{"id":1917837,"date":"2026-05-04T21:58:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1917837"},"modified":"2026-05-04T21:58:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:58:49","slug":"pablo-torres-kawhi-leonard-reporting-wins-pulitzer-prize-a-first-for-the-athletic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1917837","title":{"rendered":"Pablo Torre\u2019s Kawhi Leonard reporting wins Pulitzer Prize, a first for The Athletic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The podcast \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d won the Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting on Monday for an investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 alleged evasion of the NBA\u2019s salary cap through the use of a separate entity to pay star Kawhi Leonard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pulitzer is the first for The Athletic<\/em>, which started 10 years ago and has been owned by The New York Times Company since 2022. \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d is produced by Meadowlark Media and became part of The Athletic Podcast Network in September through a licensing deal.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cTo be a show in\u00a0The Athletic<\/em>\u2019s network and to be connected to The New York Times Company broadly is an honor in and of itself,\u201d Torre, 40, said during a celebration in The Times newsroom.<\/p>\n

\n

Last year, Torre reported on his show that the Clippers and their owner, Steve Ballmer, paid Leonard millions of dollars more than allowed under league salary cap rules through a four-year, $28 million endorsement deal with Aspiration, a California-based environmental company. Ballmer was a prominent investor in Aspiration, which filed for bankruptcy in March 2025. Following the podcast, the NBA began an investigation into the allegations, which the Clippers and Ballmer have repeatedly denied. That investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

{“endpoint”:”https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql”}<\/p>\n

Since beginning in 2023, \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d has covered a variety of topics, ranging from the Leonard reporting to President Donald Trump\u2019s influence on team ownership, to secret rap albums and competitive bird-watching. Torre also made headlines for episodes on Bill Belichick and the operations of the NFL Players\u2019 Union.<\/p>\n

Torre, a Harvard graduate, was formerly a sports writer for Sports Illustrated before moving to ESPN and becoming a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. He also contributed to the television shows \u201cAround the Horn\u201d and \u201cPardon the Interruption,\u201d and hosted the ESPN Daily podcast.<\/p>\n

The New York Times won three Pulitzers on Monday \u2014 for investigative reporting, opinion writing and breaking news photography \u2014 while The Washington Post and Reuters each won two. The prizes are given out each year by Columbia University for excellence in journalism, literature and the arts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The podcast \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d won the Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting on Monday for an investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 alleged evasion of the NBA\u2019s salary cap through the use of a separate entity to pay star Kawhi Leonard. The Pulitzer is the first for The Athletic, which started 10 years ago […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1917837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1917837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1917837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1917837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1917837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}