Steve Ballmer interacts with fans during the first half between the Seattle Storm and the Los Angeles Sparks at Climate Pledge Arena.
Steve Ballmer interacts with fans during the first half between the Seattle Storm and the Los Angeles Sparks at Climate Pledge Arena.
The Los Angeles Clippers are in deep sh—what's a word that rhymes with spit?—right now, as the NBA recently dropped the hammer on the team for its circumvention of the salary cap.
It felt like a death knell for Steve Ballmer and the Clippers, who appear to be cursed for perpetuity. They were fined $30 million and forced to forfeit their first-round picks from 2029 to 2033, which in today's NBA are akin to gold.
The Clippers' latest saga only reaffirmed the popular view that they are the so-called “other Los Angeles team” when compared to the Los Angeles Lakers. ESPN's Brian Windhorst said the Clippers' “hubris” may have contributed to their downfall.
“They have little brother syndrome. They were so focused on not being the little brother that they took way too big of gambles,” said Windhorst on “The Hoop Collective.”
“They shared the same arena (with the Lakers), but they went (with) a whole campaign: ‘LA our way.' They changed their name from the Los Angeles Clippers to the LA Clippers. They built their own arena and said, ‘We're going to be bigger and better.'”
Brian Windhorst believes the Clippers have little brother syndrome:
"[The Clippers] have little brother syndrome. They were so focused on not being the little brother that they took way too big of gambles. They went a whole campaign, 'LA our way'. They changed their name from…
— Kalshi Hoops (@KalshiHoops) September 9, 2026
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With the situation with the Clippers, no star might want to join them in the next five years. Without their first-round picks, they also do not have trade assets to build a competitive roster. The Clippers could be the league's doormat again, as they were in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The experiment with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, especially considering the talented players and draft capital they let go of, was a failure, and now they will be hard-pressed to pick up the pieces.
The Clippers will count on Darius Garland, Brandon Ingram, Rui Hachimura, Brook Lopez, Kris Dunn, and Derrick Jones Jr. to lead the charge in the upcoming season.