They’re done building around him: the tumultuous Kawhi Leonard era in Los Angeles.
Steve Ballmer shouted, chest-bumped and high-fived his way through a frenzied crowd of 4,500 fans inside Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” thumped overhead. The former Microsoft CEO had just paid a then-record $2 billion for the LA Clippers, at once rescuing the team, the city of Los Angeles and the NBA from one of its darkest eras.
“We’re going to be bold. Bold means taking chances,” Ballmer thundered into the microphone after taking the stage. “We’re going to be optimistic. We’re going to be hardcore. Nothing gets in our way — boom! The hardcore Clippers. That’s us.”
Ballmer took questions from season-ticket holders, including one who was 26 and wanted to know how the next 26 years of the franchise would be different after the 33-year tenure of former owner Donald Sterling.
“I’ll boldly say the Clippers will win many, many more Larrys in the next 26 years than they did in the last 26,” Ballmer said, referring to the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Ballmer possessed unmatched monetary resources and ambition to construct a dynasty from the smoldering ruins of Sterling’s disgraced tenure. Ballmer was competitive and innovative, unafraid to dig into some of the deepest pockets on Earth, driven to bring his championship aspirations to life.
Eleven years later, Ballmer’s biggest and most ambitious bet to deliver that championship — or even the franchise’s first NBA Finals appearance — has failed on the court. During the six seasons since the Clippers’ blockbuster 2019 acquisition of superstar Kawhi Leonard, the team has won just three playoff series and Leonard has played in only 58% of its games.
But that failure extends further, because from nearly since the moment Leonard signed in Los Angeles, Ballmer and the team have also drawn unprecedented and serious scrutiny from the NBA league office and the rest of the NBA.
Since 2019, the Clippers have faced two separate lawsuits alleging tampering violations involving Leonard, one of which remains ongoing. They’ve been fined at least twice by the NBA for violations of league rules involving Leonard. There have also been at least three NBA investigations — the latest of which just began — into the Clippers involving Leonard.
