Pablo Torre

And the question that the leagues now have to be asking themselves is when do we actually fulfill the terms, the implicit terms of this trust that America has given us?

Because right now it's a one-way transaction and a lot of people are getting scammed.

He could buy out everyone else.

He's the richest owner in all of sports, and it's not close.

He has $150 billion.

He is the boogeyman when it comes to any contest in which money is the weapon.

And what Steve Ballmer has done is, I think, live out this...

frankly, this parable about sports in which sports has more than ever the richest people in the world interested for reasons, by the way, that I just alluded to, but also because of sincere fandom.

Steve Ballmer is a hardcore basketball fan.

I interviewed him once when I was doing a story about Harvard basketball, and he told me about and this was, of course, many moons ago.

Now, he told me about how he was a

scorekeeper, charting assists and rebounds.

Like that's the kind of hardcore basketball sicko he is.

He's cared about youth teams, he's coached youth basketball.

And so the question is when you have everything, you have all of the money in the world, but the thing you want the most is something that because sports is governed by fair play and rules, you cannot simply buy

It's one of the few places left in civilization where you can't just buy the thing you want.

You have to earn it.

You gotta win it in a fair competition.

The only thing resembling meritocracy we have left, frankly.

Steve Ballmer cannot do that because in the NBA, there's a bleeping salary cap.