National Basketball Association

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer challenges Lakers fans: 'We're coming'

Published Sep. 25, 2021 11:01 a.m. ET

Ever since Kawhi Leonard's arrival, the improved LA Clippers have struggled to meet expectations.

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A frequent title pick among analysts since Leonard joined Paul George on his hometown team two seasons ago, the Clippers have been bounced from the playoffs prior to the NBA Finals each time.

Last season, Leonard sat by helplessly – the victim of an untimely ACL injury – and watched as George attempted to lift his team and fireman-carry it over the streaking Phoenix Suns.

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His efforts would come to no avail.

But despite Leonard's increasingly deep injury history, rumors of rifts within the organization and repeated failures to achieve their long-term goals, the Clippers' organization remains poised and confident that a championship is in its future.

And that spirit stems from the top down.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times about his new $2-billion arena set to open in 2024, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had some choice words for Lakers fans – and the rest of the league.

"We’re coming," Ballmer told the Times.

"We’re going to provide some competition. I don’t mean for fandom in the city, I mean we’re going to be real competition in this league. It’s not like the Clippers for the first whatever number of years where you can just write them off at the beginning of the season. We’re going to be a serious competitor and people aren’t used to that."

Ballmer is right about that last sentence.

For years, the Clippers have existed in infamy – the figurative little stepbrother to the Lakers' tyrannical reign over the city of Los Angeles.

"Why did so many in the town cheer against us?" Ballmer asked about Lakers fans. "At some points, it gets like this ... for a long time the Clippers were nothing, so nobody had to pay attention, and for people who had been Lakers fans forever, there’s no threat."

For Shannon Sharpe, a known Lakers lifer, Ballmer's comments pose nary a threat.

"You can't buy your way to a championship," Sharpe said on Friday's episode of "Undisputed."

"I'm not threatened. Your best player is injury-prone and he's getting older. As you get older, you don't get healthier, that's why I'm unconcerned. KD said no, Kyrie said no, Jimmy Butler said no. So it's not like these superstar guys are lining up to play with Kawhi. If you think this is going to be anything other than a Lakers town, you're sadly mistaken."

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Renowned "Kawhi fan" Skip Bayless had other thoughts.

"This is my favorite story of the week," Bayless laughed. "[Ballmer's] got some guts cause he's got some billions."

"He was asked by Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times, ‘Do you actually think that Lakers fans are scared of you guys?' and he said ‘a little bit.’ I believe that deep down you're up about 7 out of 10 [on a fear scale] because you're afraid of who the Clippers are. They're no longer the ‘cheap, crappy’ Clippers. As [Ballmer] said, ‘We’ve got to get out of the shadows', and we need to build our own home-court advantage in a new place. It's going to be state of the art, way beyond anything Staples ever dreamed of being."

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But a new arena, nor any bit of Ballmer's dividends, can win the Clippers a championship. That itself is going to be a product of the players on the court.

You can check out the full debate below: