A day after he was fined $30 million by the NBA for salary cap circumvention involving Kawhi Leonard and his LA Clippers disclosed the team had paid $50 million in legal fees, team owner Steve Ballmer's net worth increased by $4.3 billion.
This is a parlor game. Ballmer's net worth, based on his 330 million Microsoft shares, often fluctuates by several billion before lunch. But it is also an exercise in perspective.
It's easy to lose that perspective in high-intensity moments, and the Clippers and Ballmer are in one now.
They are steaming mad at the NBA for the five draft-pick penalty, a sentiment that spilled out in two lengthy statements they released Wednesday, one of them an open letter to NBA commissioner Adam Silver that was the legalese version of a rant. It was likely as close to the fury Ballmer, famous for his emotion, was expressing behind the scenes as his lawyers would allow.
The Silver letter is a classic precursor to a lawsuit, raising a number of issues that could be turned into legal arguments, the document serving as a chance for the NBA to reconsider.
Which, for the time being, the league will not be doing.