Is Pablo Torre More Credible Than ESPN? | Hour 2

The Dan Le Batard Show

The Dan Le Batard Show discusses the fallout from the NBA's severe punishment of the Los Angeles Clippers, questioning whether reporter Pablo Torre would have

Key takeaways

• Pablo Torre's reporting on the Clippers scandal was so comprehensive that the NBA's punishment seemed inevitable once all facts were known.

Main topics

• Pablo Torre's investigative reporting on the Clippers scandal
• Media failure to recognize the severity of the Clippers case

Notable quotes

David doesn't make the rules of Judaism.

If Pablo Torre still worked at ESPN, nobody would have been surprised by the size of that punishment.

Conclusion

The episode underscores the importance of independent journalism and criticizes

Transcript preview

Speaker 6 (0:00) You are listening to the Dan Levitar Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App. Now live in all 50 states. Speaker 4 (0:13) This episode of the Dan Levitt's Art Show is presented by DraftKings Sports. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Speaker 1 (0:20) You guys were still talking in the break about what's appropriate, what's not appropriate. Roy is relieved, and everyone is saying they thought they were supposed to bring food to Shiva. And you're supposed to, but you're supposed to bring the correct food. You're supposed to bring something. Speaker 5 (0:34) You Speaker 1 (0:34) don't need to bring food. Speaker 5 (0:36) Okay, when you say you need, you're right. It's not mandatory. You can still go to the Shiva without food. Yes. Speaker 2 (0:41) It's totally expected to not bring food. Speaker 4 (0:43) I will say every single person outside of Zazz that spoke about Shiva before I went was like, you got to bring something. Speaker 5 (0:49) You absolutely are supposed, it is the right thing to do is to bring something because part of the idea of the Shiva is you don't want the family to have to do. anything during the shiva, which lasts a week. You want them to be taken care of, and so part of it is not having them cook meals or anything. You Speaker 1 (1:04) don't want the family while it's sleeping in the morning to have to answer the door because you're four hours early. Speaker 2 (1:09) Generally not. And the meal actually happens before. So there's a couple rules of shiva. When it's someone who dies, who passes, who's old, like in their 80s or 90s, and it's the natural order, then shivas are more, there's more food involved. Speaker 5 (1:22) But Speaker 2 (1:23) when it's a tragic loss of someone in their... 20s there's actually no food involved I've never Speaker 5 (1:28) heard that yeah Speaker 2 (1:29) so the mourners the family eats before shiva even starts and there's no food because it's supposed to be more somber but Speaker 5 (1:35) shiva lasts a week like you Speaker 2 (1:37) do need to eat throughout the week but you eat before the shiva so the shiva is not a celebration when someone dies in their 20s versus their 80s that's interesting I didn't know those were just Speaker 5 (1:45) discrepancy. Well, Speaker 1 (1:45) it does seem like though there are occasions where people come to use Aslo for Jewish advice and you lead them astray. That seems to be something that... Speaker 6 (1:55) Shiva's all day. It Speaker 1 (1:57) seems like there are some people around here who come for your Jewish advice and you fail them. Speaker 4 (2:05) No, I disagree with the failing. I mean, if I remember correctly, it wasn't like seeking advice. It was like... I'm going to stand up at the head of the table, guys. I know how Shiva works. That's true. Let me give a little minute spiel. Well, Speaker 5 (2:16) I'm a Speaker 4 (2:16) leader. Speaker 5 (2:17) I don't need to wait for people. I don't want people to screw up. I'm a leader. But you're leading in the wrong direction. I disagree. David doesn't make the rules of Judaism. I don't write about everything. Speaker 2 (2:28) The way 20 % works, it's an estimation based on tests that are done. Much like heart blockage, it's estimations always. How the hell Speaker 1 (2:37) would a doctor be able to measure your taste better than you can measure your taste? Testing. Speaker 5 (2:43) More importantly, how do you respond to the accusation from Dan's taste friends that you are doing this for attention? Speaker 2 (2:52) Seriously. It's been said. It's been said. Speaker 1 (2:55) By who? His taste friends. I can't reveal my sources. I can't reveal my sources. Speaker 2 (3:00) I get plenty of attention. I don't need to get more attention from this, period. I don't have candy in my bag for attention. I have it because I like candy. I know, but if you can't taste it. I like the texture. I like how it feels. Have you noticed I don't eat sushi? Have you noticed that? That I don't like eating sushi anymore and I used to love it? Texture. Have you noticed that? I hadn't noticed that. No, of course not, because you're too self-involved. How Speaker 1 (3:23) could you not notice he's not Speaker 2 (3:23) eating Speaker 1 (3:23) sushi? I had not noticed that he had stopped Speaker 2 (3:25) eating sushi. There's significant changes that have happened. You should have brought a boat. Whether you want to believe them or not is not relevant. Hey, I'm here, guys. Speaker 4 (3:32) You think you should have brought sushi to Shiva? I wanted to change it up, dude. How many black and white cookies can we have? Speaker 2 (3:38) That's what Jeremy brought. To be fair, Jeremy's black and white cookies were completely eaten and your fried pork was completely untouched. Speaker 1 (3:46) It's unbelievable. Speaker 4 (3:46) All right. I'm going to take the L on that Speaker 2 (3:48) one. Speaker 4 (3:48) It is rather offensive. Showing up early? Showing up early? I feel like I should. That's a pat on the back. No, not for hours. Above and beyond. You woke him up. Who went to shiv it twice? I did. This guy did. No, Speaker 1 (3:58) you woke up a bunch of mourners. I want to talk about some of the things happening in baseball because I just love the controversy in that Cardinals-Rockies game. The only reason at this point in the season to watch a Cardinals-Rockies game is for the fun protest that the Cardinals did because some look-at-me umpire, Doug Edding, said it was my field. You don't wear your hat that way on my field, Hansel Rincon. You do not. And then he says, this part was my favorite part of the story. Well, the catcher, you know, the catcher requested this. And then Hunter Goodman says after the game, I did no such thing. I didn't request that. I didn't request anything. That ump is making that up. Who did that remind you of, the tilted Speaker 2 (4:40) hat? Who's the first player you thought of? Fernando Rodney. Dontrell Willis. I'm with Tony. That's generational. CeCe and Speaker 1 (4:46) Sabathia. That's generational, yes. CeCe and Rodney are both after Dontrell. But I just love the protest from, it was both. That's Speaker 6 (4:56) fine. That's Speaker 1 (4:57) a $5 fine. I'm sorry, Samson, to do that to you, but that telephone is... Do you know what Speaker 2 (5:02) that is, though? I'll pay the $5, but do you know what it Speaker 1 (5:04) is? No, Speaker 2 (5:04) I don't want to do Speaker 1 (5:05) this. Speaker 2 (5:05) I'm Speaker 6 (5:06) just Speaker 2 (5:06) going to pay it. There's no way Speaker 1 (5:07) to mute Speaker 2 (5:07) it, is the answer. Speaker 1 (5:08) There's no Speaker 6 (5:08) way to mute it. Speaker 2 (5:09) Okay. Speaker 6 (5:09) But Speaker 2 (5:10) we're good. $5. Speaker 6 (5:11) We're good. And Speaker 1 (5:12) the unmutable sound. Before we get to that Cardinals-Rockies story, though, I wanted to ask you guys if you had any more thoughts in the last four days since... what I believe to be one of the biggest sports scandals of all time that I think would have been a lot larger. And I was talking with David Samson about this on his own show today, nothing personal. I believe that if Pablo Torre still worked at ESPN or at any of the major mainstream media outlets and had been doing the exact same job that he did for us, that nobody would have been surprised by the size of that punishment. If you listen to those 14 episodes, the information was... so damning that it would have been obvious to all that this is one of the most egregious examples of obvious cheating that has ever been uncovered in sports. And so I'm just wondering over the last four or five days as you've consumed some of the reaction to it, which had way too much of the media's ass. admitting out loud, yeah, didn't listen to the episode, still haven't listened to the episode. So everyone got caught with their pants down on a story where one person had the facts and everyone else was ignorant. I think it led to a year of this story being covered improperly in the media and then everyone being stunned by a result when they were talking about things that discredited Pablo, that called him a snitch, when all he was doing was reporting most. obviously, fact after fact after fact after fact that seemed to be indisputable. I Speaker 5 (6:46) was actually listening to Amin a little bit on NBA radio yesterday, and I have not read the 36 pages that Wachtell Lipton released. And Amin was saying that even Pablo's reporting wasn't even as bad as the 36 pages show. Well, we didn't have Speaker 2 (7:04) everything they had. Right, of Speaker 5 (7:05) course. No, I understand. It's so much worse than even the bad stuff that Pablo reported. We can Speaker 1 (7:12) make a reasonable argument, okay, that that punishment was not stiff enough. Like, you really could. If you were listening to all those episodes, I'm framing this for you correctly when I say one of the biggest scandals in sports history was owned for a year by a single reporter. and his team. And there are a number of things I want to talk about here, but David, you've been a great expert and a Pulitzer Prize winner on this subject. In the last few days, what are the things that have emerged that people aren't talking enough about when it comes to this case? Because I'm real curious what Ballmer does next. Does he just slink away quietly, or does he start suing everybody and leave himself open to a real mess on his hands if he's just a petulant child about ego and doesn't let this go? It's gotten super quiet, Speaker 2 (7:59) and what we've been waiting for, we thought that the Clippers would be ready with what their move was because they claimed to have only seen the report an hour before. I don't know if that's something that no one's focused on, and I pointed out to Pablo. that that's not accurate. And so I have sources, they knew exactly what the punishment was that led to the ESPN article of weeks ago. They may not have physically seen the report until the hour before, but they knew what was in the report. And so they continue to parse words, Ballmer and the Clippers, and they get caught every time and they never succeed. So I believe it's Gnug. Yiddish. Enough. It's enough. I think Balmer realizes that there is no upside to continuing to fight. None. Reputationally or in terms of watching his team play. Speaker 1 (8:46) Did Kawhi at the very end do Ballmer dirty by just