Despite a staggering suspension and a history of cap violations, Utah’s owner defends the Clippers’ controversial leader, sparking a debate over his true value to the league.
"The NBA is way better with him."
Ryan Smith may ultimately be right about Steve Ballmer.
It still feels like a strange moment to say it.
The Utah Jazz owner defended Ballmer this week after the Clippers owner received a one-year suspension stemming from Los Angeles' salary-cap circumvention scandal, calling him a "stand-up individual" and suggesting the league can eventually "turn the page and move on."
There's just one problem with moving on so quickly.
We've been here before.
In 2015, less than a year after Ballmer purchased the Clippers, the NBA fined Los Angeles $250,000 for violating anti-circumvention rules. The team's presentation to DeAndre Jordan improperly included a potential third-party endorsement opportunity.
The NBA determined it didn't influence Jordan's decision to re-sign.
The violation still happened.
Fast forward more than a decade … and the league is using even stronger language.
When the NBA announced its latest findings, it described the Clippers as a "prior offender" and said an independent investigation uncovered a "pattern of misconduct" and multiple significant violations.
Los Angeles was fined $30 million, stripped of five consecutive first-round picks from 2029 through 2033 and placed under five years of compliance monitoring.
Ballmer was suspended for one year.
That's where Smith's quote becomes difficult to separate from the timing.
He also said the rules have to mean something.
They do.
And being punished twice for circumvention-related violations should probably mean something, too.
There is absolutely a case for Ballmer's value to the NBA.
He took over the Clippers in 2014 after the Donald Sterling era and poured resources into a franchise that badly needed them. He privately financed Intuit Dome, a building that cost more than $2 billion and finally gave the Clippers a home separate from the Lakers.
That is real.
So are the Clippers' investments in basketball infrastructure around Los Angeles. So is the franchise's increased relevance. Ballmer has spent more than a decade trying to turn an organization that once felt secondary in its own city into something much bigger.
Smith isn't inventing Ballmer's positive impact.
The issue is what gets weighed alongside it.
The Clippers were fined $50,000 for anti-tampering in 2019 after Doc Rivers publicly discussed Kawhi Leonard. They received another $50,000 fine later that year after public statements about Leonard's health conflicted with his injury status.
Those are smaller violations. Losing five first-round picks is in another universe.
Still … the pattern isn't exactly spotless.
Ballmer has since accepted responsibility as principal owner and said the Clippers will comply with the NBA's punishment, while maintaining disagreements with portions of the investigation.
Credit him for that.
It also shouldn't erase why the punishment happened.
Ballmer's wealth, ambition and willingness to spend have helped the NBA in plenty of ways. Those same resources are exactly why the league's financial rules have to carry weight when his franchise crosses them.
That's the tension Smith's quote skips past.
Maybe the NBA is better with Ballmer.
The league just spent five first-round picks, $30 million and a one-year suspension reminding everyone that being valuable doesn't place an owner above the rules.
