- Clippers governor gets real on why he overpaid for the Clippers
- Ballmer has no regrets over his 10% overbid on the franchise
- Clippers’ value has doubled to nearly $4 billion since 2014
Clippers owner/governor Steve Ballmer is worth roughly $100.5 billion dollars, and he spent roughly $2 billion to take over the Clippers from Donald Sterling in 2014. But in a recent chat with Paul George on the “Podcast P” show, he admitted that the purchase was actually a massive overpay.
“I was all in, but then it got into the bid process. And I was still all in, but we were in the bid process and I just said, ‘I’m gonna get this team,'” Ballmer said. “People thought I way overpaid, but I got the team. I probably paid 10% more, maybe, than I needed to.”
10% probably doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but when you’re dealing with billions of dollars, it really makes a huge difference. For Ballmer, of course, he was able to fork over the extra money with relative ease and it’s a move that actually worked out for him in the long run.
Today, the Clippers are worth roughly $3.9 billion, almost double what Ballmer paid for it back in 2014. The rise can be attributed to a number of factors, but Ballmer’s leadership is no doubt a huge driving force behind the team’s ongoing success.
Ballmer Is The Best Owner In The NBA
Almost immediately after buying the team, Ballmer went viral for his unorthodox enthusiasm and it spread like wildfire throughout the entire organization. Pretty soon, the “toxic” culture that was created under Sterling was completely erased as the Clips moved to bigger and better things.
In 2023, the community has almost completely forgotten about the “old days” and it’s just the way that Ballmer wants it. In the years since his purchase, he’s given the franchise a complete makeover, swapping Chris Paul and Blake Griffin for Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.
Ballmer will also set up the Clippers with a brand-new arena in Inglewood, which is reported to be a state-of-the-art facility. Slowly but surely, Ballmer has changed the narrative about the Clippers and he’s almost single-handedly kept them relevant since his arrival.
Clippers Are Favorites In The West
Sadly, the Clippers will never earn the complete respect of the community unless they break the cycle and bring home a championship after 50+ years of existence. So far, they have yet to accomplish the task despite an abundance of talent, but they are hoping that changes sooner rather than later.
For this upcoming campaign, the jury is still out on how they stack up against the rest of the West, but they certainly have enough firepower to compete with the best of the best. The key to making history rests on the shoulders of Kawhi Leonard, who is one of the best two-way players in the game.
So if Kawhi can lead his team to the promised land, it will validate all the work that Ballmer has done over the years… but winning in the NBA is never easy and success is never guaranteed at this level of competition. After going 44-38 last season, the Clippers dropped the ball in many ways, but only a fool would count them out completely given all the tools at their disposal.
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