[lloyd] Ballmer Spent Billions To Make Clippers Matter, But He Brought Them More Shame. He Was Supposed To Scrub Sterling’s Stain From Clippers. Instead, He Left One Of His Own. Their Offenses Are Not Morally Equivalent. Sterling Disgraced The Franchise With Racism; Ballmer Corrupted Its Integrity.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7561209/2026/09/03/steve-ballmer-clippers-investigation-punishment-kawhi-leonard-deals/

Steve Ballmer spent billions to make Clippers matter, but he brought them more shame

Steve Ballmer was supposed to scrub Donald Sterling’s stain from the LA Clippers. Instead, he left one of his own.

Their offenses are not morally equivalent. Sterling disgraced the franchise with his racism; Ballmer corrupted its integrity.

Both men made ownership the organization’s greatest source of shame. Ballmer’s fall for using the team’s business relationships to obtain millions of dollars for Kawhi Leonard through salary-cap circumvention is especially jarring because he arrived as the antidote to everything Sterling poisoned.

Sterling spent decades turning the Clippers into the NBA’s cheapest, most incompetent and most disgraceful organization. By the time his racist comments forced him out, everything about the franchise felt contaminated.

Ballmer arrived as the cleanser.

He spent $2 billion not to buy a basketball team in 2014. He was performing an exorcism.

He had more money than he could ever spend and more enthusiasm than he could contain. He screamed at games, bounded across stages and attacked the Clippers’ irrelevance with the same intensity he once used to climb to the top of Microsoft.

He spent on players, coaches, executives and facilities. He built Intuit Dome, a $2 billion basketball palace and an 18,000-seat shrine to technological excess, finally freeing the Clippers from feeling like squatters in the Lakers’ arena and giving them a home meant to embody everything Sterling never did.

Sterling was cheap. Ballmer was lavish.

Sterling was indifferent. Ballmer was obsessed.

Sterling made the Clippers embarrassing. Ballmer made them relevant.

Now 12 years later, Ballmer is another disgrace in a franchise history overrun with them.