Sam Amick

USA TODAY Sports

LOS ANGELES – As retirement schedules go, new Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is as busy as they come.

It's Seattle one day to be with the family that remains there – wife, Connie, and the one of his three sons who isn't off at college. It's Palo Alto the next, where the former Microsoft CEO teaches a course two days a week at the place he left in 1980 to join Bill Gates in the PC revolution, Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Yet Los Angeles is now the place with which he'll be forever tied, the city where he plans to run his new team until his dying day.

The 58-year-old man who paid a record $2 billion to follow in Donald Sterling's infamous footsteps took some time out of his jam-packed schedule to discuss his new venture with USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday. He opened up about the past (failed attempts to buy the Seattle SuperSonics, Sacramento Kings and Milwaukee Bucks; the behind-the-scenes business that led to his Clippers purchase), the present (the aforementioned coastal commute and his unofficial role running the Clippers' business operations) and the future (the possibility of a 2017 lockout or strike in the NBA; the possibility that the Clippers could one day play in their own building and more).

The following are parts of the interview that were not used in the story.

Q: So one thing I've wondered while watching your last few months from affar: after you'd pushed so hard for so long to get a team in Seattle, how tough was it to reconcile this opportunity and the fact that it was here?

A: "Well, let me give you an interesting chronology. So (hedge fund manager) Chris Hansen is driving force, really, to try to buy the Kings and move them to Seattle in – what would that have been – 2012, no 2013. And I wanted to support that. That was a great thing for the city in which I lived, but I had a full-time job running Microsoft and was very busy. But I'm a partner, and I'm there to help, but Chris is really driving it. For a variety of reasons, as you know, that doesn't get done. So I say, 'OK, well that's unfortunate, and I'll really think about this again either the next time Chris has a lead, or someday when I don't have a full-time job. So I stayed in touch with Chris, and made my own decision to move on and retire from Microsoft, and one of the first things I did then in that context – because I knew then that, as a retired guy, I want Seattle to have a team, and I don't have to just back Chris up, I could really go with Chris on this. And if it isn't going to happen, then I'd like to own a team before I'm, you know, 70.

"So I went to see Adam Silver, and he was a brand new commissioner. And I said, 'You know, my dream would either be to have a team in Seattle, or, frankly, in L.A. Those would be my two perfects.' And he reminded me of a couple things, that teams don't sell all the time. Milwaukee was in the process (of selling), and I had passed on Milwaukee. I had gotten a text when I was still running Microsoft, or an e-mail from Allen & Co. (the New York-based investment firm that handled the sale for former owner Herb Kohl), and I'm saying, 'No, I can't be (the owner).' But then I retired. Literally, until the day I walked out the door I didn't feel like I could consider it. And then I said, 'Oh shoot, I'd better think about Milwaukee. So I spent a day, I drove around Milwaukee, in every neighborhood. Now I was late to the process, so it didn't develop. But I told Adam, 'the two places that would be best for me would be Seattle and L.A.' He didn't give me a lot of hope. He said, 'You know, Seattle someday does make a lot of sense, but we don't have any expansion discussion going on, and we are trying to support cities in keeping their teams, like Sacramento.' And he said, 'L.A., I just don't think either of those teams will sell.' And so I said, 'OK, well I'd better go look at Milwaukee,' so I did. And then the whole thing broke with the Clippers. And since things don't sell all the time, and I love basketball and I knew I wanted to do something and I'm now retired, I said, 'Boom.' Dive in on this Clipper opportunity."

Q: Well, you dove in. So just to dive a little deeper with that chapter, what did you learn about the NBA when you weren't able to get the Kings despite cutting a check that was so much bigger than the other bidder? (Current Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and his group paid a then-league record valuation of $535 million in May 2013 while the Ballmer/Hansen group offered a valuation of $625 million).

A: "Well, I learned that look, the NBA – and I support this, actually, and think it's a right thing to do – is trying to provide a level of support and protection for loyal fan bases. In the case of Seattle, it didn't work out. You can go through and say, 'Did it change after the Sonics moved to Oklahoma City (in 2008)?' I don't know. People in Seattle have many theories. All I can say is that I don't know. But as a resident of a city that's lost a team, I guess I'm pretty happy that the league gives people a chance to work it. As an owner, you're never going to move a team out of L.A. anyway, so if I owned a team in some cities maybe I'd wish there was more team motion, but I think the policy is probably pretty good.

"I don't think anything we would've done (would've changed the outcome with the Kings). If we had increased the money, eventually maybe they would have sold to us. Now I wasn't by myself. On the Clippers, I could make an independent valuation. On the Kings, I was bidding with four or five other guys, and so it did have to make sense. I think because the league was really trying to protect the Sacramento fan base, somebody might have come up with the money (in Sacramento) or the price would have really gone up. I mean we were really high. We offered a lot of money. We offered more money than the winning bidder, actually, and we offered a huge relocation fee, which people forget. I think we had offered the equivalent of three or four million bucks to each owner, so another $120 million or something like that. Plus, we were going to build an arena, so it was already a big number. If we had gone up and up, what would have happened? I don't know. It's hard to speculate."

Q: So to move it forward a little bit, where were you when the Donald Sterling news broke and how soon after that were the wheels in motion for this to happen?

A: "So on that Saturday morning (April 26), I got a phone call from my son at college, and he said, 'Dad, you're interested in basketball and you're interested in Los Angeles. This Clipper (controversy) - you should listen to these (Sterling) tapes. This team is going to sell.' And he called me that Saturday morning, and I said, 'No, how would they make the guy sell? No. Are the tapes that bad?' And he said, 'Dad, I think you've got to listen to them.' So I did. And I still wasn't sure, but I think that he had good instincts. My son had good instincts that I had to be ready to roll. And you can see that I'd been to the altar a few times. The Sonics once, the Kings once, the Bucks once, so I kind of know how to value these things. I had already put a little (management) team in place to work on the Bucks. There was a banker, and a lawyer, so we had some expertise assembled to go look at it, and we were ready. I was fishing. But now we could go say, 'Let's really be ready.' I tried to figure out how to find Donald Sterling, or (his wife) Shelly, because the best thing to do would be for me to buy from the current owner. Adam (Silver) made the clear. I called the league office to try to buy the team. If you can buy the team, the league is not going to get in the middle of it.

"Somehow a friend of mine figured out that (former Disney CEO) Michael Eisner, who I knew, sat next to the Sterlings and he wound up doing some introductions. I came to some games. I came for one in the Golden State (playoff) series … I came back for one of the Oklahoma City (playoff) games. I have (another) son who's at SC (USC), so we went to the second game. So how do you get into the game? I had bankers and people calling around trying to figure out how you make contact, what does that really look like? I have a buddy here in town who was helping me a little bit, just to meet anybody who might know anybody, and it just worked out."

Q: When other folks start jumping in with their checkbooks, how does it go from there?

"Well, it was the end of April when the tapes break. And I didn't meet Shelly (Sterling) until Memorial Day weekend (May 24-26). I'd been to a couple of (Clippers) games, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I was worried that the guys in L.A. were out there making the deal, and everybody knows everybody and I'm just the guy who doesn't know anybody. So I have no idea what went on for that month. Eisner was quite helpful. To the best of his ability, he was trying to do an introduction with Donald but not offend him, and then he finally decided that Shelly was probably the right place to make the introduction when she got authority (of the team). I was talking to people with the league office. I had bankers involved, trying to figure out who to talk to.

"But I was hearing, 'Oh God, Larry Ellison – who we compete with all the time at Microsoft – he's in the game. A bunch of guys who I don't know who are money guys in L.A. are in it, Oprah's in the game, Patrick Soon-Shiong is in the game.' But because I'm not in L.A., I was worried that I was more of an outsider. So I kept working it and I feel very fortunate."

Q: What's the routine for you right now, the juggling act?

A: "I can't even tell you exactly how much (time). I'm teaching a class right now, a half-class at Stanford, so I'm there Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I'm kind of buzzing around a little bit. And we still have a 10th grader (in Seattle), so we're not moving or anything. But I'm here.

"Right now, because we don't have a team president on the business side, and I'm not the team president, but I'm spending more time than I would think on some issues than I will when we do have a team president on the business side in place. So that's an important thing. It's all brand new. It's all fun. It's all interesting. So far, so good."

Q: You're enjoying it, then?

A: "Yeah, I mean these are small businesses. We have about a hundred and probably 30 or 40 people who work for the Clippers, and remember Microsoft was a 100,000 (employees) when I walked out. We were about 80 billion in revenue. This thing's not 80 billion in revenue (laughs). It's a couple hundred million in revenue. But it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun so far."

Q: In the context of what you paid and what happens going forward with that investment, what's your perspective the summer of 2017 as far as the CBA? The players probably want more and the owners may want more as well. How do you see that? (Both players and owners have the ability to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement, which they are widely expected to do).

A: "I think there's sort of two things to go on. I'm not an expert, but I think there's kind of what the players want and what the owners want, and that's fair. I'm an owner. They're players. But somehow people will tussle that through, because it's in everybody's best interests to make a win-win deal. That doesn't mean there won't be some drama, but that's how … When there's a win-win deal out there, I'm used to this notion.

"I remember when we tried to buy Yahoo! (in 2008), one of the things we wanted to do was to reassure people in California that we weren't going to kill jobs down here. So I came to see Governor (Arnold) Schwarzenegger at the time, and I said, 'You know, I don't want you to worry about it. You're going to read about this in the newspaper,' and he said, 'Look, I get it. It's like Kabuki Theatre. The legislature says, 'More taxes!' (booming voice) and I have to say, 'No more taxes!' and then eventually we get there. Well, there will be a bit of drama. But there will be a win-win deal I'm sure for the players and the owners. The other dynamic I think that comes up at about the same time is small markets and big market teams. Because revenue sharing, the CBA, the cap, those things are all intricately intertwined and tend to be reviewed at the same time. I mean if you look at the small market teams, they do depend heavily on revenue sharing that comes from the big markets, the big TV contracts like the Lakers contract (with Time Warner) and others. So I'm sure there will be a bunch of drama all around the board, and I'm sure with Silver at the helm, this will be successfully navigated."

Q: What's your vision for this organization as far as the arena? Is there ever a day when the Clippers have their own home?

A: "Will we be here or someplace else? Well, we've got a lease here for a long time (through 2024), and we have a good partner in AEG, but nothing is forever. We'll see where all that goes. But this is a good home for us, and I'm glad we're playing here today. But eventually everything gets reviewed.

"But right now, I'm just energized to be in Staples, playing games here, working hard (fists pumping), making this the best arena for our fans, to have the best experience, the best team, and if we do all that, good things will happen to us."

Q: You've put the ceiling high, especially with your comment about this being 'America's team'…

A: "I believe that too. Absolutely. Look, to be America's team, to be anybody's team, you've either got to be in one of the big media markets, and/or have one of the big stars, and/or be the champion. And if you have them all lined up – call that Magic (Johnson) with the Lakers in the '80s – then OK. That's sort of the ultimate.

"We're going to bust it. I know the players will, but we're going to do everything we can to support the guys and support (team president and coach) Doc (Rivers). Let's do everything we can to help Doc and the guys get to the next level. Whatever that next level is, we want to get to the next level."

Q: Speaking of Doc, you didn't waste any time locking him up…

A: "No sir. I did not. I decided that I don't know much, but this guy is pretty good (laughing). I'm not an experienced sports guy, but Doc is an incredibly impressive guy. Sometimes guys are incredibly impressive, but they don't wear well over time etc. I decided, and my instincts were, that Doc and I would work super-well together, and it's not like the guy doesn't have a track record. He's won a championship (with the Boston Celtics in 2008). Sometimes guys are super impressive, but they can't actually get the job done. Doc has gotten the job done! You don't have to guess and (say) he might be able to do it. He's done it! It just seemed absolutely right to me. I knew he'd been talking to the team about where to go. He had done a little shorter contract than what he might have otherwise done just because he wasn't sure what he was getting into, and so we agreed to make sure we take a real cut at this thing together."

Q: So do you have a basketball support group for counsel as you find your way as an owner? You're new. You're learning. You don't know all the ins and outs. Any basketball voices that you rely on?

A: "No. I don't."

Q: What about relationships within the league?

A: "I know Paul Allen (his former Microsoft colleague and owner of the Portland Trail Blazers). I mean the guys in the league office are happy to talk to me. It's not really their job to say, 'Do X or do Y,' but if I want to ask, 'Do new owners ever do this, re-sign the coach right away?' Paul Allen, I called Paul and he had a bunch of advice. Paul generally has the general manager separate from the coach. That's just something he believes in, and so he had (shared his) advice, but I decided this was a winning formula. I listened to a couple of people like that, but I just said, 'Hey no, I'm going to bet on Doc.' And as most people would say, 'If you have Doc, bet on him.' … So that's what I decided anyway.

Q: Were you watching Doc and the way he comported himself during the Sterling saga?

A: "I watched all of that. Of course I watched all of that. I'm a basketball fan, so it's not like I hadn't followed Doc a little bit as he played at Orlando and in Boston. I didn't know this at the time, but Doc had actually done a couple of store openings for the Microsoft store in Boston."

Q: Well since you brought that up, you've got to answer the pop-culture question: to what degree is the Apple/Microsoft policy in place?

A: "No, anything the Clippers pay for (will be Microsoft). Look, I'm a homer. The guys and everybody understands it. I mean whatever a player wants to buy on his own, players are entitled to (buy). It's their money. Buy whatever they want to buy. I show off my phone. I'm going to show off my Windows phone all the time (laughing). But what a guy does with his own money is completely up to him. Now when the Clippers buy it? Well come on. That's kind of like my money. With my own money, I'm allowed to show favoritism. But what the guys buy on their own is up to them."

Q: The Laker/Clipper thing is always a discussion here, and that dynamic…

A: The what-Clipper thing?

Q: The Laker-Clipper dynamic.

A: What-Clipper? I couldn't hear you. My ears don't hear (that). What? (Yells, laughs). Sorry. I'm teasing.

Q: Well along those lines, what's the backstory on how (Lakers president and governor) Jeanie Buss encouraged you to go down this road?

A: "No, she was great. Actually, it's funny. It was my first trip to L.A. to meet anybody who I thought really knew the Sterlings, other than Michael (Eisner). It was another lead I was pursuing … So I'd reached out to Jeanie Buss because Chris Hansen knows Jeanie, and Chris had said, 'Jeanie has a lot of counsel and advice if you're interesting in this Clipper thing. Jeanie has a lot of opinions and advice, and she'd love to meet you.' So I reached out to Jeanie, and she said, 'Why don't we grab lunch.' Then I dovetailed that. That was right before Memorial Weekend – it was the Friday before I came back and saw Shelly Sterling on Sunday. I was here for lunch with Jeanie on Friday, did another Clipper thing Friday afternoon after I saw Jeanie. I flew up to Oregon for my son's hoop tournament, and I had to come back here on Sunday for dinner with Shelly. So I saw Jeanie on that Friday. She had a lot of insights about L.A., about basketball, about the Clippers. It was the first time she and I had met, but she knows Chris reasonably well."

Q: Well there's obviously the whole Phil Jackson subplot. That's who you guys were going with (as team president of the Seattle team if they got the Kings; Buss is Jackson's fiance).

A: "Exactly (laughs). I think Phil may have a son who knows Chris pretty well."

Q: So what's your short to-do list – six months, the next year – what are you attacking with this franchise in terms of the impact that you're going to make?

A: "Well think we have a lot to do in the community, and I think we have to show that we're a really good, positive force in the L.A. community. And I think the burden on us to do that is perhaps even higher just because of whence we came. So that's high on my list. Making sure the fans know that we're dedicated to the experience. Partly that is signing Doc, committing to the team, but partly it's making sure the place feels different on the inside, that the game experience feels good, that the broadcast experience feels good."

Q: Yeah, you've said that. So is change coming on that front?

A: "Well, I'm looking at it … Somebody said it to me like this, they said, 'Hey this is L.A., and whatever the best live entertainment experience is, (you'd) better have it in L.A. Better not to have that be something you can only get in Memphis, right?' So I haven't been to a lot of games in a lot of different arenas, but I'm asking around – what do people do, what works? Players have given me (advice). Players know what it's like every place. Doc knows what it's like every place. (Media relations manager) Seth Burton knows what it's like everywhere, because he's with the team everywhere. I've talked to some guys I know at Nike, because they're up in our neck of the woods. Everybody is giving me opinions, who does what well? We're learning."

Q: Any player ideas that stuck with you?

A: "Well I think the view that you want to get the arena full quickly, you want to have the energy high, you want to have the fans engaged. That actually matters to players. It's not just something where you're trying to do it because it's good as an owner. The players do feed off of energy. You can see that with the 12th man up in Seattle (with the Seahawks fans). Players do feed off the energy, and anything we can do to get the fans to jazz up the team to jazz up the fans. In some of the small markets, they do that pretty well, again, in a way that's sort of appropriate for those markets. But people point to Oklahoma City, to San Antonio. Some of those markets do a pretty good job for those cities."

Q: Well your passion is legendary. Any thought to grabbing the mike up there at any point and maybe get the crowd going, in the beginning at least?

A: "I don't know (laughs). I don't know. That would be a new concept. I hadn't even thought about that. Let me just say that I hadn't thought about it. I don't know. Not on my radar. But now you're giving me something to think about."

Q: Just trying to help.

A: "Thank you very much."

Q: Anything else you feel like sharing?

A: "No, I'm just excited. You know, somebody said, 'You're not an owner yet,' one of the guys involved with the NBA, he said, 'You haven't won or lost a game, and you're not really an owner until you've done one of each.' (yells). So right now I think it's a little abstract, and I think it gets less abstract as we get into the season."