​’The Laughingstock of Sports Media’ — Clippers Penalty Puts ESPN Under Fire for Losing Pablo Torre While ‘Going All In’ on Pat McAfee, Stephen A. SmithInvestigative journalist Pablo Torre can finally breathe a sigh of relief after securing a major victory following the NBA’s final verdict on Kawhi Leonard’s controversial endorsement deal saga.As Torre’s reporting gained further validation through the league’s findings and punishments leveled against Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers, fans turned their attention to ESPN, bashing the network for letting go of its former writer.ESPN Faces Fan Backlash After Ex-Writer Pablo Torre’s Kawhi Leonard Investigation PrevailsTorre received widespread praise for exposing LA’s connections to Aspiration and the reported arrangement that involved paying Leonard through a no-show endorsement deal.Despite repeated denials from both the Clippers and Leonard, Torre remained firm in his reporting and stood by the findings of his investigation. His efforts culminated in the Clippers getting fined $30 million and docked five first-round draft picks. Meanwhile, team owner Steve Ballmer was suspended from all league and team activities for one year, and Leonard was handed a $700,000 penalty.Now that Torre has seemingly had the last laugh in the case, fans wasted no time turning their frustration toward ESPN for letting him go while continuing to “go all in” on polarizing sports personalities Pat McAfee and Stephen A. Smith.“ESPN went with the [expletives] common denominators when they gave giant contracts to and went all in with McAfee and Smith. It really shows today with Torre eating their lunch on the Clippers story,” one user reacted.“You simply have to hand it to ESPN for going all in on Pat McAfee and letting former employee Pablo Torre dogwalk the entire network on the biggest NBA story in years,” another comment read.“Never forget that ESPN let Pablo Torre walk over ‘creative differences’ because he wanted more resources for deep-dive investigative journalism… and then immediately backed up the Brink’s truck to license Pat McAfee,” a fan slammed the network.“ESPN look like some [expletives] now for not backing Torre this is lowk insane,” one user wrote.Torre joined ESPN in 2012 after spending five years at Sports Illustrated. The ESPN writer eventually left his role at the network in 2023 to join Meadowlark Media, the company founded by former ESPN executive John Skipper and Dan Le Batard. While at Meadowlark Media, Torre launched his independent podcast, “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”“Pablo Torre is proof ESPN knows how to find talent but is terrible at using their talents to the fullest while at the network,” a fan claimed.“@ESPN has become the laughingstock of sports media. They let credible sports journalists go and replaced them with [expletives] like Pat McAfee. Can’t wait to hear his thoughtful, intelligent analysis of this tomorrow morning lol. In a world