When Steve Ballmer took the Los Angeles Clippers off Donald Sterling's hands in August, it was only natural to expect changes will be implemented. That's turning out to be correct, but not exactly in the way people thought, what with Ballmer first taking shots against all Apple products used by the team.
All iPads and iPhones have to go. This means anyone connected to running the Clippers will have to make the switch to Surface tablets and Windows phones.
Looks like Ballmer still has a soft spot for Microsoft. No one can blame him though. After all, he was the company's CEO for 14 years and had been with Microsoft for a total of 34 years. He also continues to be Microsoft's largest individual shareholder with a 4-percent stake in the company amounting to $15.7 billion.
To say he is a Microsoft loyalist may be putting it mildly. Even his own family is banned from using iPhones.
"Most of the Clippers are on Windows, some of the players and coaches are not. And Doc kind of knows that's a project. It's one of the first things he said to me: 'We are probably going to get rid of these iPads, aren't we?' And I said, 'Yeah, we probably are.' But I promised we would do it during the off season," said Ballmer.
Ballmer's move is a great start to stimulate adoption of Surface Pros in the NBA but the impact may be stymied by the fact that Samsung is the official tablet, handset, and TV supplier of the league, a deal worth $100 million inked in 2013.
It would have been a great complement to the presence Microsoft has with the NFL this season after paying $400 million to get Surface tablets seen at the sidelines. Alongside promoting its tablet, the company also wants to stop the growing trend of using "iPads" as a universal term for tablets.
A source from within the team said the ban does not extend to personal devices owned by employees and players but it still wouldn't be wise to just whip out an Apple device in the presence of Ballmer or when in the Clippers' headquarters in Playa Vista.
Aside from imposing an iPad ban, Ballmer at the moment has no plans of overhauling the Clippers. The new owner appreciates the uniqueness of the team and wants to build on that instead to show that there's more than one great team coming from Los Angeles.
