[BigV]

Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft executive and ever the company man, issues edict banning iPads for the whole Los Angeles Clippers Basketball team.

Steve Ballmer says he doesn't have huge changes planned for the Los Angeles Clippers, his newly acquired pro basketball team, but he does want them to quit using Apple products.

"Most of the Clippers are on Windows, some of the players and coaches are not," the former Microsoft CEO told Reuters, without naming names.

Although he stepped down as Microsoft's chief exec in February and retired from its board of directors in August, Ballmer remains the quintessential company man. He reportedly doesn't allow his own family to use iPhones or iPads and he told Clippers coach Doc Rivers that he doesn't want his team using them, either.

"And Doc kind of knows that's a project," shy and retiring Ballmer said. "It's one of the first things he said to me: 'We are probably going to get rid of these iPads, aren't we?' And I said, 'Yeah, we probably are'."

Wow.

[schadenfreude]In 2013, Redmond inked a $400m, five-year deal with the National Football League that included making Surface tablets the only devices allowed on game sidelines and in coaches' booths. TV commentators routinely refer to them as "iPads."[/schadenfreude]

LOL.