YouTube Gold: The Brand New Clip Joint

It only looks like a 1990’s PC fan

Anyone who remembers Steve Ballmer’s run at Microsoft probably remembers the baseball bat: he had a habit of prowling the corridors and offices of Redmond with a bat in hand, supposedly as a motivational device.

If it sounds nutty, well: it was. He missed some big opportunities at Microsoft, notably totally blowing the phone market and wasting time with Zune, a lame competitor to the iPod.

Nonetheless, he exited with a vast fortune which has only grown bigger since his departure. And when the NBA had had enough of Donald Sterling and forced the racist owner of the Clippers to sell, Ballmer found a surprising new role: he was a savior. No one was laughing at him anymore.

The Clips haven’t been great since then but they’ve been decent and he’s clearly been willing to spend the money to make the franchise relevant (Sterling was not going to spend one extra dime. When Danny Ferry was drafted by the Clips, he was greeted by Danny Manning with this: “welcome to hell”).

Ballmer’s willingness to spend extends to the new arena he’s building for his team. It’s pretty stunning. The NBA is well into a new arms race for facilities and this is one upsmanshjp not just to the Lakers, but also to Golden State’s beautiful new place.

Take a look at what Ballmer is doing. It’s probably the most intriguing venue since the Sphere went live in Las Vegas.