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Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, giving a double thumbs-up while talking about the Intuit Dome’s Halo Board on Friday, said he “hated” losing All-Star forward Paul George in free agency. (Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
His big dreams have been realized with the completion of the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, and even though two Southern California stars in Paul George and Russell Westbrook aren’t around to make the fan experience in his palace more enjoyable because both departed, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer still is dreaming big about his team’s prospects.
The loss of George, a nine-time All-Star, will be the most difficult to deal with. He left them as a free agent to join the Philadelphia 76ers on a four-year, $212-million deal, George’s five years with the Clippers coming to an end this month.
George had been offered the same extension his running mate, Kawhi Leonard, took — three years and $152 million.
Read more: ‘It’s crazy’: How Intuit Dome’s Halo Board changes Clippers fans’ experience
Ballmer, like his front office executives, felt the Clippers made an offer that would have allowed them to field a championship-caliber team around George and Leonard.
The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement has what’s called the second apron, a luxury tax threshold for spending on salary, and the further teams go past it and the more frequently they do so, they pay an increasingly higher penalty and it makes it harder to make trades.
So, with that in mind, Ballmer said the Clippers had to be prudent with their spending in order to field the best team. Still, losing George was not easy, Ballmer said Friday after the unveiling of Intuit Dome’s Halo Board video board.
“I love Paul. Let’s start with Paul as a human being,” Ballmer said. “Paul is a great human being and I’ve really enjoyed my opportunity to get to know Paul [and] Paul’s family. So, on a personal level, I hated it. I hated it [from a] basketball perspective. Paul is a fantastic player, future Hall of Famer, I would say.
“But we knew we needed to continue to get better. And with the new CBA, what tools, what flexibility, we made Paul what…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/clippers-owner-steve-ballmer-hated-040036229.html
Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2024-07-20 04:00:36
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