Steve Ballmer isn't just the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, he's also the top shareholder of a nice little technology company called Microsoft. That's bad news for employees of the team who use their beloved iPhones and iPads, because Ballmer plans to ban the franchise from using anything that's not Windows-friendly in the near future:
Steve Ballmer wants to ban Clippers from using Apple products
The Clippers’ new owner has a bit of a relationship with Microsoft, and wants his fancy new basketball franchise to reflect that.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
It should come as no surprise, then, that the Clippers will be a Microsoft organization. The son of a Ford Motor Co manager, he's always been a company and product loyalist, banning his own family from using Apple's iPhones.
Apple, obviously, is one of the biggest competitors to Microsoft in the technology industry. The company has been back in the spotlight recently after the release of the new iPhone 6 earlier this month, and remains one of the most influential brands in the world. As the top shareholder for a prime competitor, Ballmer would understandably rather not stoke those flames.
“Most of the Clippers on are Windows, some of the players and coaches are not,” Ballmer said.
“And Doc kind of knows that’s a project. It’s one of the first things he said to me: ‘We are probably going to get rid of these iPads, aren’t we?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we probably are.’ But I promised we would do it during the off season.”
So the Clippers may be getting one more season out of their iPads, but by next summer, Blake Griffin will have to fall in love with his new Surface. Presumably, iPhones will be suffering a similar fate, so it'll be Lumias all around.
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