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Go hardcore! How former Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer plans to help his ailing LA Clippers basketball team Go hardcore! How former Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer plans to help his ailing LA Clippers basketball team
(about 4 hours later)
As the CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer became known for delivering wildly enthusiastic corporate speeches that might have been better suited to a sports coach. Now, as the incoming owner of the beleaguered Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, he has found his new niche. During a Clippers rally at the Staples Centre in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, Mr Ballmer addressed fans with a pep-talk every bit as passionate as his famous Microsoft keynotes. As the CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer was famous for delivering wildly enthusiastic corporate speeches that might have been better suited to a sports coach. Now, as the incoming owner of the beleaguered Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, he has found his new niche. On Monday, during a rally at the Staples Centre in Downtown Los Angeles, Ballmer addressed Clippers supporters and colleagues with a pep-talk every bit as passionate as his Microsoft keynotes.
One fan who has held a Clippers season ticket for 26 years asked Mr Ballmer what to expect from the team’s next quarter-century. The Clippers franchise, which began in 1970 as the Buffalo Braves, has never won the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy. According to the Los Angeles Times, Mr Ballmer responded by shouting: “I’ll boldly say that the Clippers will win many, many, many, many more Larrys in the next 26 [years] than in the last 26!” The 58-year-old emerged on stage to the sound of Eminem’s Lose Yourself, high-fiving ecstatic fans. He gave out his email address to the crowd – insisting they call him Steve, not Mr Ballmer. In one of the more heated passages of his 13-minute speech, he promised that under his ownership, the Clippers would be “hardcore”. He said: “Something knocks us down and we’re going to get back and keep coming and coming and coming and coming... Hardcore, baby! Nothing gets in our way, BOOM! Keep coming. Hardcore. The hardcore Clippers, that’s us.”
Mr Ballmer left his role at Microsoft in February as the world’s 34th richest man, with an estimated fortune of approximately $20bn. He has said that owning a basketball team was a long-held ambition, and last week he finalised his purchase of the Clippers for $2bn (£1.2bn) – four times the previous record amount paid for an NBA franchise. This is the same Steve Ballmer whose appearances at Microsoft events could be so brash and bombastic that they often went viral. In one famous example, his blue shirt drenched in sweat, he clapped as he chanted the mantra: “Developers, developers, developers, developers.” In another, he yelled maniacally: “I. Love. This. Company!” On Monday, he offered variations on that theme: “I love basketball,” he cried. “I love Los Angeles!”; “I love this team!”
The opportunity to buy the Clippers arose when their controversial previous owner, real estate mogul Donald Sterling, was banned by the NBA after a tape emerged of Mr Sterling making racist remarks to his then-girlfriend. Mr Sterling reluctantly relinquished the team in a court battle with his estranged wife Shelly Sterling, who sold the Clippers to Mr Ballmer on the condition that she retain certain perks – including the ceremonial title: “Owner Emeritus.” While Mr Ballmer’s public persona is undoubtedly energising, some of his employees have said that in private, his boundless enthusiasm can also become a fiery temper. In a sworn affidavit, one former Microsoft worker, Mark Lucovsky, revealed how Ballmer reacted in a 2004 meeting when he told him he was leaving to work for Google. The then-CEO allegedly threw a chair across the room, shouting, “I’m going to f***ing kill Google!” (Ballmer has since described the account as a “gross exaggeration”.)
For many years, the Clippers have played in the shadow of the Los Angeles Lakers. Yet recently, thanks to the influence of head coach Doc Rivers and star players such as Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, they have risen higher in the standings than their hometown rivals. Clippers fans will be heartened to learn, however, that their new owner’s loyalty is not an act. Ballmer grew up in Detroit, where his father was a manager at the Ford headquarters; he still drives Ford cars. He lived in the same dorm as Microsoft founder Bill Gates at Harvard, and dropped out of an MBA to join his college buddy as the company’s first business manager in 1980. Twenty years later, he was appointed its second CEO.
Those players, some of whom had threatened to strike if the Sterlings still owned the team at the start of the new season in October, grinned broadly as Mr Ballmer made his entrance at the  Staples Centre to the sound of Eminem’s Lose Yourself, high-fiving some of the 5,000 ecstatic fans as he went. Critics of his reign have said he lacked his predecessor’s vision, and that he presided over a decline in Microsoft’s influence in the age of the internet and the iPhone. The late Apple founder Steve Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson that Microsoft had become “mostly irrelevant” in the 21st century. “I don’t think anything will change at Microsoft as long as Ballmer is running it,” Jobs said.
“When he came through the crowd, I literally had goose bumps,” Griffin said. “I know all our guys are excited about the energy he brings. It’s completely different.” Ballmer left his CEO role at Microsoft in February as the world’s 34th richest man, with an estimated fortune of approximately $20bn. Today he resigned from Microsoft's board - ending a 34-year association with the company - but remains its biggest shareholder.
Mr Ballmer gave out his email address to the crowd – insisting they should call him Steve, not Mr Ballmer – before reading aloud a message he had received from a 26-year-old fan. “The Clippers are my heart and inspiration. Growing up in LA I had two choices. I always believed in the underdog, because I am one, so I picked the Clippers,” the unnamed fan wrote. “We know you’ll bring us LA underdogs a championship. Go Clippers!” Owning a basketball team was a long-held ambition, and last week he finalised his purchase of the Clippers for $2bn (£1.2bn), four times the previous record price for an NBA franchise.
In one of the more heated passages of his 13-minute speech, Mr Ballmer promised the Clippers would be “hardcore”. He said: “Something knocks us down and we’re going to get back and keep coming and coming and coming and coming... Hardcore, baby! Nothing gets in our way, BOOM! Keep coming. Hardcore. The hardcore Clippers, that’s us.” At the fan rally, he recalled a quote from the former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said, “Optimism is a force multiplier.” And Ballmer is nothing if not optimistic. The Clippers franchise, which began in 1970 as the Buffalo Braves, has never won the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy. At one point, Ballmer shouted: “I’ll boldly say that the Clippers will win many, many, many, many more Larrys in the next 26 [years] than in the last 26!”
Mr Ballmer spent his 34-year career with Microsoft living in Seattle. There had been speculation that he might move the team north to his hometown, which currently lacks an NBA franchise; he quashed that notion. The opportunity to buy the Clippers arose when its previous owner, real estate mogul Donald Sterling, was banned by the NBA after a tape emerged of him making racist remarks to his girlfriend.
Mr Ballmer’s mantra at Microsoft used to be: “I love this company!” On Monday, he offered some alternatives: “I love basketball!... I love Los Angeles!... I love this team!” For now at least, the team and its fans love him too.