“Doc Rivers, the Clippers coach and top front-office executive whose team had just suffered a case of asphyxia in the Western Conference Semifinals that won’t be soon forgotten, was speaking with endless exasperation and surely trying to explain how this could all come to pas,” Sam Amick reports for USA Today.
“Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO who paid a record $2 billion to buy this team last August and was so hell-bent on bringing them all better days, listened intently inside their huddle with a blank look upon his face,” Amick reports. “There is no explanation for any of this, though, and there’s certainly no excuse.”
“The Clippers, who became just the ninth team in the history of the NBA to blow a 3-1 series lead in a seven-game playoff series, followed Friday’s Game 6 collapse with one of the least-spirited efforts you’ll ever see on this sort of stage,” Amick reports. “It was 113-100 Rockets in Game 7 at the Toyota Center, an end-to-end effort by the resilient Rockets against a Clippers team that put up about as much fight as the actors at Rockets home games who let the mascot pummel them with pie.”
🚀 > ⛵ pic.twitter.com/f9kIZFHNqf
— Stadium (@Stadium) May 17, 2015
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The tears of a clown.
His knowledge of basketball rivals his knowledge of how to run a tech company vs. the likes of a Steven Paul Jobs. — MacDailyNews Take, August 20, 2014
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Davis Machead” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer to dump team’s Apple iPads – September 25, 2014
Steve Ballmer’s quest for the spotlight – August 20, 2014
Steve Ballmer goes ape at Clippers’ Fan Festival – August 18, 2014
Well, let’s not forgot the rockets have James harden and that is no easy task to handle.
I’m pretty sure ballmer didn’t think his team would win the playoffs the first year of ownership. This stuff takes time, especially when a new owner has taken the reins. Now if it’s been 4 years of playoffs and the clippers still haven’t made any headway, we might could question ballmers choices. I’m not so much defending ballmer as I am defending any owner having just bought a team…. But it’s okay if you one star it and give me crap.
No, you’re right. And let’s be clear and fair to Ballmer, he’s not running the basketball side of the team. And he did a good job of keeping Doc Rivers and other front office personnel and players after the whole Donald Sterling racist crap nearly ripped the team apart.
The fact is the Clippers rely too much on outside shooting and don’t have a strong inside game, and the Rockets have big, strong inside players. This was a bad match up for the Clippers, and yet they led the series 3-1. The players and coaches are to blame for the team’s lackluster effort (mostly the players). Ballmer certainly put his energy into it.
Clearly, the MDN strategy is to show Balmer crying….and I must say I like it. I like it a lot.
I am not a fan of sports that do not involve barely dressed athletic females sacrificing themselves to put balls over nets or boards over waves, but I have a sick love of watching Ballmer sink.
What to do, what to do….
I have missed Ballmer in the headlines here. Just not the same without his failures making headlines. Nice to see he can still continue failing even away from Microsloth. Probably credit is due to all the Microsloth and Winduhz based hardware and software he forced them to switch to when he arrived.
Clippy’s are a titanic team.
But.. they’re IN THE PLAYOFFS, and almost went to the Western Finals. Ballmer may not be fit for Tech leadership, but would be a great boss on a sports team. He’s literally a cheerleader! You should be happy for him. He found his ideal ‘project’ to manage.
And again, I repeat, the Clippers are actually a relevant competitive team–this is an unbelievable accomplishment.
Keep in mind that the Clippers already (relatively recently) reached that level before he bought the team, not because of it.
It must have been the iPad’s fault.
Windows for basketball teams……
Windows OF basketball teams. 🙂
If you run Windows you have to be prepared for failure sooner or later 😉
Perhaps that is where he sees himself as holding the candle:
“Be Proud my team! We Fail, We Fail Fast! Faster, Fastest! And Sooner! But if we screw that up we can always Fail Later!” We let know one stop us but ourselves!
So Stand! Shout Expletives! Put on your jerseys backwards. Cross tie your shows together as is our custom. Get badly drawn tattoos! Enjoy your drugs. Eat large quantities of food with me. And then when you feel you are least ready … follow me! I have the strategy!
Guess Clippers got hit with a BSOD yesterday.
A German basketball team can testify this …
http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/03/german-pro-basketball-team-relegated-to-lower-division-due-to-windows-update/
As soon As I read the headline I knew this was a Ballmer related post
What took you so long? 😉
Uncle Festus strikes out again!
The Karma of Ballmer.
No iPads. No win.
It was a good series
Ballmer was heard afterward, throwing chairs and yelling at them:
“I didn’t like your strategy! I didn’t like it a lot! Now, at your next game, remember just one thing: Developers…developers…developers…developers…developers…developers…” (ad infinitum)
The Ballmer T. Clown close proximity malaise & business “touch” effects yet another company sending it also down the proverbial toilet.
Give Stevie B a break. The Clippys are a decent team. They did ok for Stevie B’s first year. I’m sure that given time; with the drafts, trades, and acquisitions, the team will become as good as M$, its products, and Windows did, under Stevie B’s leadership. Years from now, fans will look at the Clippys and wonder, “How the hell did they self destruct I so fast!?” Stevie B will do what he does best, just give him a chance. 🖖😀⌚️
Darn Ballmer. The Clippers crashed with a blue screen of death. Not new to you.
Playoffs, playoffs, playoffs! – Playoffs, playoffs, playoffs!