Ballmer Will Have To Balance Analytic Thinking, High Energy In Running Clippers

Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer in running his new club will “have to tap into his ample analytical skills while tempering the impulses that got him into trouble” as Microsoft CEO, according to a cover story profile by Ashlee Vance of BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK. Microsoft during his watch “missed multiple technology shifts and tried to catch up by spending massively on marketing and splashy acquisitions.” That is a “tough way to win in the software trade, and mathematically impossible in a business with a salary cap.” Ballmer has “calculated that the chance to buy a team in a prized market” such as N.Y. or L.A. “would rarely come up and found statistics that showed the Clippers were growing in popularity against the Lakers with younger fans.” Ballmer said, “You can go anywhere in the world and, for better or worse, people know who the Clippers are now.” Vance: “Running a basketball team might seem insufficiently challenging for someone of Ballmer’s energy and intellect. Then again, his dominant traits -- the boosterism, the nutty salesmanship -- could serve him well” (BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK, 10/17 issue). ESPN L.A.’s Ramona Shelburne wrote of Ballmer’s August introduction to Clippers fans, “So what if people thought his pep rally was dorky or awkward or over the top.” That is “who he is, and hasn't been afraid to be.” The Clippers “probably need a little of that energy” (ESPNLA.com, 10/16). Clippers F Blake Griffin, the latest athlete to contribute to Derek Jeter’s “The Players Tribune” website, wrote of Ballmer, “I love that kind of crazy. Ballmer wants to win no matter the cost.” Griffin: “It’s little bit ironic to me that the media has tried to turn Ballmer into a meme when they turned a blind eye to [former Clippers Owner Donald] Sterling for years” (THEPLAYERSTRIBUNE.com, 10/16).

BATTLE OF L.A.: ESPN.com’s Kevin Arnovitz cited ESPN Sports poll data showing that NBA fans are “more likely to switch allegiances” than fans of other sports. L.A. is “a young and diverse market that's obsession with the future only compounds the possibility a championship-caliber Clippers team could make up ground” on the Lakers. With “no real guiding principle other than the preservation of tradition for its own sake, the Lakers were the lone holdouts” at the ‘14 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and “still regard the European market as a novelty.” The Clippers are “beginning to gentrify the basketball landscape in town,” but “no matter how unsightly the freak show gets, the Lakers will continue to rule, at least for a good while” (ESPN.com, 10/16).