The Lakers have been on a downswing over the past few years, and the Clippers have benefited as a result.
New owner Steve Ballmer has said that the Clippers are LA’s team now, and whether he’s right or wrong, their record speaks for itself. The Clippers have been a playoff team, while the Lakers appear to have been tanking for draft picks.
For now, it’s been working, but the Lakers may soon land both LeBron James and Paul George, and will soon be the team in LA yet again.
But Ballmer doesn’t see it that way, and he’s not interested in sharing the spotlight.
“When I walk around and people say, ‘Go Lakers!’, does that bother me? Of course it bugs me,” Ballmer said to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. “I’m not used to that. I’ve never been in a city where you actually had two hometown teams. So it’s an unusual thing for me. But we have 29 other teams that we need to beat.”
He continued:
“Now, do our fans get a little extra when we beat the Lakers? Yeah, they do. As I do too at this stage. I also know there’s only one way really to have this become as much a Clipper town as a Laker town, and that is to win an NBA championship.”
You can’t blame Ballmer for wanting the Clippers to be LA’s team, but it’s not going to happen.
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