Los Angeles Clippers

Every owner since the start

1. 2014 to today
   Steve Ballmer

   Bought 100% from the Sterling Family Trust for $2B; closed 12 August 2014

2. 1981 to 2014
   Donald Sterling

   Bought the franchise from Irv Levin on 4 May 1981 for $12.5M (one source says $13.5M)

3. 1978 to 1981
   Irv Levin and Harold Lipton

   Swapped their Boston Celtics shares for the Braves; no cash price reported; moved the team to San Diego

4. 1976 to 1978
   John Y. Brown Jr., with Harry Mangurian Jr. from 1977

   Bought half from Paul Snyder in 1976 and the rest in 1977; price not found

5. 1970 to 1976-77
   Paul Snyder

   Bought the new franchise for $4M before its first game

6. 1970
   NBA

   League-run briefly after the first owners failed

7. 1970
   Neuberger Loeb, a New York investment firm

   Awarded the expansion franchise; the league took it back before a game was played

Value over time

Forbes valued the Clippers at $102M in 1998 and $7.8B in 2026, about 76 times as much. The biggest one-year jump was $2.0B, from 2024 to 2025; the biggest in percentage terms was 178%, from 2014 to 2015.

How the current owner bought it

• Forbes records that the NBA banned Donald Sterling for life on 29 April 2014. A forced sale followed.
• Shelly Sterling agreed on 29 May 2014 to sell 100% to Ballmer for $2B. A probate court upheld her authority as trustee on 28 July 2014.
• The sale closed on 12 August 2014, on condition that the team stay in Los Angeles.
• Mark Walter, now majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, was a losing bidder.

Partners in the team

How the team is run

• AP reported that on 2 September 2026 the NBA suspended Ballmer for one year and fined the team $30M. It also took five first-round draft picks, 2029 to 2033, and ordered five years of compliance monitoring.
• The case concerned the salary cap, the league limit on player pay. It centred on a $28M endorsement deal between player Kawhi Leonard and a company, Aspiration. The league said Ballmer knowingly tried to help Leonard obtain off-court income. The New York Times reported on 10 September 2026 that Brooklyn federal prosecutors had opened a criminal investigation into the team's Leonard dealings. Field Level Media carried the report. Status: no charges had been reported by 28 October 2026.
• AP also reported unpaid suspensions for business president Gillian Zucker (one year) and basketball president Lawrence Frank (six months). It noted an earlier $250,000 league fine in 2015.
• Status: AP reported that Ballmer accepted the penalties on 13 September 2026 and apologised. He said the fine was paid and he would not litigate. NBC Los Angeles reported that lawyer John S. Gibson became interim chief executive and governor on 21 September.
• Ballmer still owns the team and its arena. Intuit Dome cost about $2B, and Intuit pays at least $500M over 23 years for the name. He also bought The Forum in Inglewood for $400M in 2020.