‘This Is Crazy,’ ‘Launch Lawrence Frank Into the Sun’ — Uproar Intensifies As Pablo Torre Suggests Clippers Exec Snitched in Kawhi Leonard Scandal
· Yahoo Sports
The NBA’s historic punishment has already put the Los Angeles Clippers under immense scrutiny, but the fallout from the Kawhi Leonard scandal is far from over.
Pablo Torre, who first brought the alleged salary-cap circumvention into the spotlight, has now added fresh fuel to the fire.
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist suggested that Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank effectively snitched on the organization during the NBA’s investigation to receive a lighter penalty. The NBA world had a lot to say about Torre’s latest reveal.
NBA World Turns on Lawrence Frank As Pablo Torre Suggests Clippers Executive Snitched
The NBA handed down its steep punishment on Wednesday following its nearly yearlong investigation into the Clippers’ alleged salary-cap circumvention involving Leonard and a $28 million no-show endorsement deal with Aspiration.
The penalty was historic. The Clippers were fined $30 million and forced to forfeit five first-round draft picks. Team owner Steve Ballmer and president of business operations Gillian Zucker were each suspended for a year from all team and league activities, while Frank received a six-month suspension.
Leonard was also fined $700,000, while his uncle Dennis Robertson was banned from conducting business with NBA teams and their affiliates for five years.
But Frank’s role in the NBA investigation has sparked another controversy. Speaking on “The Stephen A. Smith Show” on Thursday, Torre highlighted how Frank provided the NBA with “contemporaneous notes” from meetings involving Ballmer and Robertson.
“He knows so much about how the Clippers are going to be dead to rights if anybody talks, if anybody finds these documents and these money flows. And so what he does, this is just the fact pattern that we know to be true, he negotiates a four-year extension from Steve Ballmer,” Torre began.
“But then, during the NBA investigation, he sits, and he provides contemporaneous notes he’s been taking in all of these meetings, including meetings with Steve Ballmer and Dennis Robertson in which they are saying out loud exactly what they want no one to ever discover. And what the NBA says in the report specifically is that Lawrence Frank was ‘especially cooperative,’ and therefore, he got a six-month suspension instead of the full year.”
Per Torre, Frank protected himself by cooperating with the league and, in the process, gave investigators information that facilitated the NBA’s investigation.
That was enough for the NBA community to deliver strong reactions to the latest development.
“We need to launch Lawrence Frank into the sun,” one user declared.
“So, Lawrence Frank took lots of notes and blackmailed his way up the ladder, then he snitched LMAO,” another added.
Others turned their attention toward the Clippers organization, with one X user jesting, “Clippers legal department should be wiping their LinkedIn profiles as we speak. GC all the way down.”
“Them 5 Clippers fans might put a hit on L Frank 😭,” another joked.
“This is crazy btw,” one X user noted.
Another particularly furious fan demanded Frank’s immediate firing.
“FIRE L-FRANK RN!!!!! This guy is straight up criminal, he doing whatever he can because he knows he will never get another job again in the League. FIRE THIS LOSER ALREADY,” the Clippers fan fumed.
“Lmfaooo, everyone throwing everyone under the bus. [Expletive] this org 😂,” another fan piled on.
The uproar comes as Torre continues to suggest that the Clippers scandal may have more details than what has already been made public.
During Wednesday’s episode of “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” Torre warned that the NBA’s report may not contain “everything.”
Frank joined the Clippers in 2014, initially working under head coach Doc Rivers before transitioning into a front office role.
Now, with the Clippers facing the biggest penalty ever handed down to an NBA team, Frank has become a major target of the fallout.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.