Jazz Owner Backs ‘Stand-Up’ Ballmer, but Says NBA Had to Punish Him

Jazz owner Ryan Smith agrees Steve Ballmer and the Clippers had to be punished for violating the NBA’s salary cap rules. But he also believes the league is better off with the former Microsoft CEO as one of its owners.

“He’s a stand-up individual first and foremost,” Smith told Front Office Sports on an upcoming episode of Portfolio Players. “This game is tricky; this game is hard. And obviously we have rules, and the NBA’s gotta do it; I’m glad he accepted it, and we can all just turn the page and move on.”

The NBA banned Ballmer for a year, fined him $30 million, and docked the Clippers’ five first-round draft picks for deals Kawhi Leonard made with four companies—Aspiration Partners, Boingo Wireless, Daktronics, and Lockton Insurance—that its investigation found violated the league’s cap circumvention rules.

Smith spoke to FOS’s Dan Roberts shortly after the news that federal prosecutors were investigating the case, and that Ballmer had said he was accepting the NBA’s punishment.

Ballmer and Smith both made their money in tech, although Ballmer is orders of magnitude wealthier. Ballmer was the CEO of Microsoft, while Smith made his fortune selling survey software company Qualtrics. Smith told FOS Ballmer was one of the first people he spoke to when he bought the Jazz in 2022 for $1.66 billion.

“I love Steve; I think he’s an incredible owner,” Smith said. “I think the NBA is way better with him. Hopefully he can get back on the horse next year. … I think everyone’s just ready to move on.”

Smith noted this isn’t the “first time this has happened in the league,” that “these rules have to mean anything,” and that owners are “held to a pretty high standard comparatively.”

The most high-profile prior example of the NBA severely punishing a team for cap circumvention was in 2000, when the Timberwolves lost five first-round draft picks and were fined $3.5 million for reaching a deal with Joe Smith that included a handshake agreement that the forward would receive millions in additional compensation down the line as part of a future extension. 

As part of the penalty there, then–NBA commissioner David Stern voided Smith’s contract.

Current NBA commissioner Adam Silver did not void Leonard’s contract, instead fining the star forward $700,000.

Ballmer’s Clippers were fined $250,000 in 2015 for improperly promising center DeAndre Jordan a potential third-party endorsement opportunity—which is what the investigation found the team did with Leonard.