The NBA hit the Los Angeles Clippers with the most severe penalties in league history following a yearlong salary cap circumvention investigation, but NBA legend Tim Hardaway Sr. believes owner Steve Ballmer’s passion for basketball will get the best of him during his one-year ban. Speaking on the Crossover podcast, the Hall of Famer predicted that the billionaire owner won’t be able to stay away from the Clippers’ brand-new $2 billion Intuit Dome, even if it means sneaking in unnoticed. Considering his stubbornness led to the punishment itself, Hardaway Sr. might be right.
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Hardaway broke down why the ban hurts Ballmer far more than the unprecedented $30 million financial penalty handed down by commissioner Adam Silver.
“I tell Steve Ballmer, ‘Just take your hit and move on.’ I mean, 30 million is still a lot, but to him, that’s $30,000. It’s not the 30 million, it’s the suspension,” Hardaway explained. “He can’t go to no game. He can’t be involved with the team. I mean, you could be involved, but you can’t go to…
His co-hosts joked, “you [Ballmer] own the whole stadium,” but Hardaway countered, “you can’t even go to your own arena.”
The former All-Star guard went on to guarantee that Ballmer’s courtside enthusiasm will inevitably lead to a hilarious violation of his league-mandated ban.
“And the bad thing is, he going. I guarantee you he get spotted at the arena,” Hardaway warned and it left his co-hosts in splits. “He going to be peeking over some looking for somebody going to catch him. I’m telling you, man, because he, you know, he loves the game and he wants to be there. He’s going to be at the arena and somebody’s going to catch him on the camera…. it’s cameras everywhere. It is, bro.”
Co-host Lindsey Hunter chimed in to marvel at the high-tech marvel that is the Intuit Dome Ballmer, built in Inglewood, admitting he has yet to visit the cutting-edge venue.
“I want to see that arena, though,” Hunter said. “They said he accommodated everything. The bathrooms are even like, flush.” Hardaway succinctly verified the massive investment required to bring the Intuit Dome to life, simply replying, “Billion.”
Considering the investment itself, the Crossover crew really does think Ballmer won’t be able to resist staying out of Clippers games.
Hardaway’s lighthearted predictions stand in stark contrast to a far darker backdrop for the franchise. According to investigative reporter Pablo Torre, who unraveled the whole thing, the league was initially prepared to negotiate a settlement over the secret endorsement deals funneled to Kawhi Leonard through companies such as Aspiration, Boingo Wireless, and Daktronics.
However, Ballmer’s adamant refusal to accept a plea deal or admit wrongdoing prompted the league to bring down its heaviest hammer.
“Steve Ballmer was fundamentally uninterested in settling. This is the non-settlement settlement. This is what you get when you don’t bargain. The NBA was looking forward to settling, for this to not be five first-round picks and $30 million and all these suspensions. This is what you get when you don’t settle,” Torre said during his many media appearances.
Because of his costly stance, the NBA had no choice but to strip the Clippers of five first-round draft picks (2029–2033), issuing a $30 million team fine, and enforcing a 5-year compliance monitoring program. Ballmer was suspended for a year.
The fallout from Ballmer’s defiance has expanded beyond the league office. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York recently opened a federal criminal investigation into the Clippers’ secret sponsorship deals to examine potential financial fraud and tax reporting violations.
According to Torre, Ballmer’s refusal to admit wrongdoing stemmed from ongoing DOJ investigations.
While the Clippers have signaled their intent to fight the league’s penalties through arbitration, Ballmer now faces dual threats from federal prosecutors and league enforcement.
Yet as Hardaway pointed out, for an owner whose enthusiasm for his team is unmatched, the hardest part of this saga won’t be the legal battles or the financial hits: it will be trying to watch his team without getting caught on camera in his own arena.