- Steve Ballmer bought the Clippers in 2014 following the Donald Sterling scandal
- Ballmer has been one of the better owners in the NBA since
- He explained why he made the decision to buy the team
Steve Ballmer jumped at the opportunity to become the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014 and has done a pretty good job since then. But what led to him deciding to buy the Clippers? Well, Ballmer recently made an appearance on “Podcast P with Paul George,” where he spoke about that decision.
“The Sterling thing comes out, and my middle son, who was in college at the time, he says ‘Dad, you’ve got to get on this, this thing is gonna sell,’” Ballmer said. “(I was like), ‘You’re probably right.’ And I like LA. I’m retired. The notion of getting out of Seattle when it’s sort of rainy and gray and coming to LA in the wintertime, that’s appealing. We jumped on it.”
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The NBA had, of course, banned then-owner Donald Sterling after a recording emerged of him making racist remarks toward Black individuals. Commissioner Adam Silver was forcing him to sell the team, and Ballmer pounced.
Ballmer, who had just retired as CEO of Microsoft in 2014, landed the Clippers for reportedly $2 billion. The franchise being in Los Angeles certainly seems to have been a big reason why he purchased it, and the 67-year-old has done a very good job since taking over.
The Clippers Under Ballmer
The Donald Sterling era for the Clippers was a disaster in every sense of the way. We spoke about the off-the-court issues, but even on it, the team only had six winning seasons when he owned it from 1981 to 2014.
Since Ballmer took over, the Clippers have never had a losing season, and they have a record of 432-286 in that time. Sure, a championship continues to elude them, but things are a lot better than they were before him.
Ballmer is also getting the Clippers their own arena, with the team set to play in the Intuit Dome from the 2024-25 season. They’ve played second fiddle to the Los Angeles Lakers for so long, and Ballmer felt the new Clippers arena made it clear they are nobody’s little brother.
Ballmer Had Attempted To Purchase Teams Prior To The Clippers
Ballmer explained during this episode that the idea of buying a team first came to him from Paul Allen, who also worked at Microsoft. Allen purchased the Portland Trail Blazers in 1988 and urged Ballmer to buy a team too. His commitment to Microsoft and wanting to focus on his family meant Ballmer decided against it.
When the Seattle Supersonics were about to move to Oklahoma City, Ballmer, whose hometown is Seattle, attempted to help fund the renovation of KeyArena to keep them there, but it was a little too late. The Sonics moved to OKC and Ballmer then tied to get a team back there.
Ballmer was part of an ownership group that attempted to buy the Sacramento Kings in 2013 and move them to Seattle. That attempt failed, as the league did not want the team relocated. He was then interested in buying the Milwaukee Bucks, but that went nowhere as well.
Clippers fans would be thanking their lucky stars that Ballmer wasn’t able to get his hands on any of those teams. Who knows how differently things would have panned out had someone else taken over in 2014?
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