It's understandable if you haven't been keeping up with the Los Angeles Clippers' front office turmoil, but you're at least likely to have heard a little bit about their previous owner Donald Sterling.
You know, the guy caught on tape making racist comments earlier this year?
Well, he finally sold the basketball team to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who is very excited (to say the least) about his purchase.
At a team rally on Monday, Ballmer basically went bonkers with Clippers pride and began shouting and gyrating in front of a large audience. His entrance song? Eminem's "Lose Yourself," which blared for a solid minute while Ballmer strutted around the Staples Center.
Check it out below (skip to 29:00 mark):
Clippers players and coaches are used to an owner who makes racist remarks, doesn't respect them and (usually) doesn't care enough to put a winning product on the court.
So you can imagine their surprise when Ballmer started losing his mind at a pep rally in support of them and their franchise.
Here's star player Chris Paul with his best "holy s-t" look:
Thanks to Sterling's recorded comments earlier this year, the Clippers franchise has eeked its way into pop culture. A couple weeks ago, KISS frontman Gene Simmons told the Wall Street Journal that he's got Sterling's back.
"I'm on the side of Don Sterling," Simmons admitted. "I'm on Mel Gibson's side, Don Sterling's side and anybody who has a racist or an expletive rant privately. The difference between this guy, who's heinous, of course, or anybody else is that they were caught...He was caught on camera, by the way, without his approval. He was ambushed. I think he should have done penance and paid a fine."
Last week, Childish Gambino referenced the situation in a Twitter poem:
i hope I'm so big and white i can go to clippers games and it not be a statement.
With Sterling gone and Ballmer arriving, the culture at the Staples Center is likely to change quite a bit.
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