The Mavericks’ minority owner, Mark Cuban, reacted to the NBA’s recent verdict in the Kawhi Leonard salary-cap circumvention controversy with the Clippers.
“Congrats, Pablo,”wrote Cuban on X.
NBA fans took to social media and saw the billionaire businessman’s two-word response. They flooded the comment section with criticism, calling Cuban out for backtracking on his comments about Pablo Torre, the investigative journalist who first reported the story.
“Not sure how you thought they were innocent. This smelled like rotting fish from the beginning.”
“Man…you were so wrong in this one. Always side with the smarter people…Pablo is much smarter than Ballmer. And Pablo actually works for a living.”
“Maybe defending another billionaire and pissing all over @PabloTorre for months was stupid on your part. Just stating the obvious.”
“I think Pablo deserves more than a tweet. As a partial NBA owner and former full owner of the Dallas Mavericks, I would have expected better Insight from you. It makes me wonder what you’ve been hiding.”
“Is this how billionaires say I’m sorry I slandered you prematurely?”
Mark Cuban is now facing backlash from NBA fans because he was one of the few people who played devil’s advocate when this story first broke in September 2025. He first defended Steve Ballmer on social media.
“I’m on Team Ballmer. As much as I wish they circumvented the salary cap, First Steve isn’t that dumb. If he did try to feed KL money, knowing what was at stake for him personally and his team, do you think he would let the company go bankrupt?”
“Knowing all creditors would be visible to the world? They got scammed by Aspiration, along with many others. Crimes for which they pleaded guilty last week. Scammers do scammy things. They did a $300m sponsorship deal with the Clippers in 2021. That’s a HUGE deal.”
“The better the team does, the more value the sponsorship has. It makes perfect sense: if they stole money from investors and want the Clippers to succeed, why not use stolen money to help keep their best player?”
“It’s sad that Pablo Torre didn’t take the time to find out how these scammers pulled it off. The idea that the default is Ballmer is the bad guy is going to backfire on him,”said Cuban in a statement he released back in September 2025.
After engaging with Pablo Torre on social media, Cuban was invited to his show and accepted. Despite initially saying he hoped Torre’s allegations were true in 2025 when the story broke, Mark Cuban publicly supported Steve Ballmer, saying he would be the “dumbest human being on the planet” if he allowed this to happen.
“The fact that it’s deeply sourced is relevant. No, kudos to you for finding your sources. No, no issues there. The conclusions you came to sh-t on Steve Balmer, and that was wrong because you didn’t have enough information to make that connection,”said Cuban in his appearance on the Pablo Torre Finds Out show.
Months later, after an official NBA verdict, Cuban has honorably tipped his hat to Pablo Torre for his role in exposing Steve Ballmer and the Clippers. Cuban’s brief message may have acknowledged Torre’s reporting, but it also reignited criticism over his earlier defense of Ballmer.
With the NBA now issuing its verdict on Kawhi Leonard’s situation, the billionaire Mavericks minority owner’s change in tone has given fans another reason to revisit his previous comments and question his initial skepticism. If anything, Cuban is simply being a gentleman about conceding defeat.