Uncle Dennis, Ballmer's $50 Million Sprint and the Side Deal That Wouldn't Die: Kawhi-Gate, Part VIII

Welcome to Pablo Tore finds out I am Pablo Tore and today we're going to find out what this sound is Find it hard to believe that he would want to go to that show where he would not even be When he can get his name in the paper and he wouldn't be the face of the franchise after true right after the sad What if you could feel more confident finally go after that promotion and feel great about inspiring other women It all starts by recognizing your worth and talking about your wins with confidence That's why Galaxy Chocolate has created the Unhumble project in partnership with the charity young women's trust To bring you free confidence training get the pleasure you deserve from the incredible things you do Take the training today search Galaxy Chocolate the Unhumble project Construction shapes our communities. It's why the industry's most innovative companies trust ProCore is the leading technology partner for every stage of construction We know that anything is possible when we build together learn more at ProCore.com David has his glasses atop a thick folder, which I do not want you to touch this is a Mean we have so much to get to I just want to jump into it. What is happening this weekend explain for the people what is going on finally? We are descending upon the into it dome in Los Angeles. Excuse me. Inglewood, California The home of the Los Angeles Clippers for all star weekend. I'll be there Inglewood and Miami Gardens. It's LA and it's Miami crazy because England was closer to LAX than We didn't come here to talk about the geographic distinctions between suburbs of what why are you taking out your glasses right now? I want to tell you what happened to me is I had to go to 2.0 and I was asked by the doctor Are you reading more like is anything going on that is poison your eyes to disintegrate and I said I do this thing with Pablo Where he has been reading documents on the spot and I have to be clear? He's like 2.0 so these are brand new part eight of the series has required Yet even more medically necessary bifocals for David Samson. I mean, I'll have some the party that you're going to Okay, I've been waiting for this party for like a year now. Yeah, and I'm not exaggerating I started reporting the story of aspiration in February 2025 a year ago this month It's the party that first off Adam Silver I am told never seriously considered relocating even though it turns everyone's focus to the host To the emcee of this event Steve Balmer the richest owner in sports who will personally welcome everybody in To his gleaming arena because an all-star game David as someone who's hosted an all-star game before is also what? It is an opportunity to showcase to the world your ballpark your operation And it is a great vanity play the NBA their teams that don't necessarily fight over it all the time and MLB Everyone wants to host it right and you have to answer a huge bid document that's hundreds of pages long And it is really your chance that in the playoffs are the two opportunities for you to shine as an organization And the TV show the clippers have been this season has been amazing Pablo we talked about this on basketball luminawe we had law Murray on who covers the clippers for the athletic We said you've already gone through four seasons season one the aspiration stuff season two Chris Paul is all your fault season three the team is awful season four the team is a lot better now and now season five James Harder got traded to Cleveland. Oh, and also Kauai Leonard has been playing like an MVP We got left off the all-star roster by the coaches in part I am told because of our gorgeous season one was the aspiration scandal I've been told this by head coached in the NBA also ESPN's brand winters basically went on TV and set as much And then the commissioner Adam Silver personally added Kauai Leonard to the roster in keeping with league rules But just again for the for the show It's just kind of perfect that Kauai is going to be there After all Adam Silver is going to be there Steve bombers going to be there. There's an a funny part to this where everyone's like oh Adam Silver's looking out for Kauai Leonard by putting him on this team Isn't there another side of that corner? Oh no now I got to go answer questions. I got to do the media day thing I got to be asked questions about aspiration and what people will ask about what anyone will say about aspiration during this Momentous all-star weekend is in part why we're here and why David's eyes are degrading because the focus should be Steve bomber and Kauai Leonard now That's the gift that we have been given we've been given the gift of re-examining the $150 billion man who has according to our reporting made a mockery of the cardinal league rules that cap how much NBA owners can spend to win as well as you know The superstar received not only a secret 48 million dollar no show endorsement deal But also we're just going to jump into this right now. I am told even more. Okay, so bomber I mean did not merely green light the side deal with aspiration in 2021 According to multiple former clippers employees. I've talked to in the last few months At one point a completely exasperated Michael Winger Who was the clipper general manager and collective bargaining rules expert from 2017 to 2023 Settle out in the office upon discovering yet another hidden arrangement with Kauai and his uncle Dennis This quote I mean, which is the first piece of paper in your folder Oh, this one is a big font. This should have been read read by you Without class. Yeah, you know that is big all right quote How many f***ing side deals have we made with Kauai? That is a large font. That's huge I asked Michael Winger who is now the president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards He said a busy trade deadline himself If you wanted to comment on this quote on the scene. I'm describing and he politely declined And as you guys know we continue to get ghosted in general on all our requests for comment Uncle Dennis Robertson and to quise actual registered agent Mitch Frankel Don't you have to have responded once to then ghost if they've never spoken to you at all. It's still ghosting That's ghosting But the Michael Winger side deal quote. I mean reminds me of Michael Winger's boss and Steve Lommer's right hand man Clippers president of basketball Laurence Frank This was September clippers media day and what Ramona Shelbert from ESPN who later had the microphone taken from her by Clippers PR Dare to ask was this Has Dennis Robertson Kauai's uncle ever asked for any extra benefits that wouldn't be allowable under the NBA seller cap Directly to you. There's been a lot coming out about his asks Yeah, look Dennis knows the rules Kauai knows the rules Mitch Frankel knows the rules and we know the rules Yes Yes, we all know the rules Classic can I ask you a question would you have been better off saying no comment or next question? I can address it Because sounds like a prize fool there. That's that's terrible. Yeah, that's that's him basically saying yes But we didn't hear was no right so by the powers of deduction You might think the answer is yes Don't say that because when you Plead the fifth amendment that does not mean you're guilty. He didn't plead the fifth amendment He answered a different question that wasn't asked but that's what you're taught in PR 101 right if you don't want to answer the question Ask you never have to is it not something else but is it not better to just say no comment or next question rather than to do the do the playful Oh, I'll ask a answer question. Well, what he did was absurd the way to answer that question is much easier say I can't speak to anything other than the last angelist clippers were never engaged in any activity That is outside the rules and if that's not true Then you say there is no way I can address this. It's a pending investigation around going But if Lawrence Frank was saying anything right he's basically saying look Uncle Dennis may have been asking for some wild sh** But we know the rules and he knows the rules and we as the people asserting our knowledge of the rules would never participate in rule breaking or I know the rules and I know how to skirt the rules To me saying I know the rules Says nothing about your desire to adhere to the rules It does bring me though to something else. I have not really mentioned on the show yet Which is that Steve bomber didn't just face an MBA investigation that find him For offering a side deal with the team sponsor Lexus in this case that deandre jordan 2015 bomber at the time his quote was any circumvention was inadvertent And bomber also isn't just facing this current MBA investigation We've been talking about into the nearly 50 million dollar side deal that another team sponsor aspiration of course had with kawaii Maybe more worryingly and far less controlably Steve bomber is also dealing with the thing at the top of the folders in front of both of you Because what you're going to find here is a civil lawsuit filed by 11 aspiration investors Which got amended to name Steve bomber as a defendant alongside aspiration co-founder Joe Sandberg who already has played guilty to two counts of wire fraud last fall And gentlemen What do these 11 investors alleged about bomber supportive aspiration which has since been rebranded incidentally as Sandberg and bomber Worked together to make aspiration appear to be a successful company backed by bomber Who is one of the wealthiest people in the world worth over 150 billion dollars with bombers knowledge support and assistance Sandberg and bomber promoted aspiration to lend legitimacy to aspirations operations and bomber publicly endorsed aspiration This enticed investors like plaintiffs to entrust in and keep their capital in aspiration and helped hide the rampant Fraud occurring at the company It also served bomber's interest in getting extra money to Leonard So he could circumvent the salary cap beat out the competition and resign his team's superstar player plaintiffs would not have invested and slash or kept their investment in aspiration If bomber and sandberg had disclosed the true nature of bomber's investment bomber thus supported and participated in sandberg's fraud. I should be clear That I am not sure if this lawsuit which escalates bomber's role in this story to allegedly Aiding and abetting fraud is gonna be successful Right, I didn't write the complaint and my sources as you guys know at aspiration and the clippers now That focused on bomber allegedly and knowingly breaking the rules of the NBA And not federal law But the reason I'm bringing up all of this here is because While bomber will presumably David say nothing about any of this at all star weekend He did something fascinating Just last month Because in an attempt to have this whole lawsuit dismissed And thereby preempt discovery which would be Christmas for us here a public toilet God The number of folders on the desk what bomber's attorneys finally did was write down a defense against PTFO's reporting This is as part of their answer to the investors amended complaint And if I made you drink every time team bomber wrote the word podcast you would die Let's see I got my water here and I will take a sip every time I hear the word podcast plaintiffs first amended complaint ads Stephen bomber as a defendant based on sensational and patently false assertions made in a sports podcast drink bomber and the clippers have denied all allegations in that podcast drink And are cooperating in an ongoing NBA investigation While conjecture and unsupported assumptions may be appropriates in the world of Tories podcast Drink They have no place in a sworn legal pleading plaintiffs claims against the bomber defendants are premised on the bogus theory based entirely on speculation in a podcast yeah That bomber and sandbrook entered into a quote corrupt deal Unquote so they of course never mentioned the two thorough witnesses who went on a tape With us or our piles of documents of the fact that team bomber is proposed zero factual Corrections to our now 507 minutes They attempted to slur us With the P word More than a dozen times But as you look through these papers there is an incredibly important case that I think bomber Really does want to make here in defense of his own innocence and his own victimhood In terms of how he does business And certainly how he protects his integrity because it is not merely that quote Bomber invested in aspiration because of its purported commitment to environmental sustainability a passion bomber shared And quote which you know as as a side note I have not seen the clippers announce a new sustainability partner to replace aspiration and do the carbon credits thing But we'll go with it. I mean In keeping with the theme of this episode Crucially Steve Bommer's lawyers also say this Despite having conducted thorough due diligence Bombers trust in aspiration was sorely misplaced Thoreau due diligence and what qualifies as thorough David we talk about vocabulary all the time And in fact the last time we did our own thorough due diligence on a very important adjective deployed by team bomber Was in our last aspiration episode from January and the word then Was significant Because last October in reference to how well Bomber new sandberg before the owner of the clippers decided to give aspirations founder 50 million dollars In September 2021 The Wall Street Journal reported this A person close to the bomber group his investment company said that two hardly knew each other He said that bomber and sandberg had their first significant interaction at the press conference And now seeing the partnership between the clippers and aspiration But now given what bomber just filed in court about thorough due diligence That Wall Street Journal quote is even more significant Because it seems pretty difficult for an investor to conduct thorough due diligence on a startup who's founder He had never spent significant time with and apparently hardly new But to be totally fair of course Maybe bomber just directed his whole team of lawyers and his chief investment officer to thoroughly diligence Any and all paperwork on his behalf And for a 50 million dollar investment any founders and lawyers tell me thoroughly vetting all that documentation would typically take at least a month often more I can get an agreement done in weeks Sometimes it takes months in order because you're negotiating literal lines of a 200 page agreement And the most important sections are the most eye glazing for normal people Which are reps and warranties who knows what when at the time of the signing What are you promising to do if something is discovered after the fact who pays for any issues that arise from a contract or from a lack of performance or an overperformance And so maybe all that vetting happened Maybe team bomber vetted sandberg so diligently in fact and for so many months that in late 2024 Long after bomber already knew that the feds were investigating zamburg for defrauding aspiration investors Bomber still decided to make a donation of $1.875 million to Joe Sandberg's personal charity Which the bomber group did But in order to calculate how many months team bombers spent diligenceing aspirations paperwork Which now seems incredibly relevant to bombers claim in court You need privileged information something like a confidential email chain between sandberg and aspirations lawyers and Bombers lawyers and bombers chief investment officer And this email chain just happens to be the next document in David and Amine's folders I mean could you please read from the internal email that starts it all off This is from Joe Sandberg sent Friday September 3rd 2021 1016 am subject connecting legal teams for bomber investment importance high And then the message says please meet here Brent Vaughn Bombers chief investment officer and aspirations newest partner in our mission Brent is going to loop in his council Thank you for how hard you and team are working so we can sign and close in the next few days Oh If you're wondering that's quick If you're wondering why does zamburg would be trying to close is deal in the next few days Of course Me too So I called up someone in the aspiration finance department Who's been right about everything they have told us for about a year now Source number one just to spell it out. Why was Joe rushing this? Why did they want the money in Because she was broke There's no money so by September of 2021 in that month the aspiration was already For Oak Yeah, and they were just burning I mean Inspiration never was profitable And the person Sandberg sent that urgent introductory email to to speed close on 50 million dollar investment from one of the richest men on earth Is Brent Vaughn the guy I mean name there Brand Vaughn is bomber's other right hand man you should know he's kind of the person will finance equivalent of Lawrence Frank And he replies to Joe Sandberg that same day Friday September 3rd David Thanks all We're aligning a few additional resources on our side Does it make sense to jump on a call once we have had a chance to review the purchase agreement and Friday's for number 3rd By the way, I mean you may also recognize as the beginning of a certain holiday weekend that is labor day weekend Labor day weekend is the unofficial return to facilities for most teams To start working out gearing up in advance of the start of official training camp at the end of September So I didn't believe realize that so there's one pressure from Joe Sandberg according to source number one They need to get money and then in the NBA world Labor day weekend is Heralding the actual arrival of the players on your team. Yep And so on Wednesday September 8th This is just five calendar days three of which are labor day weekend Obviously after the suits from aspiration and Balmer's legal and finance teams meet each other for the first time over email as you guys just read Balmer's lawyer sends an email. I mean Which says this? So this emails from Wednesday September 8th 2021. So what's that five days later We are signed off on the form of subscription agreement We had one comment on the version of the purchase agreement that was circulated last night attached here We'll review the documents that just came around as well He can't have a thorough negotiation of a purchase agreement or a subscription agreement that quickly I don't care who your staff in it with well, it was circulated last night the purchase agreement. It's to yeah, I mean you can have an issues list But you you cannot have a sign off unless it unless you have been told what do they don't celebrate labor day as doesn't matter It's still it's only five days there religiously against labor. I should point out this email is a two in the afternoon So it was most of today within the last night today this morning. They had most of the day. It was a 204 p.m You're flipping burgers with one hand and you're reading the document the other was the big deal Back open a cold one in the middle Whomest among us has not reviewed a 209 p.m. $50 million personal investment agreement between Steve bomber and aspiration done through his personal LLC Which is called again pole pat which is very different. How dare you how dare you suggest that's the Cambodian game That's a danger Polpat LLC find a new slant and this 209 p.m. contract, David is of course sitting in your folder Well, this is going to take a second You only want me to look at what I just wanted to describe what I'll do a thorough review of the Because look I want to offer my point is I want to offer the most generous version of the timeline because in five days They're like we're basically good. Just fix the one thing that we saw because we got to the yesterday But in fairness Please give us the the timestamps here aspiration partners ink series c4 preferred stock purchase agreement This series c4 preferred stock purchase agreement is dated as of September 14th 2021 and is between aspiration partners a Delaware corp and pole pat LLC the investor The parties are signing this c4 preferred stock purchase agreement as of the date stated in the introductory clause Which would be September 14th It is docu signed by brand Vaughn. He is the co oh of pole pat LLC. So most generous version of the math, right Friday, September 3rd in the labor day weekend Into Tuesday, September 14th. So just doing the math here. I mean it's 11 days Which simply means that Steve Balmer's team spent as many days conducting thorough due diligence Of his agreement with aspiration as there are aspiration investors now suing him And so this is what source number one had to say about this very timeline It's insane and it's completely up her up Even at aspiration where how many other deals closed in this kind of a timeframe I have never seen an investment deal of this size or anywhere near this size Be completed at that pace before All of which reminds me now that Balmer told us pn back in September This You're one of the richest men in america you've obviously done very well in your career in business like you didn't smell Anything wrong with the company you didn't see anything wrong like you had you obviously reviewed the financials before you got involved with the business proposal I reviewed I reviewed my staff reviewed primarily Fruch with financials Now should I have sniffed it out? Maybe I feel embarrassed and kind of silly that I didn't sniff it out, but I didn't If If these timelines of these emails which all right they look like Actual emails. That's not a lot of sniffing. That's like one little like snort. It's a quick one like And then that's it But as for what team Balmer could have snorted Could have really sniffed out here if they actually did vet these fraudulent financials And especially the list of businesses aspiration was counting as its customers its corporate partners That is also worth understanding here because according to multiple aspirations sources that I've talked to who like source number one became federal witnesses in the government's investigation This part does actually seem thoroughly embarrassing some of the businesses In 2021 that were signed up as corporate businesses were not real businesses. They were shell companies I'd say about half the other half were businesses that had absolutely no business Signing up for the amount of carbon offsets tree planting revenue guarantee to aspiration that they had committed In many instances these businesses weren't even making as much in a year as they were committing to aspiration All of that would have been very easy to look at by doing a quick secretary of state Google search or if you don't want to do that you can do a reference call You can call these corporate partnerships and see what Your businesses like before you invest something at that scale Because these businesses were insane. They were either fake or they had no reason To purchase the amount of offsets and or trees they were purchasing monthly So when you started the deal if used as the principal when you tell your bankers and your lawyers we're doing this deal They're gonna do less work than when you sit them down and say hey, we're looking at this. Let me know your thought There's two different ways you approach it with a banker or a lawyer and the assumption I'm making Given the timeline here as bomber said hey, we're signing this like we're good. Don't worry about it Yeah, Joe Sanberg's asking for a close in the next few days Steve Balmer is clearly authorizing a close within five to eleven days Given that I'm very curious to know what the one revision was But like even in this deal that has to go through that we're willing to look at Take out the cap circumventure Don't say it out loud just But the real kicker of course as you will now recall is that Steve Balmer did not just invest in September 2021 He also invested another ten million dollars in March 2023 while 19 outside investors whom Joe Sanberg solicited for buddy Those 19 all said no according to court filings Whereas Steve Balmer and his friend Dennis Wong who had never invested in aspiration before and was the only new investor in this round said yes We should say here of course that we reached out to the bomber group and the clippers PR department Which has previously and very notably spoken on behalf of the bomber group before in our previous request for comment And the clippers once again the client of comments citing their participation in the league investigation And Brent Vaughn from the bomber group did not respond But as for why Balmer went along with the rush timeline and didn't do the thorough due diligence that his legal team claims It brings us to another part of team Balmer's motion to dismiss the complaint from the 11 aspiration investors Because this is how I mean Balmer's lawyers describe the story of the first amended complaint or FAC The FAC alleges that Balmer invested in aspiration solely so that aspiration could endorse Leonard allowing Leonard to receive more quote compensation Unquote than the NBA rules allowed And here in the real world in podcast court that adverb solely Is funny to me Because anyone who's listened to any of the hours that we've done in this series should know that Steve Balmer did not solely use aspiration to arrange This no-show endorsement side deal for coil Leonard there were in fact other financial Sweetener is involved as source number one again reminds us with Balmer's investment oak tree capital management Had invested as well with The intention of aspiration going public through a spack deal which is a merger in which an already public company And we know now because it's public knowledge that that was inter private would take aspiration Underneath it create a public entity that is aspiration public we can store the aspiration public And then that company would be works At least two point two billion dollars at the time Right balmer was set to make a ton of money and it all would have been brilliant As we've said many times if the guy he trusted to help him deceive the NBA Joe Sanberg was not also deceiving him on some level Which again? Thorodu diligence might have produced Before you decided to get into this mess But there was still another reason Steve Balmer was apparently so eager to do this deal. I mean And this headline you might recall it's from CNBC From that same exact month September 2021 LA Clippers signed three hundred million dollar plus arena sponsorship deal with green bank Aspiration and you may not wonder how much was balmer really motivated by that By the fact that he was getting a guarantee three hundred million dollars in exchange for that speed investment the 50 million in September 2021 And so the next document in your folder David Is an internal private email that I obtained from October 2021 This sent by the CEO of inter-private the company aspiration was set to go public with And it was sent to aspirations co-founders and lawyers and bankers They were discussing the terms that an oak tree executive whose name we've redacted here Was negotiating with aspiration directly in the footsteps of Steve Balmer deciding to invest his 50 million dollars Redacted nose balmer was partly motivated by the clippers sponsorship deal and This should not be that surprising That that is in writing somewhere that Steve Balmer had other reasons to get into the aspiration business perhaps because Quote He was partly motivated by the three hundred million dollar sponsorship deal But as usual what team balmer wants you to think is that the real victim here Has been the 13th richest person on earth all along as his lawyers go on to write Balmer lost his entire invested capital and aspiration and the clippers Terminated both the master services agreement and corporate sponsorship agreement with the company Which now reminds me David of something the clippers had told us When they were answering our request for comment way back in part one of our P word oh Before they knew the scope of the documentation that I had Neither mr. Balmer nor the clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to aspiration Any contrary assertion is provably false The team ended its relationship with aspiration years ago during the 2223 season when aspiration Defaulted on its obligations. So they're saying they terminated the deal during the 2022 23 season And the lawyers have just said in what a mean read that they terminated both the master services agreement and corporate sponsorship agreement with the company So let's look at this timeline because this language about the breakup here This timeline turns out to be provably false The clippers season officially ended in 2023. I mean In April April 25th they had lost to the phoenix sons In the first round of the playoffs, but in June of 2023 June 29th 2023 a very convenient birthday takes place More than two months after that because a me and the clippers then posted this Happy birthday Oh, why and they've got a little the emoji that's blowing like the party favor and got that a little hat on for every comment slash retweet At aspiration will plant one tree for koai's birthday Oh And to be clear, this is not an example of koai performing any of the potential services in his endorsement agreement unless he planted the tree Which we are told he did not um Personally the bobblehead is like this that we talked about in last month's episode It's a sponsored item that aspiration paid to sponsor they had previously been sponsoring the birthday post for Nick Batum and Paul George and Norm Powell and Tyleu and everybody else But conceivably that would end when you end the deal But according to multiple high-level sources at aspiration the clippers did not terminate their corporate sponsorship agreement at the end of June either The deal very weirdly lingered on into the offseason very Unterminated even though it was also pretty obvious to everybody by then That the company was pretty f**ked This kind of reminds you of the quote from the movie terminator. You guys remember this of course is Kyle Reese He's warning Sarah Connor trying to tell her about the terminator she doesn't believe him says the terminator's out there It can't be bargained with it can't be reasoned with It doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear and it absolutely will not stop ever Until you are dead You're saying that this deal much like the terminator was hard to terminate it was not gonna die Haha Kyle Reese played by Michael bean the amount of time we're wasting your you've got problems all of this points now anxiously Steve Balmer though and Lawrence Frank would have worried For years about protecting their secret side deals plural per Michael winger with co-ilandard And this is a worry that I think was best exemplified by a 2019 quote in the LA Times from then clippers head coach and Steve Balmer's fellow aspiration investor Doc rivers who had the year before visited the nearby offices of aspiration for a motivational speech This was a mean not long after co-ye signed with the clippers in free agency I was at home in Malibu and Lawrence called me and told me look It looks like he's either going to Toronto or the Lakers a Lakers part just threw me over I told him that can't happen. I remember I kept telling him we can't allow that to happen I actually told Steve jokingly that that happens We're moving with the team to Seattle. It was a joke But I was actually serious about it. I really believe that David Steve Balmer's commentary from the day that is franchise introduced co-ye. This is July 2019 I would call it similarly restrained I have these notes but I gotta say I'm just fired up to be here today Pretty cool pretty damn cool Oh Love it listen. I'll be very critical of the business things that he's done But that's that's excitement man. You want don't you want your owner to be that excited? I think that's a sad part about all this for doing eight episodes where deep diving ripping apart all these claims and stuff But I gotta say I wish I worked for an owner like him Hahaha It's weird. I was coming from Phoenix man you you're at the bottom of the barrel Sorry No offense you wish you worked for the other owner under investigation by walk so yeah He's that's goofy. I'm not gonna lie to you. I think it's quite I Kiss enthusiasm is cool. I do That's not what I'm making fun of I merely pointing out that co-ye Leonard Made that man and doc rivers these two aspiration investors React in that way But I do now want to point out something else that I personally think is cool Because as it turns out the complaint filed by those 11 aspiration investors is not the only lawsuit that team bomber is facing and fighting in court On the down low right now There's another lawsuit there's a lawsuit in direct connection to hidden side deals for co-ye Leonard and David I know you're figuring that folder But this other lawsuit is gonna allow us to pressure test everything we've been talking about here And also look even further behind the curtain of how Steve Balmer has secretly run the clippers and yes David put on your bifocals They're not bifocals. Could you stop there just focus? They're just they're one focal two point oh That's it. We do though have a second lawsuit After break You Maltese's bunnies They're back, but like a hot person on an escalator going the other way. They're not here for long They're a temporary thrill like those two days you were a morning person or a bank holiday or that TV show that Cremantly only got one season or even that 24 hour post where your bum looked out Rageously good some treats you just have to enjoy while they last Maltese's bunnies here, but only for Easter Maltese's look on the light side Get three months half price when you switch to an unlimited sim with three That means quick streaming faster downloads and more money to spend on the things you love Join the UK's fastest 5G network and get your unlimited sim today By now in store or see three dot code.uk unlimited 24 month light plan proof of switching required based on uclus beta Intelligence data to h 2025 all rights reserved subject to credit checks and turns I mean in fairness to the clippers right and Steve bomber this owner that you kind of wish you worked for I do want to start this part of the story by showing you what Lawrence Frank the president of basketball Told reporters on the fateful day that the franchise introduced kawaii if you can please read this transcript from Ben Galover of the late great Washington Post sports department He says this quote we didn't recruit What we did was we went to many games to scout and research We never had a conversation with kawaii or with any of his people We always felt by doing it out in front. We were being very very transparent We weren't doing anything behind the scenes We know the rules We follow the rules we feel very very good about how we did everything With Steve in terms of how he does business his integrity is number one We're always going to be above the line. That's what we did. We're gonna be aggressive. Yes Are we gonna be transparent? Yes? Are we gonna follow the rules? 100% Marked departure from the way he answered Ramona's question a few years later But the phrase in this story that I need to get to here it actually starts years before kawaii gets introduced And this one starts with a different voice It belongs to a guy named Randy Shelton And Randy Shelton happens to know kawaii Leonard really really well So uh you are kawaii strength trainer or it's from the days that i sent you in your state I am currently the strengthy condition coach for sbs humans basketball If that i also yes, I am kawaii personal Like what kawaii like to say is i like his tim grover I've been with him since uh he's been at sbs you and on the offseason he comes And uh he trades with me uh down in sandago We try to keep everything discreetest if you try to let google stuff or look stuff up Uh we kind of try to keep everything on the download um So this tape of Randy Shelton you may recall the voice of his interviewer This is pdfo correspondent tom haberstro back in 2016 and 2016 Was an interesting year for kawaii Leonard he had already won a championship With the san Antonio spurs had been named finals mbp And i mean you just heard Randy Shelton mention That kawaii thought of Randy Shelton as his tim grover Who was tim grover was michael jordan's trainer so every offseason michael jordan will go train with tim grover They bring in other mba pros for these high level pickup games in chicago at whoops the gym with the name of the gym You know michael to get him to be the greatest athlete on this planet movement was and Like i like to say is he's a human avatar There was a cut out at states and up in the stand there was a picture of kawaii's head on the avatar body no And i looked at that and i just felt like that's exactly how i look Kawaii to perform like a human avatar There is i realize now a lot of james cameron in this episode But if you're wondering david if you see have you seen the avatars not the latest Well, this is from the first one and this is a picture of kawaii Leonard as referenced as a navi from avatar Because they actually did make this thing at stand here go state and of course kawaii Leonard like the navi both love trees as we all know But i mean what happened beginning in that 2016-17 season Between kawaii and the sanitano osperous is actual employer as his physical health was concerned Was what Kawaii has a marvelous season and They are the team that people say well, you know what this might be the team that can unseat the unstoppable golden state warriors That have now have kevin de rant in their midst and Game one is going very much in the spurs way until Kawaii Leonard has a catch and shoot opportunity in the corner So as a patria closes out in his size whatever foot slides right under kawaii's landing area kawaii lands rolls his ankle Is hurt does not return for the rest of the series the spurs end up losing all the games This is the origin story of uncle Dennis robbertson Although we didn't realize it at that very moment Pablo if i may The origin story starts a little earlier because watch this Not a lot of people remember this, but i'll always remember this Long long time ago Talking with mark west. So i used to work with infenix and mark said Whenever a guy's eligible extension But the team opts to not extend and wait to restrict the free agency The player never forgets The player even if it's a hey it makes sense financially for us in the way the cap works and we'll have more space in and you still get your money Being told to wait for your money is an experience that players never forget kawaii Leonard Prior to the 1415 season was eligible to be extended this is coming off his rook extend basically is rook extension eligible And the spurs said no no no wait because i think we can get the mark soldier or whatever the next offseason So he waited He got his money As a restricted free agent the next summer, but that I'm told was the first seeds the first south of like wait a second if they love me like they tell me they love me Why aren't they Taking care of me immediately why am i told to wait so so word around the league is trickling out by the way Uh That given this backdrop and given this injury That there is a difference of medical opinion Yes, because there had been several smaller Injuries that happened throughout his spurs tenure where the medical staff of the team said you're fine And kawaii said i don't feel fun And then had to get re evaluated and then found out that there was something else going on the ankle roll against the warriors That wasn't his first ankle injury he had had that ankle injury earlier that season early I think early in the postseason and was told you're fine to play on it And then he gets hurt and obviously misses the rest of the conference finals That also was a an event that was like i don't know how much i can trust these people And the spurs of course are famously cloistered They do things their own way and in this case this began to spill out into the public Even though it has of course a very understandable dynamic And the reason i'm bringing all of this up is because the guy who was tending to kawaii Leonard's body his personal trainer His tim grover Randy Shelton Provides more context here Because as now ESPN is describing kawaii is distant disconnected from the organization This is obviously now happening in public And so what Randy Shelton the man responsible for kawaii's body says is that Team bomber Starts recruiting kawaii Leonard Through Randy Shelton Okay, so we're now in august of 2017 This is a couple months after that worry some ankle injury that gets all of this stuff going And the clippers high regai named mark Hughes As their assistant general manager and this assistant gm among other NBA front office jobs Had something in common with Randy Shelton in their employment history Mark Hughes had also worked at sandiego state Kawaii's alma mater years prior as an assistant coach And according to an active lawsuit that Randy Shelton filed in 2024 against the clippers What the new assistant gm started doing after getting that new job was reaching out to Randy And i'll explain this lawsuit further in a second david But would you mind reading this excerpt first In 2017 assistant general manager mark Hughes began pursuing Leonard through Shelton Hughes repeatedly emphasized the need for discretion As Hughes sought private health information about Leonard And Hughes discussed the clippers desire to obtain Leonard and the likelihood of attracting Leonard to join the clippers Hughes set up numerous meetings with Shelton beginning in 2017 While Leonard was still under contract to attempt to find out Leonard's contractual requirements and medical situation Now this is allegedly thorough due diligence. I mean this is tampering So can you please explain tampering and how this is actually kind of interesting in that regard It's hugely simple when a player's under contract with team x No other team can talk to him or his representative about playing for team y That is very simply what tampering is to illustrate Magic Johnson when he was president of basketball operations for the lakers once went on the Jimmy Kim will show And said something to the effect of oh, I'd love to have a player like yannis That was deemed to be tempering yes by the NBA and he was fine fine six figures for that so I think we can agree that if this occurred Kind of goes far above and beyond Going on Jimmy Kimmel and saying I'd love to have a great player on my team. I mean Are you gonna sit here and tell me that in all your years in the front office that you Or someone else you knew of was not in contact or engaged in the act of tampering are you gonna say that? I'm not way hold on how did we know the rules? We know the rules David. I know the rules. I mean I know the rules too The rules in question right. I am not scandalized by tampering But what I am pointing out here is that Randy Shelton claims that the Clippers assistant GM ultimately called them at least 15 times Met him at least seven times in person starting in 2017 years before free agency and according to Shelton's lawsuit The assistant GM mark Hughes is also repeatedly telling Randy Shelton something else to me As part of these discussions Hughes discussed bringing Shelton into the Clippers organization as a strength and conditioning coach Given the personal relationship and trust that Leonard had in Shelton. I love it because this is great It's what players do when they've got leverage. They will say hey hire my guy I've had that so many times hire my strength guy hire my mental guy my masseuse bringing my masseuse bringing my trainer security. Oh god A lot of team security bringing my security guy like whatever. We're fine on that Well, it's I'm getting my guy work and I'm not having to pay for it. That's what it is So Randy Shelton spoiler alert would in fact get hired by the Clippers as an assistant coach full-time assistant coach on the performance staff in 2019 Once co-I signed with them as a free agent This lawsuit is actually Shelton claiming that his eventual termination by the team was wrongful And you should know that the Clippers have denied both the tampering claims and the wrongful termination And they've said that Shelton just wants more money again as with the 11 aspiration investors I didn't write this lawsuit not involved in it can't vouch for its outcome But the legal proceedings have been heating up behind closed doors and Information keeps shaking loose which provides me with more leads to check David For instance back in 2017 Okay, this is months after the Clippers hired the assistant GM Mark Hughes and allegedly assigned him to recruit co-I Leonard through Randy Shelton Here's something else I found Shelton also filed some paperwork of his own that fall with the secretary of state in California And this is not mentioned in the lawsuit at all But we found it in our research in our due diligence and David you might notice that the title of this new company sounds a little familiar limited liability company name KL2 performance LLC filed October 5th 2017 agent for service of process Randy Shelton now you may of course recall that kale to aspire LLC founded in 2021 is the entity which kicked off the prison that I'm currently still trapped in And that is how the Clippers were allegedly getting money to co-I through a third party in violation of the MBA salary cap And why just as we zoom out here for a second along with Uncle Dennis would go on to form 16 of these kale to LLCs there's kale to content LLC There's kale to r i fc LLC. There's kale to r fc real estate LLC and on and on and on Almost as many times as we were called the podcast by C. Bombers lawyers But kale to performance LLC Is historic in its own way Because kale to performance is the first KL2 variant ever registered the patient zero of kale to's four years before kale to aspire KL2 performance becomes the patient zero and at this point in October of 2017 As you may notice There's no mention in this filing of Uncle Dennis and by June 2018 As I mean you were leading to earlier the medical drama with the spurs escalates To the point where kawai formally demands this trade A trade to Los Angeles and instead gets sent to The great white north Toronto hell yeah At which point according to Randy shelton's lawsuit Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence frank Met with Randy shelton as well David Frank himself met personally with Shelton and San Diego in or around February 2019 To discuss Leonard's willingness to join the Clippers and assuring Leonard through Shelton That the Clippers would provide all necessary provisions for his success at the highest level in free agency And all of the vital members who could have an impact on sick Leonard's decision Frank personally assured Shelton that he would have a position with the strength condition and performance department for the Clippers If Leonard decided to join the Clippers in free agency still during Leonard and the Raptors championship run Shelton again was asked to meet with the Clippers Regarding Leonard's willingness to sign with the Clippers in this meeting Shelton met with John Mayer the director of medical and performance for the Clippers and Lee Jenkins director of research and identity But Randy Shelton was far from the only person allegedly getting the full court press from the Clippers as Steve Balmer Suddenly found himself competing head to head in 2019 against who I mean the Los Angeles Lakers the big brother Lakers Who already had LeBron James and I know this part Because of yet another lawsuit that got filed against the Clippers this one from 2020 And this one filed by a long long time friend of Dennis Robertson by the name of Johnny Wilkes Johnny Wilkes was teammates with Uncle Dennis on their basketball team in high school And Johnny Wilkes was presented as the plug to Uncle Dennis And the plug claimed that the Clippers promised him something in return for helping deliver to the Clippers And Wilkes recently described this to a friend on a YouTube video that has been viewed at last check by 175 people what How much did you ask for let me ask that $2.5 million and that was cheap for a quiet man. I should ask $10 million I should say that an LA judge dismissed this case in 2022 They pointed out at the plug Johnny Wilkes did not have a written contract with the Clippers and Wilkes lawyer also did not respond to multiple of our requests for comment But the reason again I bring this all up now is because in the course of this lawsuit the other other lawsuit We also get access to verifiable information I'm just doing my due diligence thorough and I keep on getting information that we wouldn't know otherwise And it also indicates directly what team bomber was taking time to thoroughly sniff out About team Kauai Leonard Because text messages obtained by public Tory finds out show that Donny Wilkes the plug between team Kauai and team bomber Was communicating specifically with Clippers consultant and executive board member Jerry West the late great Jerry Logo A former Laker and basketball Hall of Famer who left a similar job with the warriors to join the Clippers in 2017 The same year they hired assistant GM Marques I mean, this is how the New York Times explained the hiring of Jerry West by the Clippers The idea to pursue West came from bomber's former Harvard classmate turned Clippers minority shareholder Dennis Wong Who was one spot of golden states ownership group? He kept saying Quote we need a guy like Jerry West Unquote unquote bomber said and then on July 1st 2019 This is the first full day for agency was officially open for business bomber and Lawrence Frank and dockrivers officially pitched Kauai Leonard at uncle Dennis in person At the house of of course dock rivers and that day The logo left Johnny Wilkes a voicemail This is Jerry Calling um, you know, I really want to thank you a lot for You know trying to help I heard this morning that everyone over in the Lakers can think they're gonna get in um I just Find it hard to believe that he would want to go to that show where he would not even be Witting to get his name in the paper and he wouldn't be the face of the franchise. That's for sure He might be the best player on the team, but uh Hope things are well and well Again, I really really appreciate everything you've done Johnny Wilkes YouTube channel is pretty wild by the way That's where we're pulling this out that's where the voicemail goes from no one was watching this stuff But they are now that's Jerry West that is verifiably Jerry West And again, I think it speaks to the fear The actual fear of losing out on kawaii that dock rivers and that quote that I mean read before spoke to When he said the team might as well move to Seattle if they don't get him because this is Jerry West also now texting Johnny Wilkes to follow up and so David You get to be the logo with the gray bubbles. I mean Please be Johnny Wilkes. Sure. Plug with the blue bubbles and We'll start with David Just wanted to thank you for your help if he would go to the Lakers. He would be LeBron's caddy Hey, mr. West. I was with Dennis this morning when you called I know you guys are meeting at 3 p.m. At dox house good luck and later The plug Johnny Wilkes followed up with another reply to mr. West Dennis is kind of excited about this meeting with mr. bomber Good luck, mr. West bomber spelled B O M B E R by the way, that's right To which Jerry West says When can we expect a decision? Don't want to be a pest and frankly don't want to bother Dennis anymore If you hear anything please let me know Thank you for all your help should be noted that the communication between Jerry West that David led with and the responses from Johnny Wilkes that I read Kurt on July 1st 2019 That last response from Jerry West when can we expect a decision happens July 4th 2019 that's very good because what I was noticing is that the guy's phone was at 1% I unfortunately missed both of those details well played by both of you But yeah speaking of mr. bomber Sealed within the filings in the case of Johnny Wilkes v. L.A. Clippers are text messages First described by the Washington Post Sports Department RIP, but we now have obtained the screenshots Because this is Jerry West and Steve bomber himself now trying to speed close on their most important superstar For instance, this is one on July 5th and mr. bomber says Where did your guy think he is leaning to which the logo Jerry West who has been again plugged into team kawaii via the plug response Could not get indication I would hope that with everyone involved on his side who are pro clippers They are telling him that this is a chance of a lifetime to be involved with you and our organization All which means that Steve bomber was diligence thing And also that despite what Randy Shelton the avatar whisperer and the uncle Dennis plugged on he Wilkes And the clipper is full core press and the offer to trade five first rounders and two pick swaps Plus future MVP shakeylders Alexander for Paul George, which Kweilandard also demanded it remained unclear What the decision would be until the very end like that's how much leverage Team kawaii had on the richest man in all of sports And this helps further explain I think how mr. bomber felt at that introductory presser in July 2019 The most one I'm pumped Say hello as clippers the Paul and Kweil come on Come on Come on get up Oh That's why we're here today One conference finals the only the only one in french as history though, so raise the banner To quote Lawrence frank again, mm-hmm quote We never had a conversation with kweil or with any of his people We always felt by doing it out in front we were being very very transparent We weren't doing anything behind the scenes. We know the rules. We follow the rules With Steve in terms of how he does business his integrity is number one and quote In an august of 2019 the month after Lawrence frank gives that quote about following the rules knowing the rules The San Diego union tribune reports officially that Randy Shelton is hired away from San Diego states basketball team By the clippers so full-time assistant coach on the reform and staff as allegedly promised But not long after that November 2019 There was a more subtle change in the business life of Randy Shelton the trainer and His Navi Kweil entered Because according to again the California secretary of states database the LLC Shelton had started in 2017 The same year he was being recruited by the clippers and their assistant GM KL2 performance LLC received a notice The first in a series of delinquency notices And by the following year September 2020 with co-inist trainer both employed on the books by the clippers KL2 performance LLC Was officially suspended from operating as a business in California Indicating that the person behind it for some reason no longer needed it anymore The patient zero of LLCs had functionally expired To quote another political figure from the California state house What if you could feel more confident finally go after that promotion and feel great about inspiring other women It all starts by recognizing your worth and talking about your wins with confidence That's why galaxy chocolate has created the unhumble project In partnership with the charity young women's trust to bring you free confidence training Get the pleasure you deserve from the incredible things you do Take the training today search galaxy chocolate the unhumble project We get it making tax digital can sometimes feel daunting But with zeros hmrc recognize software you quickly get to feeling confident If you're a sole trader or landlord whose income tax is going digital Not only is zero mtd ready it also gives you better control of your finances Like having the clear financial visibility you need every quarter to avoid end-of-year tax surprises Change the way you see mtd search mtd ready with zero So this now brings us back to the year 2021 This is the year Steve bomber and his staff would do their comically grief due diligence of aspiration in September And around that same time. I mean Something very curious happened and it is the next document in your folder This employment agreement is made and entered into as of July 1st 2021 Buy in between LA Clippers LLC Team and Randy Shelton Employee This is a fully executed copy of the three-year contract Randy Shelton Chauai's trainer had signed with the Clippers to remain their full-time assistant performance coach This is 2021 and again in this legal back and forth I am up pick and sides here. I don't know who's gonna win this case His pen is actually covered some of the stuff already But there is one part of this document that's been so far overlooked And it's not the arbitration clause in Shelton's contract, David It's the thing in your folder What section is this? This is section 13 notices All notices or other communication required or permitted to be given under this agreement Shall be in writing and shall be sent via Electronic mail to the email address set forth below and delivered personally or sent overnight courier to the addresses set forth below If to team Lawrence Frank LA Clippers With a copy to Nicole Duckett LA Clippers Nicole Duckett was the Clippers chief legal counsel representing Lawrence Frank that makes sense But Randy Shelton's equivalent who is also receiving every legal notice Is who? If to employee Randy Shelton With a copy to Dennis Robertson So this speaks to something else that Randy Shelton has claimed in this lawsuit Which is that his employment contract was personally negotiated between Lawrence Frank the president of the team and Dennis Robertson An unlicensed MBA agent Who was so unlicensed that Adam Silver you may recall Change the league rules In response to an investigation of his dealings in 2019 to prevent people like him from negotiating deals like this ever again I remind you a mean of course that this contract is from 2021 But nonetheless Could you please keep reading from Randy Shelton's lawsuit Moreover plaintiff alleges that mr. Robertson threatened him with exclusion from the Clippers Unless he agreed to pay 10% of his compensation a demand that raises serious questions of duress coercion and procedural unconscionability This all means to translate it that allegedly Uncle Dennis threatened to fire Kuwai's personal trainer from his job with the Clippers If the trainer didn't pay Uncle Dennis the agent fee the kickback him 10% of the salary in his employment contract This would be weird If only because Uncle Dennis did not work for the Clippers and supposedly does not dictate what they do with these shady side deals because They all know the rules Uncle Dennis could claim that he is acting as Randy Shelton's agent Randy Shelton's agent whoever that is does not need to be certified by the mbpa So it could be literally anyone Well, what I am told reliably by sources close to this situation is that the Clippers were Not only totally aware of this arrangement allegedly They agreed to this practice as a way of getting more money to Uncle Dennis Directly Randy Shelton's the person who allegedly is like I don't love this and so again, we're evolving the question of like what do the Clippers Know when how do they do business behind the scenes It's very interesting to me because there's some of these so Steve Balmer as an example an owner Would not see this employment contract as part of his every day job as owner It's way too far below him But you have instructions Get Leonard done and then Lawrence Frank would have to go to Steve Balmer and say hey We're gonna need to do the following me someone in strength. We're gonna have to have this guy and that guy and Steve Balmer that is only approved by the owner You would never have a GM right would agree to hire people outside of on the court players without speaking to the president or the owner of the team In my experience that would be very rare I'm still stuck on the 10% that comes out of Randy's contract Doing that would allow the Clippers to compensate Dennis Robertson without actually having a direct Financial paper trail. So go no, we have nothing to do with it That's that's Randy kicking back to his agent or his representative It's why I was looking at what his pay was yeah, so yeah, I look at that too A hundred thousand dollars listen it ain't nothing it ain't nothing that is a shocking amount To get paid it was it three-year deal two twenty five two thirty two thirty five but take to 10% out Right, and so he's still getting in theory You know 200 grand just for purposes of ease and also don't forget the playoff bonuses which at this moment They're believing they're gonna have some deep playoff runs and the playoff bonuses Escalate as you work through the playoffs, but there's another part of the contract I want to draw your attention to because the start date is July 2021 This is a month before kawaii signed his first extension with the Clippers in August of 2021 But when was his contract actually signed David 11 11 2021 that's good luck So I hear Randy Shelton signs at 11 11 2021 Lawrence Frank signs it the next day 11 12 2021 and this date In November 2021 brings us back to again a familiar point in our grand timeline here Because November 11 2021 Happens to be just 11 days before Uncle Dennis Robertson filed new paperwork for a new organization Which was accorded team bomber again totally independent of the Clippers I mean KL2 aspire LLC filed date November 22nd 2021 the document the LLC We started this god for sick and serious with whose legal notice this action also for the record lists Uncle Dennis Robertson with the same exact Palm Beach address listed on Randy Shelton's contract and so again just a quote former Clippers general manager Michael Winger How many f***ing side deals do we have with kawaii Leonard And this also brings us back once again to the Side deal that's the bomber and Lawrence Frank want you to think they had no oversight of no awareness of nothing to do with Even though Steve bomber did go on ESPN to admit that something happened That's notable in the month of November of 2021 We even found the Email that makes the first introduction it was early November. I won't remember the exact date So where where could any of this circumvention have happened? It didn't it couldn't have The introduction got made and then they were off to the races on on their own. We weren't involved And that is the closest thing that Steve bomber has produced to let's call it an anti-smoking gun Even though this email actually proves that Steve bomber personally knew That aspiration was asking to do business with kawaii Leonard with the implication being that despite how Incessantly intertwined all of this is the Clippers in aspiration especially sponsorship deal carbon credits ownership groups personal investment Team bomber had no idea about the millions of no-show endorsement dollars secretly flowing in to kale to aspire LLC Even though the only logical reason they'd be secret in the first place is because the deal itself broke NBA rules And so in fairness To bring it all together you may not be thinking we started this part of the story about these LLCs the KL2s the patient zero With 2017 and Randy Shelton's registration But we also haven't mentioned the name of Dennis Robertson in connection to KL2 performance LLC in the way that he was with kale to aspire Well, I told you that KL2 performance LLC was suspended by the California Secretary of State in 2020 Sat dormant for several years neatly matching the timeline of Randy Shelton getting paid on the books By the Clippers Exactly right Except just a few months after the Clippers finally terminated Shelton July 2023 the event that sparked the whole lawsuit something else happened that nobody seems to have noticed Because on September 27 2023 KL2 performance LLC Was revived I'll be back God that's good. Thank you And a new statement of information was filed with the California Secretary of State a filing that name for the first time as new manager David who? Dennis Robertson Pablo with the same Palm Beach address It's on the KL2 aspire LLC paperwork and on Randy Shelton's contract and if I am walked out lifting The NBA investigators one question. I'd personally want to know the answer to is why Why would that happen? Why did he care about reviving a defunct LLC started by a former trainer Randy Shelton who Dennis was charging 10% of his salary Why would he want to do this once Randy Shelton had left the Clippers Just asking questions Why That's a good question why why would he why would he do that by the end of September 2023? I am told Asperations relationship with the Clippers was finally officially Terminated This was later now that the team won to admit we went over this timeline before But I am told that the franchise's deal was over at least by the time the new NBA season started And by then there was a full-on federal investigation ultimately involving the FBI the Department of Justice the commodity futures trading commission The SEC all that was underway now looking into Joe Sandberg and aspiration four months Meanwhile a few months later I mean in the basketball world there was a new headline January 10th, 2024 Quile Leonard signs three year 153 million dollar extension with Clippers sources say Three years 153 sounds like a lot of money It is it is not quite what the maximum allowable salary for him would have been at the time 9 million below Which is interesting Why would Quile Leonard leave money on the table in a way that is totally antithetical to his entire Eathos that we've covered extensively why would you do something so inexplicable so conspicuous Given how team Quile has behaved In fact, it was so conspicuous that this was kind of the first thing that multiple NBA executives pointed out to me when we published our first episode on this whole thing Six months ago and so I've now been spending the last several months chasing down a number of pretty interesting tips about this moment in the timeline All of which raises this question about what happened once the Clippers finally terminated the aspiration deal and still According to the bankruptcy filing had to deal with the fact that aspiration Oed KL to aspire LLC at least seven million dollars Right and so again, I don't know if our friends at Wachtell Lipton the NBA's private white shoe investigators have been looking into this part But for now Let's just keep scrolling through the California Secretary of State database because it mean you'll notice that in the days before the Clippers announced Submax extension on January 10th, 2024 a few new LLCs were born KL to content LLC that was December 20, 2023 KL to rifc LLC January 2nd, 2024 and KL to rifc real estate January 2nd, 2024 January 10th, I will remind you all 2024 was when that extension was signed And unlike KL to aspire LLC and KL to performance LLC the patient's hero KL to content LLC KL to rifc LLC and KL to rifc real estate LLC all remain active do this day And you'll be surely shocked to learn that the person who is listed as their manager on all these filings Is a certain relative It starts with uncle and ends with Come with me if you want to live If I walked out lipped in I have questions about All of us. I would just like to mention to you guys that Starting LLCs is very common. Mm-hmm having them With names that you can keep track of for what they're for so you'd have an LLC If you want to put your house into an LLC, which you should it would be named after the people Maybe the house address and the reason LLCs become dormant also very common is it is a pain in the ass All the filing requirements in New York and Delaware or California wherever you have the LLC And if there's no activity You can let it go dormant. You don't pay the fees But then when you want to get it back going Basically what you do is you revive it terminator style and then you're allowed to use it again as the LLC And all I'm pointing out is that when I look at the dates here the timeline Why did he start these LLCs days ahead of his sub max contract extension and why is it that kale to aspire LLC and Kale to performance LLC Patience zero are the only two of these LLCs that are now non-functional are now suspended and These are questions that I simply would recommend that someone who had the power to compel people to sit down for an interview involved with the MBA might take interest and And all of this as information is concerned brings us to another Fun headline that I think is pretty cool. I mean this from a couple weeks ago Assurgent clippers give executive Lawrence Frank multi-year contract extension Since comes was via Joe Vardin and Sam Amick of the athletic slash New York Times January 27th, 2026 the LA clippers and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank agreed to a multi-year contract extension Four league sources told the athletic contract details were not disclosed though the extension is believed to be for four years The athletic reported in December that Frank and his senior staff were on track for contract extensions Extensions for other fun office staff are still expected to be developed per league sources Like and totally understand we stayed with our GM even when we stunk and so bomber maybe comfortable with Frank Frank may know exactly where bodies are buried and the skeletons and you keep signing those GMs So that again in and of itself There is loyalty between owners and GMs that can happen where you'd sign an extension to a guy where the results just aren't there So I know a lot of people are saying well of course the clippers are playing a lot better They didn't start their winning ways until December 20th like up until that point the team was six and 21 on December 18 so Whenever that conversation started it was not With the expectation that they would go on this miraculous run this was season one to like yeah horror show Error yes, they're teams who keep their GM when you have losing seasons We did many times if you're being sued and if yes, you're being investigated and you didn't know any of this It would be pretty hard for me to say you know the guy who's responsible for doing all this behind my back Give him a couple more years just to make sure Maybe he had a plan here if I if I knew money And I'm not gonna say hush my well hush So I should say that what multiple MBA executives tell me Is that they view Lawrence Frank's for your extension as quote unquote ballmer hush money And I didn't know that and so and and look These are people observing it from the outside right so in fairness again, maybe there's a chance LLCs are revived for fun You send your president is at the center of all of this because you just really have faith in him in the time Just happens to be coincidentally terrible and you're complicit whether there is something Dastardly or not happening right maybe Steve bomber thinks we're just at Who won't leave him alone, but he thinks Lawrence Frank has done a good job throughout that and that these lawsuits and this investigation or all frivolous in nature and I mean to that point This is what Lawrence Frank told the athletics law Murray just yesterday We haven't learned anything more than we have back in September and to be honest with you It doesn't impact anything we do Um, we know it's out there. We know at some point there'll be a decision made We very much feel the same thing that we told you back in September that we're on the right side of this And then whenever they make the decision they make the decision, but it really doesn't impact anything we do on a daily basis But before I let you guys go here There is one more thing that I think people need to know about here as we do more due diligence Because the whole reason we've been able to dive into aspiration is not just because of the bankruptcy filing Which confirmed the existence of KL to aspire LLC as a creditor It's also because there has been that full on federal investigation But the DOJ and the CFTC and the SEC which resulted in the FBI are resting Joe Sandberg and another one of aspirations board members too And this helped lead to further questions and pressure and litigation And just the other week by the way Joe Sandberg's long awaited sentencing hearing got rescheduled to the end of April Hmm just in time for the NBA playoffs Fun What Sandberg's lawyer who also represents Chonsey Bellups in the NBA gambling scandal has said Public Tory world's colliding much like the Terminator universe. There's just a lot of interdimensional travel Quote Other matters may play out in the future We'll see end quote. Well, you know with the delayed sentencing Guess who's not talking To anyone at walktell who Joe But here's the thing is that after a year of my reporting on this what multiple sources of aspiration now tell me is something Even more interesting Which is that they believe that the reason the federal government got seriously involved in the case of the tree planting fraud and the NBA team is because there was at least one whistleblower a Government whistleblower from inside of aspiration who went to the feds to report what they knew about alleged criminal activity By Joe Sandberg and others presumably in writing And presumably under penalty of perjury And so I have one more big question for NBA commissioner Adam Silver and everyone involved in investigating this story involved in thoroughly Doing due diligence Including by the way the multiple congressional offices pushing silver to testify about the gambling scandal as well as the richest owner in sports under oath And my question is If this aspiration whistleblower who tipped over that first domino of a federal criminal investigation exists Did they explicitly mention Steve Balmer and NBA salary capser convention to the government That's a good ask question because that would feel like a smoking gun as close as we can get to one in this whole story If they want to come to a conclusion one way or the other that's a question you have to ask and then Get answered and if anyone can get to the bottom of that question I do think it would change a certain declaration of innocence Into something that sounds even more obviously Like the opposite Yeah, look Dennis knows the rules Kauai knows the rules Mitch Franklin knows the rules and we know the rules Yes, we all know the rules and I would make in All be back joke at the end here David, but I mean already stepped on that. Oh Judgment day is inevitable You went T3 at the end. Yeah The machines that one was not directed by James Cameron just wasn't I don't believe so now Nor was Batman and Robin we killed the dinosaurs the ice age This has been Pablo Tore finds out a metal-lark media production And I'll talk to you next time You We get it making tax digital can sometimes feel daunting but with zeros HMRC recognize software You quickly get to feeling confident If you're a sold trader or landlord whose income tax is going digital not only is zero Mtd ready it also gives you better control of your finances Like having the clear financial visibility you need every quarter to avoid end-of-year tax surprises Change the way you see mtd search mtd ready with zero Maltese's bunnies They're back, but like a hot person on an escalator going the other way. 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