Clippers owner Steve Balmer bought The Forum, previously known as the fabulous Great Western Forum, in Inglewood for $400 million from the owner of the New York Knicks, James Dolan.
The 16-time NBA champions Los Angeles Lakers used to call The Forum home before they moved to the Staples Center in 1999.
Since purchasing the Clippers back in 2014, Steve Ballmer has been a huge thorn in the Lakers fan base’s side.
During Clippers home games, they cover all of the Lakers championship banners and retired jersey numbers with banners of Clippers players’ faces.
Then they signed two players that Lakers fans were looking forward to, Kahwi Leonard and Paul George.
Both players grew up being Lakers fans in Los Angeles and now the Clippers own sacred grounds where the Lakers won their championships.
Lakers fans wanted the Clippers to move out of Staple Center for a long time but no one expected them to move to The Forum.
Ballmer is not planning on demolishing The Forum nor is he planning on the Clippers playing their home games there.
Instead, Ballmer is planning on building his arena for the Clippers near The Forum.
Ballmer simply bought The Forum to get more land. We could see an LA Live 2.0 in Inglewood, as we all know that the newly-built SoFi Stadium is almost complete.
The next thing we can see being built is new hotels, restaurants, and possibly a movie theater.
The city of Inglewood is going to get a total 360-degree facelift.
The Clippers had its ups and very bad downs in 2013. Their ex-owner Donald Sterling was recorded by his ex-girlfriend saying racist remarks.
He was then banned from the NBA for life and stripped of ownership of the Clippers.
Ballmer is a very rich billionaire from Detroit, Michigan who used to be the chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft.
When he bought the team, he originally wanted to move the team to Seattle but the NBA forced him to agree to keep the team in Los Angeles.
The Forum holds a very special place in many Los Angeles natives’ hearts. The Forum currently holds a lot of concert events such as hip-hop, rock, country, and gospel.
Many Hall of Famers have played at The Forum such as Wayne Gretzky, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Lisa Leslie, and Kobe Bryant.
The Lakers have won six world championships in The Forum from 1972 to 1988.
The Forum was built in 1967, which was, at the time, “the Mecca” for sports teams in Los Angeles.
The teams that called The Forum home were the Lakers, Sparks, and Kings.
With all this legacy, the Clippers are a failure franchise team of Los Angeles being one of only three teams that never won a single championship in the city, along with the Chargers and the new soccer team, LAFC.
Even collegiate teams like UCLA and USC have won more championships than these teams but many believe the future of LA sports is reserved for the Clippers’ franchise, as they are hopeful of gaining that championship banner.
