Kawhi Leonard Could Face More Trouble as Pablo Torre Makes New Information Public

Pablo Torre reported on a previously unknown Daktronics arrangement that reignited the entire Kawhi Leonard investigation. He alleged that money was “funneled from the Clippers through Daktronics back to Kawhi.” That story was based on anonymous sourcing. This week, Torre returned with something harder to dismiss: actual internal emails.

On the latest episode of “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” Torre presented what he described as newly obtained documents from inside the Clippers’ own marketing department. He showed that staff repeatedly coordinated with Daktronics representatives to schedule promotional appearances involving Leonard and his uncle, Dennis Robertson, throughout the spring of 2021.

“There was a crucial aspect of the Clippers scoreboard partnership that proved difficult when it came to execution, which is that the Clippers had apparently agreed to do business by way of Kawhi Leonard’s uncle, Dennis Robertson,” Torre said.

“But Kawhi himself apparently did not want to do anything for these unannounced multi-million dollar quote-unquote sponsorship deals… the Clippers, meanwhile, in order to not break the NBA’s cardinal rule, really would have needed Kawhi to do something, to do anything, no matter how low the lift, to make an extremely lucrative job with a jumbotron manufacturer seem even vaguely real.”

Torre walked through the emails in detail. The first, dated March 16, 2021, came from a Clippers marketing employee to a Daktronics contact: “We wanted to check in to see if your team has already met with the player and his rep, or if you have the meeting on the books. We look forward to beginning the activations.”

As Torre noted, that email was before Leonard’s KL2 Aspire LLC. The entity behind his Aspiration deal, by eight months, and is before any public announcement of the Halo Board project by more than a year.

A follow-up a month later pressed further: “Wanted to check in to see if you’ve been able to connect with Uncle Dennis/KL to secure a date.” A third, from May 11, 2021, acknowledged the difficulty of the ask given the calendar. “Wanted to reach out to see if Uncle D has given you any update on timing with regard to the autographs. Playoffs are usually an off-limit time for us to approach players, but please let us know if you are able to work something out with Uncle D.”

A Daktronics representative replied the same day: “I’ll follow up and get back to you! Thanks for the reminder! Go Clippers!” A response Torre couldn’t get through reading aloud without laughing on air.

Why This Complicates the Clippers-Kawhi Defense

The significance, according to Torre, isn’t that the emails prove money changed hands. They don’t contain any dollar figures or payment terms, and multiple outlets covering the release noted the correspondence alone doesn’t establish a violation of NBA rules.

The significance is what it does to the Clippers’ main argument about the Aspiration situation. “I think it’s important to go back to what Ballmer said, when he talks about, ‘They’re off to the races on their own. We weren’t involved,’” Torre said. “That expression does not come with all of these email chains. They are in the starting gate, it would appear.”

Ballmer’s public defense has been on the idea that Leonard’s outside arrangements happened independently of the organization. These emails show that Clippers marketing staff managed scheduling logistics for a separate corporate partner’s engagement with Leonard’s camp, repeatedly, over a period of months, well before either the Aspiration or Daktronics deals became public.

This is now the second major Daktronics-related revelation from Torre in a matter of days. He alleged that Leonard was paid more than $28 million by the company through quarterly installments on top of his standard contract. That story cited an anonymous source who called the arrangement “1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap.”

Daktronics said Leonard does not currently have an active contract with the company. They declined to elaborate further given the league’s ongoing Wachtell Lipton-led investigation.

With Commissioner Adam Silver's deadline to wrap the probe “before next season” already passed. ESPN reported that the investigation could stretch into 2027, and now this latest email release adds documented, dated evidence to what had largely been built on anonymous sourcing and speculation.