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Fans react to Mark Cuban’s ‘novel’ tweets defending Steve Ballmer, Kawhi Leonard
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- Fans react to Mark Cuban’s ‘novel’ tweets defending Steve Ballmer, Kawhi Leonard
The post Fans react to Mark Cuban's 'novel' tweets defending Steve Ballmer, Kawhi Leonard appeared first on ClutchPoints .
Steve Ballmer , Kawhi Leonard , and the Los Angeles Clippers continue to be under investigation by the NBA following the reports and allegations from investigative journalist Pablo Torre. That hasn't stopped Mark Cuban from weighing in on the situation and defending his fellow NBA governor.
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Since the reports came out in early September, alleging that Kawhi Leonard had a no-show deal with Aspiration that would pay him $28 million over four years and $20 million in shares, Cuban had been adamantly defending Ballmer. The Clippers owner, who invested $50 million in the company, came out shortly after the reports and said he was conned by Aspiration.
During Ballmer's interview with ESPN, Ballmer echoed the statement that the accusations are "provably false' and added that Aspiration, 'conned,' him.
"Any speculation would be crazy," Steve Ballmer told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne. "These are guys who committed fraud. They conned me. I made an investment in these guys, thinking it was on the up-and-up, and they conned me. At this stage, I have no ability to predict why they did anything they did, let alone the specific contract with Kawhi."
Shortly thereafter, Cuban made an appearance on Pablo Torre's podcast to give his insight into the business and have a conversation about the allegations.
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"Ballmer made an announcement at some point in time saying that the deal was not moving forward, and this was several years ago," Mark Cuban explained . "But that wasn't really the trigger for team Ballmer. The trigger for team Ballmer was in January of 2024, when it was either the SEC or CFTC said that they were under investigation. So, the minute Aspiration was under investigation, I guarantee you, in the mortal words of Charles Barkley, 'I guarantee it' that the NBA took a hard look at it."
That was part of a show that went an hour and 18 minutes, more than enough time to touch on a number of topics. Weeks later, however, Cuban is still on Twitter advocating for Ballmer and the Clippers.
"The reason I am still Team Ballmer, and what I think basketball fans are missing is the amount of money that everyone hoped the merger between InterPrivate and Aspiration would be worth," Cuban added . "Lets say it was big enough that Joe Sanberg and his buddy bet their freedom on it.
"The merger agreement predated everything. Everything that Sanberg did, who again, had complete control over the company, was all that mattered. What any of the execs that were interviewed said or did, didnt matter.. He could and did over ride them all."
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https://x.com/mcuban/status/1968079012506620312
In a later tweet, Cuban explained why he's been going out of his way to defend Ballmer.
"If you pay attention to my posts on here over the many years, I always stand up for people, some I know, some I don't, who have accusations made against them by media or government or someone in power. No different when I had the Mavs and I tried to stand up for our players when I thought they were unfairly attacked…
"In this case, Pablo Torre has nothing conclusive. A lot of 'if this, then it must mean that.' He does a great job as an investigative journalist, and I respect him. I truly am not making this personal."
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Yahoo Sports' Kevin O'Connor, like many, noted that Mark Cuban's tweets were surprisingly long. But O'Connor tallied up the word count to over 3,800 words from the thread alone.
That prompted a number of responses from fans on social media trolling Cuban for his Twitter feature.
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The NBA's investigation isn't expected to end anytime soon, especially given the seriousness of the allegations. That should make for an interesting media day in Los Angeles in less than two weeks.
Related: Clippers rumors: Kawhi Leonard kept Team USA in dark about knee surgery before Olympics
