LA Clippers: A Technological Perspective

Basketball and technology don’t always go together, but for the LA Clippers and Steve Ballmer, they do. We compare LA Clippers to technological advances.

Do you like Fred Armisen? You know, the former SNL guy who now stars in Portlandia, Los Espookys and sorta part-time band guy on Late Night with Seth Myers. Los Espookys by the way, is the oddest TV show in TV. If you like Armisen, you might enjoy it. Fred Armisen is a bit of an acquired taste. You either enjoy his type of comedy, or you don’t. I do.

Not too long ago he hosted a stand-up entitled “Stand-up for Drummers”. It was essentially a stand-up routine with jokes only drummers could understand. The audience was filled with drummers who, apparently, had to drum their way in. It reminded me of a Tonight Show appearance by Steve Martin where he did a stand-up routine for dogs. He literally had dogs in his audience.

Have I lost you yet? I hope not.

It was those comedy geniuses that got me to thinking about the Clippers. (Sidenote: I fully acknowledge that this was the most jarring segue in the history of sports writing, but it really is the story behind the article you are now reading.) The Clippers franchise was purchased by Steve Ballmer in 2014. Ballmer paid a staggering $2 Billion dollars for the franchise. Ballmer had earned those $2 Billion, and more, due to his time at Microsoft, a technology company.

Starting to see how I got here?

If Armisen, a drummer, can do stand-up for drummers; if Martin, an…umm, dog lover (?), can do stand-up for dogs, then I can do Clippers for techies! I love to write, but if I relied on my earnings from writing to pay my bills I’d [Insert your own “I’d be broke” punchline here]! Tech is where I earn my living.

Did you know that the same year Steve Ballmer purchased the Clippers for $2B the Milwaukee Bucks were sold for $550 Million. The Bucks had accomplished more as a franchise than the Clippers up to that point. They had won a championship and while they were bad in 2014, they finished the 2013-14 season at 15-67, some would have put them on par the Clippers when you take everything that makes up a franchise into account. So, logic dictates that the Clippers should have sold for about the same price.

Ballmer wasn’t interested in playing games or negotiating. He shut down all other offers with his $2B bid. The whole story about his purchase is pretty interesting. But, that is for another time.  For now I want to focus on the company that allowed Ballmer to make that staggering offer.

Ballmer was hired at Microsoft by Bill Gates in 1980. At that time computers were all about DOS. Imagine a blank screen, literally blank, except for one blinking cursor. You had to type to get things done. Back before touch screens, mice and color! Back when computing was intense! Microsoft set out to change all that and boy, did they!

Microsoft sold some incredible products. And by incredible I mean products that earned them a lot of money. Which, explains the $2B Clippers purchase, right? These products changed the fortunes of Microsoft, the users who purchased them and of course they changed the course of Steve Ballmer. Fast forward about 35 years and Ballmer is changing the course of the Clippers franchise, its players and its fans.

Boom! Now, that is a good sports segue!

Microsoft and the Clippers are forever connected thanks to Steve Ballmer. It’s interesting to see how Microsoft products line up with current Clippers players. Well, it’s interesting to me as a techie and to you if you made it this far! While I could, maybe, link every LAC player to an MSFT product, I will limit these comparisons to the likely starters and finishers.

Windows 95 fundamentally changed everything in computing. It ushered in the era desktop icons, start buttons, taskbars and more. Before Windows 95 computers were clunky, less flashy and mired in a rut. After Windows 95 computers took off in popularity. It is not a stretch to say there would be no Siri, no Google Maps, no voice activated anything without Windows 95. It was a leap in computing that led to more leaps that got us to where we are today.

Similarly, the signing of Kawhi Leonard has fundamentally changed the image of the Los Angeles Clippers. There is no denying the team has been good for a very long time, but the addition of Leonard officially puts the Clippers on the Association map not only for this season, but for many more to come. The Clippers are now a destination taking off in popularity! Clippers fan can only hope that Leonard represents the first of many leaps as the franchise marches to the future.

Microsoft Office was, and remains for many, a must have suite of applications. It comes with applications allowing you to do multiple things. If you know Office you know more than one task. While other companies were touting applications focused on one task, Microsoft changed the game with a suite of applications that does it all.

Paul George recently described himself and Kawhi Leonard as old-school players. They care about and are passionate about excelling on both ends of the court. In the 2018-19 season George averaged 28 points per game. That’s great offensive output. He also led the Association in steals. That’s great defensive output. He isn’t focused on one task, George can do it all! If you know Paul George you know he is a stat-stuffer who works hard to excel in every facet of his game.

When the original Xbox was released it went up against giants in the gaming console industry, Sony and Nintendo. Despite the obvious advantages of those heavyweights, Microsoft pushed forward in an industry it was new to. Today, thanks in no small part to perseverance and grit, the Xbox is a force in an industry Microsoft never existed in prior to the Xbox.

The Clippers have a player who regularly goes up against giants and comes out on top. He is know for his grit and perseverance. Attributes that propelled him to a third place finish for 6th man of the year in the 2018-19 season and a force in the NBA. Montrezl Harrell knows only one way to play the game, with passion and always pushing forward. His 16.6 ppg and 6.5 rbg were no aberration. He is amongst the best players at his position and arguably the very best at his position off the bench.

Windows Defender is not necessarily a featured product for Microsoft, but you don’t want to compute without it. Defender is the application you don’t want to see on someones computer if your goal is to get into and infect that persons computer. Of course, you have Defender on your computer because you love it when its on your team. It is a full antivirus program that does it all to protect your computer.

You can already guess this one, cant you?

“…when I get the ball in my spots, I got a pest, Patrick Beverley, who is up underneath me”, said Kevin Durant. One of the very best scorers in the game called Beverley a pest. You better believe he took it as a compliment. Beverley gives up almost a full foot in height to Durant but he doesn’t back down defensively to anyone. He literally has no idea how to not play hard-nosed defense. He may not be a featured player, or someone the other team loves, but Beverley is, in a lot of ways, the face of this franchise. A defender through and through who works hard, who grinds, who does what it takes – everything it takes – to protect an LAC victory.

Windows XP raised the bar in computing. It was the first operating system not to be based on DOS. XP is a perfect example of a company not resting on its laurels. Microsoft was doing just fine when XP was first being developed, but they wanted to do better. Most amazing for XP is how long its reign lasted. In an industry where success is measured in years, XP lasted over a decade. It’s that sustained excellence as much as anything that speaks to the OS’s legacy.

Lou Williams first won an NBA Sixth Man of the Year award in 2015. Since then he has never averaged less than 15 ppg (I’m rounding up the 14.9 ppg he scored in the 2016-17 season) or shot less than 86% from the free throw line. Over the last three seasons his 3P% has not dipped below 35%. Sustained excellence should be Williams nickname, if it wasn’t so long and not really a great sounding nickname. He has raised the bar for what a sixth man is capable of. Most astounding, no one would be surprised to see him in contention for another Sixth Man award in 2019-20. Should he win, it would be a record setting fourth trophy.

Sustained excellence indeed.

Microsoft, as a general rule, does not rest on its laurels. When they saw that cloud computing was the future they decided to try their hand at it, cause, why not. Microsoft Azure was born and like most everything Microsoft touches, it was soon gold. Today, after just 9 years in existence,  Azure is 2nd in the very competitive Cloud Computing space. Using Azure a company based in California can host their application closer to their users who might be, for example, in Europe by running their app on an Azure server in Europe. It’s not a stretch to say Azure allows for long range computing.

In the 2018-19 season Landry Shamet was the 11th best long range shooter in the Association with a 3P% of 42.2. It was Shamet who took and made one of the biggest threes in Clippers history during that epic 31 point road comeback against the Warriors during the playoffs last season. With Gallinari now departed Landry will be relied on as a primary long range weapon for the Clippers. Last season his 42.2% came as he split time between the 76ers and the Clippers.  He averaged more time on the court with the Clips and actually shot much better too. His 3P% while with the Clippers over 25 games was 45%. Should Shamet be able to match that in 2019-20 in a season where he is likely to get a lot of open looks thanks to the presence of Leonard and George he, like Azure in the Cloud Computing space, would solidify his spot as one of the top three long range shooters in the Association.

Did you know Skype was owned by Microsoft? It is. It was purchased, not developed by the team from Redmond. It was “born” elsewhere but flourished under Microsoft. Before Microsoft purchased Skype they had an international market share of 13%. The first year after the purchase Skype market share rose to 34% That’s a pretty big jump. Today, Skype is the defacto communication tool on the internet.

Ivica Zubac was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers.  He spent his first two and a half seasons the the LAL. While he was “born” elsewhere, he has flourished with the Clippers. Over 26 games with the them he posted averages of 9.4 ppg, 7.7 rpg and 1.5 apg. Each of those numbers would be career highs over a full season. The Clippers entering the 2019-20 season are loaded, but they will need Zubac to take a leap in his development. Zubac should expect about 20 to 25 minutes per game in the regular season. If he can average double digits in rebounds and points with at least 1.5 assists and blocks he becomes a real force for the Clippers.

It’s time for Big Z to make a big jump!

Finally, after watching the Kawhi Leonard and Paul George introductory news conference/pep rally I was honestly amazed at the significance of the moment. The Clippers have for so many decades been cursed, called the little brother and basically been disrespected in many different ways. This news conference was the moment the Clippers shouted to fans of the Association that things are changing. It was a declaration that the last several years of winning were not a short-term thing, but the long-term plan. The Clippers are  winning franchise now and well into the future.

It was more than a news conference, It was a franchise defining moment.

Which leads me to the final Microsoft product comparison. All the haters, the “Clippers Curse”, the little brother references, the reminders of the very bad past, they all need an Microsoft doppelganger too. You see, for all it’s successes Microsoft also had a few flops. None more “floppy” than Microsoft Bob. I will let you click the link to learn more about what Bob was, for now all you need to know is it was released in 1995 and discontinued in 1996. It was, by all accounts, a complete and total failure. Sometimes, the very best at anything need a Microsoft Bob to remind them of what’s possible and to keep them from re-visiting past mistakes.

The Clippers past is now firmly in the past. It was, by all accounts, a complete and total failure. Ideally, the franchise will remember their less than storied past in order to increase the chances that they stay where they are. Moving forward, there is no doubt others will try to remind the Clippers of their Microsoft Bob, but when you are winning, those taunts don’t much matter. Those bad times should now only serve as a reminder of how far this franchise has come. It should motivate the team to never, ever, go back to how things were.

Please, don’t ever go back to how things were.

The George and Leonard press conference was more than just a presser. It was a representation of a line in the sand. A milestone. It was the moment the Clippers Microsoft Bob reminders lost their edge. From this point forward its more about sustained excellence and less about Bob.