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Businesses The Almighty Buck

Steve Ballmer In Talks To Buy Los Angeles Clippers 76

Posted by samzenpus from the dribblers-dribblers-dribblers dept.
SmartAboutThings (1951032) writes "According to rumors circulating, the wife of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has reportedly met billionaire former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on Sunday and they discussed the selling of the club. Previously, it was reported that Donald Sterling had surrendered control of the Los Angeles Clippers to his wife. The rumored deal has been estimated at about $2 billion, and if it does get through, there are chances that Ballmer might want to move the club to Seattle. If Ballmer does end up buying the Clippers, this would make him the second former Microsoft top executive to own an NBA team, after Paul Allen, the owner of the Portland Trailblazers."
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Steve Ballmer In Talks To Buy Los Angeles Clippers More

Steve Ballmer In Talks To Buy Los Angeles Clippers

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  • Like Steve Ballmer isn't going do anything controversial or embarrassing...

    "Players, players, players, players, players, players, players!"

    What will be throw in the clubhouse? Certainly, something more destructive that mere chairs!

  • LA Clippy (Score:5, Funny)

    by rodrigoandrade ( 713371 ) on Monday May 26, 2014 @08:44AM (#47091983)
    Obvious name change is imminent...
  • Bobby Knight would seem to be the obvious chair-throwing choice in coaches.
  • Rumors surrounding the list of suitors is long indeed, with Oprah Winfrey, Magic Johnson, Floyd Mayweather, Sean Combs, and many others already mentioned.

    It occurs to me that list is filled with many African-American names.

    If the Sterlings retain any say in the final transaction, is it likely they would prefer to sell to a well-heeled American billionaire of European descent?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The sterlings aren't european, they're kikes.

  • "Balmer plans to rename them 'The Seattle Neros Fiddling While Microsoft I Mean Rome Burned'. "

  • Slashdot Expired SSL Certificates (Score:5, Informative)

    by kooky45 ( 785515 ) on Monday May 26, 2014 @08:56AM (#47092053)
    Major security fail Slashdot. You've let your SSL server certificates expire. https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.slashdot.org&s=216.34.181.45 [ssllabs.com]

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Soulskill ( 1459 ) Works for Slashdot

      Yeah, we're aware. Got caught on the holiday weekend, unfortunately, and it's taking a while for the provider to redeploy. Apologies for the inconvenience.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by chihowa ( 366380 ) *

        You know that the expiration date for this certificate was set on 20 Apr 2013 and has been printed on the certificate for over a year, right?

        You don't have to wait for the certificate to actually expire and fail before you renew it. It looks very amateur, and this is coming from an amateur.

      • Maybe this is a good opportunity to look @ OpenSSL, LibreSSL, et al?
  • I suppose there was a point of moving the old Seattle team to OKC back then, and as such moving another team to Seattle might be a bit of a problem.

    • When owners threaten to move teams (and sometimes carry out their threats), it puts great pressure on taxpayers to build new stadiums at no expense to the owners, or else risk losing their favorite teams.

      If you're a loyal fan, it doesn't help much to know that your market is large so a different team might move to your area 5 or 10 years later.

      • Re:Moving to seattle? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by cusco ( 717999 ) <brian@bixby.gmail@com> on Monday May 26, 2014 @10:06AM (#47092431)

        In Seattle's case taxpayers had just coughed up almost half a billion dollars to put up a new football and baseball stadium, in the process destroying the much-loved King Dome and flattening the south end of downtown, and then gave naming rights and enormous tax breaks to the teams' owners to boot. The Sonics declared that they needed a new stadium which was going to cost as much as the other two combined, even though they couldn't reliably fill their current location, **and** they wanted to site it in a rather historic part of the city, **and** they were going to demand all parking revenue for a decade or more even though they weren't paying to build the structure. Seattle appropriately told them to take a hike, and I wish they had told the Mariners and Seahawks the same thing a few years before.

        So Ballmer wants to buy a sports team? All I can say is, "Who gives a flying fuck?"

        • AGREED!!!

          If I had any mod points, you'd get 'em all.

          That is a great example of how these huge business entities increase the burden on taxpayers.

          Speaking of entitlements... How about including crap like this in the discussion. Corporations/teams/whatever should pay their own way. No more taxing the people so billionaires can become even more wealthy than they already are.

  • Chairs to throw... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Andrewkov ( 140579 ) on Monday May 26, 2014 @08:59AM (#47092063)

    There are a lot of chairs to throw in an NBA stadium..

    Just sayin.

    • Aren't they all bolted down?

      Otherwise I'd assume someone would have been beaten to death with one by now.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

        Otherwise I'd assume someone would have been beaten to death with one by now.

        The team benches usually aren't: they are regular folding chairs. I do wonder though: if Ballmer buys the team, will he hire Bobby Knight as the coach? They could have chair throwing contests.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sconeu ( 64226 )

        Courtside seats aren't bolted down.

        • Courtside seats aren't bolted down.

          I guess at those prices, they don't need to worry as much.

          Especially since the media likely knows exactly who you are.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Iconoc ( 2646179 )
      These jokes are easy, but they're still funny.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Maybe even enough to bring Bobby Knight out of retirement.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Just make sure to invite Ron "Peace" Artest.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      There are a lot of chairs to throw in an NBA stadium..

      No, he determined that 640 chairs should be enough for any stadium.

  • He should make them all wear dresses..

  • Sure, he's a jerk and something of a racist.

    But it seems extremely unfair to punish him for private comments, especially those recorded surreptitiously.

    I also think if you went to any country club where guys of his wealth and general age congregate you would find that nearly all of them would probably have the same kinds of opinions as Sterling.

    I can't help but think if I was as rich and as old as he is I might just decide to see how much money the NBA wanted to spend fighting with me.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jtara ( 133429 )

      Serious answer: it's kinda sad, because the guy obviously is suffering from dementia of some sort.

      Yes, he and his wife both seem to be racist jerks that don't realize that. But in the past, he's had the mental facilities to stop himself before he said something stupid or inciting. I think it just spills out and he has no control over it. This is apparent from the conflicting statements he makes from one sentence to the next.

      Dementia: turning racist jerks into really racist jerks.

    • He was set-up by his "girlfriend". She had their conversation recorded, then pushed it out the media. All the time she was taking in his money, she was plotting to rake him over the coals. I hope she got what was coming to her as well.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sjames ( 1099 )

      The thing is, the bell can't be unrung. He said it and everyone knows it. There is no scenario where he stays and the team doesn't go into a death spiral and damage the rest of the league with it.

      Perhaps it's time he learned that rich white assholes are a dime a dozen.

  • You know, since both were known for throwing chairs.
  • Since when did slashdot become a fucking tabloid? Just because the guy in question is notable for his connection to Microsoft doesn't mean we should give a running, leaping, twisting, gyrating fuck about him buying a sports team. What is he going to do, turn the players into programmers? It's not important that we be aware of every time someone related to technology farts or coughs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cHiphead ( 17854 )

      You cared enough to comment on it.

      News is news, this has a connection with tech, moreso than some of the other bullshit that hits the front, let's just exhale a breath from our nose in amusment/annoyance/cynicism and move to the next submission.

      • "You cared enough to comment" is always a stupid reply. As is patently obvious to anyone capable of higher thought processes, what I care about is the fact that nonsense is on my news feed, not some clown doing sports related anything.
  • "You can sleep with [developers]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that ... and not to bring them to my games,"

  • CEO's choices halve share price over 12 year tenure..
    Said CEO walks away with enough cash to buy NBA team...
    *sigh*

  • The NBA basically strips this guy of his property over something he said... Yeah I'd be absolutely amazed if the team was sold to anyone other than a minority, or consortium of minorities.

    In other words the correction swings the pendulum too far in the other direction.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by schwit1 ( 797399 )

      As long as it's not another racist like Spike Lee.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      When he lost his first chance at winning an Oscar. He announced that the Academy was racist.

      Upon visiting South Africa in the early 90s, Spike Lee told Londonâ(TM)s Guardian newspaper that âoeI seriously wanted to pick up a gun and shoot whites. The only way to resolve matters is by bloodshed.â

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      I'd be absolutely amazed if the team was sold to anyone other than a minority...

      Baldies?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by leuk_he ( 194174 )

      Stripping? I might miss some details, but getting to sell it for 2.000.000.000$ is not bad. But the, I am european, and i do not understand this sport^h^h^h^h^hFrancise you are talking about.

  • I can't wait to see him throwing chairs onto the court mid-game. 'DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE'

  • His first move will be to will redo the logo to be in Segoe UI.

  • I see no problems among Blazers fans returning to hating the SuperClipperSonics very quickly.
    Woooooooow... some name. Definitely calls for an new anime-inspired logo there.

    Anything the Timbers Army has been singing lately that might rhyme with SuperClipperSonics?

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