Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO, made a splash in the NBA by purchasing the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion in 2014. Since acquiring the team, the Clippers' value has increased, and the team has not had a losing season. Ballmer's dedication is exemplified by the opening of the $2 billion Intuit Dome, which he believes will empower the Clippers to surpass the Lakers and win an NBA title.

Ballmer’s leadership style is characterized by his unyielding enthusiasm, seen from his time at Microsoft to his current role with the Clippers. Despite a notable misstep with the iPhone during his Microsoft tenure, Ballmer’s focus remains on progress and innovation, both in business and sports. He is committed to creating an environment that energizes his team and fans, believing this fervor contributes to winning outcomes.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. perpetually [pərˈpɛtʃuəli] - (adverb) - Continuously or enduringly; always. - Synonyms: (constantly, permanently, incessantly)

Balmer bought the perpetually lousy LA Clippers.

2. vault [vɔlt] - (verb) - To jump over or leap. - Synonyms: (leap, bound, jump)

The owner is convinced that the arena will help vault the Clippers over the Lakers.

3. gawky [ˈɡɔːki] - (adjective) - Awkward or clumsy in movement or behavior. - Synonyms: (awkward, clumsy, ungainly)

Balmer went to Harvard, where he managed the football team and struck up a close, fateful friendship with another gawky math type, Bill Gates.

4. revolt [rɪˈvoʊlt] - (noun) - An attempt to overthrow an authority or existing system. - Synonyms: (rebellion, uprising, insurgence)

Following public outcry and a player revolt before the game.

5. coy [kɔɪ] - (adjective) - Reluctant to give information about something; secretive or shy. - Synonyms: (shy, reticent, reserved)

Bomber conceded the Clippers were "lowly" without being coy about his ambitions.

6. extravagance [ɪkˈstrævəɡəns] - (noun) - A lack of restraint in spending money or using resources. - Synonyms: (spendthriftiness, excess, luxury)

The basketball team. Bomber concedes it's his billionaire's extravagance.

7. philanthropy [fɪˈlænθrəpi] - (noun) - The desire to promote the welfare of others, typically through generous donations. - Synonyms: (charity, benevolence, generosity)

Through a family philanthropy, they've given away nearly a billion dollars.

8. detriment [ˈdetrɪmənt] - (noun) - The state of being harmed or damaged. - Synonyms: (harm, damage, injury)

Sometimes that was to the company's detriment.

9. catered [ˈkeɪtərd] - (verb) - To provide what is needed or required; to serve or accommodate particularly well. - Synonyms: (attend, provide, serve)

I've been catered to as CEO of Microsoft.

10. melodramatic [ˌmɛlədrəˈmætɪk] - (adjective) - Exaggerated and emotional or sentimental. - Synonyms: (theatrical, overdramatic, exaggerated)

Now, my expression of that, let's just put it this way. I look back at it now, it's a little embarrassing.

L.A. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer - The 60 Minutes Interview

With all the subtlety of the Kool Aid man crashing through a wall, Steve Ballmer entered the NBA in 2014 after a run as Microsoft CEO. Balmer bought the perpetually lousy LA Clippers for the has he lost his mind? Price of $2 billion. Since then, the franchise's value has more than doubled. The Clippers haven't had a losing season. Bomber has seen his net worth soar north of $120 billion and his full throated passion for the team its diminished? Not at all. This month, the Clippers christen a new home, the intuit dome. The owner is convinced that the arena will help vault the Clippers over the Lakers, that other pro basketball team in LA, and eventually he vows to an NBA title.

All right, so the starting 5 August is supposed to be a quiet time in the NBA, but quiet is a relative term for Steve Ballmer. No? Come on, Kubernetes. Yeah. I want him to feel the energy of our fans. We want him in their seats. We want people making noise. We want it to. Bomber was giving us an early look at the arena he built for the LA Clippers. Among the billionaires who own us pro sports franchises, Bomber, now 68, is the wealthiest by far, never mind buying the team. He also spent more than $2 billion on this new venue and that's going to help win basketball games. This isn't just about atmosphere and I had a fun time. Will it really help? I can't promise, but everything in my instinct says it will help our team, our basketball team. If our crowd team can really get into it and give them energy. As a fan, I'm thinking, wait a minute, give him energy? Might as well be Bomber's catchphrase.

His enthusiasm predates his sports ownership, going back to his days at Microsoft. It's both personal expression and a way to let his team know he's with him because it tells them, hey, he will support us. When it's a showtime, he'll be there to help support us. I think that is important. I'm sure players have that like, God, this guy seems a little bit nuts. That's okay. You say you sweat as much owning this team as you did running Microsoft. Help me understand that. Let me say little different sweat. I ran Microsoft. I grew up with the place. I helped shape the place. I knew where all the bodies were buried. So did or most of the bodies were buried. And every day it was my butt on the line. So I sweated more at Microsoft. But I don't worry any less at the Clippers. And I don't worry about the revenue in the day to day. You don't? Winning. I do worry about winning.

If owners could be called for traveling, well, Balmer has come an impossibly long way from his childhood as a shy, anxious kid in suburban Detroit. His father, a swiss immigrant, worked a mid level job at Ford. Balmer went to Harvard, where he managed the football team and struck up a close, fateful friendship with another gawky math type, Bill Gates. Gates dropped out to start a software company. Bomber went in a different direction, sales and marketing. My first day at Procter and gamble, I was very, very shy, very nervous. And a guy who became my friend and roommate said meeting me that first day was like this. Hi, my name's Steve Ballmer. My palms are sweating. But don't worry, I'm okay. Did I get this right? You were selling cake mix, Duncan Hines brownie mix, blueberry muffin mix, and moist and easy snack cake mix, to be precise. John Brownie mix was not his calling. So Bomer went to Stanford Business School in 1980. He was midway through his first year when I get a call from Bill that says, hey, how you doing? You know, hey, what are you. Oh, yeah, you got another year to go? Too bad. He's trying to recruit you.

He's trying to recruit me. But software for microcomputers, it was not a thing at the time in any way, shape or form. But Gates was convincing. And Bomber left school to join his pal's chaotic startup. Gates was the lead engineer. Bomber steered the business. His salary, $40,000, he says, plus a 9% stake in the company. Understatement. That stake paid off as Microsoft went on to become, well, Microsoft. Together, Gates and bomber personified the company. Smart, ambitious, maybe a little nerdy, not always user friendly. We were told these guys had a rapport as college buddies, but they could also fight. They could argue. Sometimes it was like verbal knife fights. You remember some of those? Oh, yeah. Bill and I would definitely have some knockdown, drag out fights, arguments. You have a winning record. My technique became more of a just keep on harping, harping, harping on the stuff I thought was important, as opposed to try to like, knock him, knock him down and drive my point across. In 2000, Balmer took over as CEO.

Remember the shy kid? Early in his career, Bomber learned to get over his nerves by cranking up Rod Stewart in his car and giving himself loud pep talks. Here he is doing the same for thousands of software engineers. Developers. Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers. Shirt soaking enthusiasm became his trademark and an Internet meme. Who was that guy? That's a guy who really wanted to fire people up to say, hey, we love you. We want you to write software for Windows. You will support you. This is a great opportunity for you. Now, my expression of that, let's just put it this way. I look back at it now, it's a little embarrassing. I personally feed off energy. And it's not everybody's cup of tea, by the way. I mean, you know, some people are quieter, but it's me.

If Microsoft's products mirrored its leaders function over form, sometimes that was to the company's detriment. Bomber famously failed to take seriously the challenge of Apple's iPhone. Laughing at the idea in 2007, I said, that is the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard. Gosh darn it. You know, the phone, man. The phone. We should have been in the phone. We should have. What happened with the phone? There were a couple things. We had a lot of our talented engineers tied up elsewhere. Number two, we thought about it as too much like what we had done with windows. It didn't really wasn't going to work. We had to have different thinking earlier on. And yet, during Balmer's tenure as CEO, revenue more than tripled. He hung on to most of his stock and today is consistently ranked among the world's ten wealthiest billionaires. Not that you'd know it. He has no superyacht, no new wardrobe, no new spouse. He and his wife Connie, raise three boys in a four bedroom outside Seattle, where they still live through a family philanthropy.

They've given away nearly a billion dollars in the last ten months alone and spent millions more on a side project, the non partisan USA facts, which helps Americans make informed political decisions. And friends say, this is the kind of guy who still complains about the cost of the hotel minibar. How does wealth like you have of that scale? How does that not fundamentally change you? Look, I am fundamentally changed. I know I am. I've been catered to as CEO of Microsoft. Forget money. When you're the lead job in a company, particularly when the companies get sight, people cater to you. So I get catered to it. Can I still have fun in old style ways? Do I have to be a jerk to people? No, I don't need to do those things. And people say, oh, did you always want to own a basketball team? We're growing up. Of course not. Who the heck ever thinks they're going to get enough money to own a basketball team.

The basketball team. Bomber concedes it's his billionaire's extravagance. He's loved hoop since childhood. And in 2014, just months after Bomber announced his retirement from Microsoft, the Clippers previous owner, Donald Sterling, was caught on tape in a racist tirade following public outcry and a player revolt before the game. Clippers staging a silent protest, Sterling was forced to sell the team in position for the rebound, so to speak. Bomer bought the lowly Clippers for almost four times the price of the previous NBA team sale. If this was a distressed asset at the time. Owner makes racist statements, basically forced to sell. You didn't pay distressed asset prices, did you? Because it really wasn't a distressed asset in the following sense. It's an NBA team. There's 30 of them. It's in the best market. One of the couple best markets. That's. You could say it's distressed, but you can't find them anywhere else. Lakers are top banana in this town. As far as basketball teams. Are you okay with that? It's a fact. They've won, whatever it is, 17 championships, we've not won one. I get that, but am I okay with it? No, of course not. Do I take it as a challenge? Yes. Are we gonna get after it? Yes. Every day we get after it.

Bomber has pumped money into upgrading the Clippers roster, signing stars like James Harden and Kawhi Leonard. You know, we got one of the best owners in sports who praised their new boss. But the biggest obstacle to success, Bomber found the Clippers didn't have a home since the nineties. The team basically rented out the Lakers arena in downtown La. Ballmer decided to build southwest of downtown, in less fashionable Englewood. The owner was involved in every, and we mean every detail. Toilets. 1160 toilets and urinals. Can I show you toilets? Can you show me toilets? I've never. We got 1400 of them. I really hate it when people wait in line. Waiting in line for toilets, I think, is it stops people from getting back into the game. People get frustrated. We'll spare you that porcelain tour. But the. There is a method. Get fans in their seats or out of them to watch the damn game. No lines, no cash registers. Everything here is contactless. Not even a sports bar. Even the sweets are bare bones. The owner comes to watch basketball, not to schmooze. And fans should, too.

Our scoreboard, the halo board. Right now, we're just showing you some of the things about Terrence Mann. Part of the philosophy. Build it nice. Today's opponents are tomorrow's free agents, but also build the kind of arena that reflects the owner. Tech is deployed throughout, but mostly to encourage bomber level fandom. We have sensors around the building that can tell down to the individual seat level how loud you are. Now, we're not listening to your conversation, but let's say we say okay for this game, the person who produces the most decibels, the most consistently will get free hamburger the next game, if you cheer live, your screen will say, hey, there he is, the loudest guy. John, we're down. The owner is convinced the more energy, the more points the Clippers put up.

We don't have any supporters up there right now, but you shoot. Why don't you shoot that ball? No time to warm up. I need a. What I'm doing to you here. It's totally unfair. For 60 minutes, he met. Sorry, I threw that pretty hard. Let me just. Let me see if I can make one with your. You have a little game there, man. Oh, pathetic. Bomber is quick to concede his highest level of basketball was 9th grade. No cuts. There you go. There you go. There we go. All right.

See, that's not a good free throw shooting percentage. It's different from running Microsoft, a company with revenues that are 20 times higher than the entire NBA. But Bomber says he's having more fun in this job, in part because it's much easier to measure performance. People ask me, what's the difference between business and basketball? Well, if you have a bad quarter, you can say, I'll get them next time, or, you don't know what we got going on in the labs, but it's going to be great here. Every 24 seconds you get a scorecard. Did we score? Did we stop them from scoring every 24 seconds at the end of the game, if you lose it, you can never change it. Every season, when it's done, it's done. Now, the nice thing is you also get to reset every year. And that's, you know, that's pretty cool how Steve and Connie Ballmer are giving away billions.

Technology, Leadership, Inspiration, Steve Ballmer, Nba, La Clippers, 60 Minutes