{"id":9485,"date":"2014-08-18T16:04:38","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T20:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=9485"},"modified":"2014-08-18T16:04:38","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T20:04:38","slug":"ballmer-is-officially-named-the-new-la-clippers-owner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2014\/08\/ballmer-is-officially-named-the-new-la-clippers-owner.html","title":{"rendered":"Ballmer is Officially Named the New LA Clippers Owner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LA<\/a><\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Clippers have a new owner – Steve Ballmer officially\u00a0purchased the Clippers. Following\u00a0the entry of an order by a California court, Shelly Sterling was granted the authority to sell the team.<\/p>\n

Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO, bid $2 billion for the Clippers. “It’s very, very exciting. I’m a basketball nut,” Ballmer said ESPN. “I’ve got time. I love Los Angeles. I love Seattle, too, which is where we have our home. But the notion of spending a lot of time in Los Angeles has been exciting to me for years. The community down there is great. I look forward to supporting the community, the fan base, the staff, Doc and the players to take this thing to higher heights.”<\/p>\n

During the court proceedings, Ballmer\u00a0admitted to various outlets that\u00a0he\u00a0was very frustrated with the waiting and the court proceedings\u00a0but throughout the process he remained optimistic that everything would work out.<\/p>\n

“My job has been to complete the deal and there were a lot of people, including me, working on it for a long time,” Ballmer said. “Was I kind of itchy? Sure. But I knew the only thing I could do or should do was complete the final deal, and we were able to do that this morning.”<\/p>\n

On July 15, The NBA’s board of governors interviewed Ballmer and they took a vote electronically last week in which he was unanimously approved as an owner.<\/p>\n

Ballmer’s takeover of the Clippers follows weeks of legal tussling between Shelly and Donald Sterling, the 80-year-old billionaire whom the NBA banned earlier this year for making offensive remarks about blacks.<\/p>\n

The Clippers were bought in 1981 by Sterling for $12.5 million. Including Ballmer, there were six other serious bidders. The three highest bids were $1.2 billion from a group including former NBA player Grant Hill and Los Angeles businessmen Bruce Karsh and Tony Ressler, $1.6 billion from a group fronted by music mogul David Geffen, and $2 billion from Ballmer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Clippers have a new owner – Steve Ballmer officially\u00a0purchased the Clippers. Following\u00a0the entry of an order by a California court, Shelly Sterling was granted the authority to sell the team. Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO, bid $2 billion for the Clippers. “It’s very, very exciting. I’m a basketball nut,” Ballmer said ESPN.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":500,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nBallmer is Officially Named the New LA Clippers Owner<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2014\/08\/ballmer-is-officially-named-the-new-la-clippers-owner.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ballmer is Officially Named the New LA Clippers Owner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Los Angeles Clippers have a new owner – Steve Ballmer officially\u00a0purchased the Clippers. Following\u00a0the entry of an order by a California court, Shelly Sterling was granted the authority to sell the team. Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO, bid $2 billion for the Clippers. “It’s very, very exciting. I’m a basketball nut,” Ballmer said ESPN.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2014\/08\/ballmer-is-officially-named-the-new-la-clippers-owner.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-18T20:04:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2014\/08\/LA-Clippers-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Angela Guzman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ballmer is Officially Named the New LA Clippers Owner","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2014\/08\/ballmer-is-officially-named-the-new-la-clippers-owner.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ballmer is Officially Named the New LA Clippers Owner","og_description":"The Los Angeles Clippers have a new owner – Steve Ballmer officially\u00a0purchased the Clippers. 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