Pablo Torres & Team Wins A Pulitzer Prize For Podcast Investigative Reporting

The PTFO report even sparked an NBA investigation into the Clippers, which is still ongoing eight months later. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has described the probe as “enormously complex” during his remarks to media at the February All-Star break, which was hosted by the Clippers. The NBA told ESPN in April that the investigation that’s being conducted by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is ongoing.

Pablo Torres Finds Out

Per the findings of the PTFO investigation, Aspiration signed Leonard to a $28 million no-show marketing deal, with the implication that this money was instead funneled to Leonard from Ballmer in violation of the NBA’s salary cap.

Per the report, Ballmer personally invested $50 million in Aspiration when it was founded in 2021, and then Clippers signed a $300 million sponsorship deal with Aspiration.

Ballmer has vehemently denied wrongdoing and has said to multiple media outlets that “he had been conned by Aspiration.” Joseph Sanberg, Aspirations’s co-founder, has already pled guilty to federal wire fraud charges in 2025 for his role in a scheme that prosecutors say defrauded investors of $248 million.

Steve Ballmer, once Microsoft CEO, wrote a letter last month to the judge overseeing Sanberg’s sentencing. In that letter, Ballmer acknowledged introducing Aspiration to Leonard in a September interview with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, but denied any knowledge of the $28 million endorsement deal.

What is the Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a prestigious annual award recognizing excellence in journalism, literature, drama, and music, administered by Columbia University in New York. Established by publisher Joseph Pulitzer in 1917, it is regarded as the highest national honor for U.S. print journalism, photography, and arts, with 21 categories honored annually.

The Pulitzer Board sometimes issues special citations to honor journalism under extraordinary circumstances, such as in Gaza (2024) or for work covering Ukraine.

Pulitzer Prize Committee

Prizes are awarded in 21 categories, including 14 for journalism (reporting, photography, criticism, editorial) and 7 for letters, drama, and music.

Entries must generally come from U.S. newspapers, magazines, or news sites, including specific, high-standard news sites associated with broadcast media.

Pablo Torres unmasked

Pablo S. Torre is an American journalist, podcaster, and television host known for his investigative sports media work. He hosts the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, which won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting. Before the podcast, Torre worked as a writer/host at ESPN, known for High Noon and ESPN Daily. A Harvard graduate, Torre began his career at Sports Illustrated before joining ESPN as a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and a regular on sports talk shows like Around the Horn.

Pablo Torre is Filipino-American and has garnered multiple awards, including the Edward R. Murrow Award for Sports Reporting.

Pablo Torre

Torre is well-known for combining deep investigation with a witty, sometimes absurd, approach to speaking truth to power. Produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic, the show focuses on "taking stupid things seriously," conducting deep-dive "talkumentary" investigations into complex, often shady, areas of sports, business, and culture.

Torre has a history of tackling high-profile and underreported scandals. For example, in collaboration with WIRED, Torre investigated the surveillance practices of Madison Square Garden (MSG) Entertainment owner James Dolan. The MSG security was found to be using facial-recognition technology to monitor and identify people, including patrons and adversaries, across their venues. In some cases, people were denied entry due to the technology.

In 2026, the show investigated how convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein used the biggest brand in academia to launder his reputation. The investigation uncovered a $25,000 Jeffrey E. Epstein Fund for Women’s Athletics at Harvard that was not disclosed in the university’s own 2020 self-investigation.

Internal files showed that Harvard officials and former President Lawrence Summers solicited this money, and female rugby players were told to keep the donation quiet.

PTFO

Earlier in his career, Torre worked for Sports Illustrated, and he investigated the financial ruin of professional athletes. His investigative work sparked a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation of Triton Financial for a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme that defrauded athletes.

Several podcasts have won the Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting, an award established in 2020. Key winners include This American Life (2020), No Compromise (2021), Suave (2022), Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s (2023), and You Didn't See Nothin (2024), along with In the Dark: The Killings in Haditha (2025).

In an interview, sports podcast marketer Gary Condant remarked, "First, kudos to Pablo Torre and his team for taking on this investigation. Second, this award reinforces the important role that investigative journalism holds in a democratic nation. As print journalism has faded and with it the zealous reporting of dedicated local reporters, it’s heartening to see podcasting picking up that baton."

This article was originally published on Forbes.com