of the story. Instead of digging deeper into the story, ESPN published a story fed to it by the billion-dollar corporation desperate to save face.

The idea that because corruption is commonplace, we should ignore it, is completely contradictory to the concept of journalism. If a media member thinks this way, they have no business being in the industry. An investigative journalist looking into a team or an owner doesn't mean that they are "out to get you".

This applies to sports fans as well. The Clippers fanbase regularly vilified Pablo Torre for his reporting. Instead, the anger should have been directed at Steve Ballmer and the people in positions of power.

The ruling class likes to act like rules don't apply to them. More often than not, this is the case. They can get away with a lot. And they have enough money, power, and influence to direct the public's attention away from them.

Clippers' leadership, including Ballmer, went in front of cameras many times throughout the year-long investigation and lied through their teeth. He pointed fingers at Torre, questioning his journalistic integrity. And a lot of the members of the media and fans fell for it.

Instead of standing behind an investigative reporter taking on a multi-billion-dollar company, they chose to stand behind a billionaire who was trying to do damage control for his reputation. Anyone who did this should be embarrassed and forced to reconsider their worldview.

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