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LA Clippers chairman Steve Ballmer initially was content to play at Staples Center — in the same building as the Los Angeles Lakers and the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings — when he bought the franchise for $2 billion in 2014.

But within a year, Ballmer said he realized the Clippers needed to build their own stadium if they wanted to build their own “identity.”

“We needed to say, ‘We’re our own guys. We don’t play in the same place as the other guys. We’re going to have our own identity,'” Ballmer told ESPN in a wide-ranging interview in advance of Friday’s groundbreaking for the Clippers’ new arena in Inglewood.

Ballmer estimated the new arena, which will be known as the Intuit Dome and is scheduled to open for the 2024-25 season, will cost him upward of $2 billion — essentially the same price he paid for the franchise just seven years ago — but he truly believes it is imperative to the Clippers’ success on and off the court.

“I’ve never been in a place where you had two teams in a town,” Ballmer said. “I grew up in Detroit. Everybody’s a Pistons fan. And I think for enough years the Clippers were bad enough, everybody could just ignore the Clippers.

“We’re good now, and we’re going to be good year in and year out. We’re going to build our own building, more of our own identity, more of our own personality. And I think some of the fans on the other side, if you will, it’s like, ‘What? You dare to question our supremacy?’ No, we do.

“There’s 30 teams in the league. There’s 29 others. And we got one that happens to be based in L.A. And we got our fans. We use our expression, ‘LA Our Way.’ And we’re building our own presence, identity. And if the other guys feel a little threatened — the other guys’ fans, I mean; the players are actually a little different deal — but if they feel a little threatened, that’s OK. It means we’re doing good.”

The Clippers went to their first Western Conference finals in franchise history last season, despite losing superstar forward Kawhi Leonard to a knee injury in the second round of the playoffs.

Leonard, who had the partially torn ACL in his right knee surgically repaired in the offseason, is expected to miss much of the 2021-22 season as he recovers. Ballmer said he’s still optimistic that the team can build off its playoff success from last season.

“Every year I want to win,” Ballmer said. “Some people will talk about ‘We’re taking a step back’ or ‘We got an injured year.’ No. Our fans can count on the fact that we are going to try to win as many ballgames as we can every year. Now, we took a little setback. We got to get Kawhi healthy. And when he’s back, we’re back at full strength.”

The Clippers’ biggest offseason move was re-signing Leonard to a four-year, $176.3 million contract. They also acquired guard Eric Bledsoe in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies. But they’ll largely return the same roster as last season, minus Leonard for however long his rehabilitation lasts.

Ballmer admits he has often thought of what could’ve been if Leonard hadn’t gotten hurt.

“It was painful,” Ballmer said. “Painful for Kawhi, painful for our team, painful for me and, most importantly, painful for our fans. But yeah, we gave it a go. We gave it a good go. We managed to push past Utah, even without Kawhi.

“I was proud of our guys. We were within a whisker or two of taking care of business in the Western Conference finals, even without Kawhi. We’ll see when we get him back, but we basically have most of the same team back for next year. … I remain optimistic.”

The new arena has become something of a passion project for Ballmer, 65, who retired as Microsoft’s CEO in 2013 and was ranked as the eighth-richest person in the world by Bloomberg last month with a net worth of an estimated $108.5 billion.

He set out to build the most comfortable, state-of-the-art arena in the NBA and has spared no expense to create it.

Last year, Ballmer purchased the Forum in Inglewood from New York Knicks owner James Dolan’s The Madison Square Garden Company for $400 million in cash. That move cleared the lawsuit that stood in the way of building a new arena near the music venue.

Ballmer said he spent years traveling the country to study stadiums and arenas, drawing inspiration from places such as the student section at Duke — which will be reflected in a section of 51 uninterrupted rows of the stadium called “The Wall” — as well as the slope of Utah’s Vivint Arena and end zone suites at football stadiums.

He also had several guiding principles from his own fan experience that are emphasized in the design. To Ballmer, it’s essential for fans to be in their seats, watching basketball and cheering as much as possible. So to minimize the time fans have to be away from their seats, he says, the Intuit Dome will have more legroom than any other arena in the NBA, double the number of toilets and no checkout lines at concession stands (everything will be ordered online).

“I feed off of the energy in the building,” Ballmer said. “But people go away and they get late to games or they don’t get back from halftime. I really want to make sure people are in their seats so … that energy, we feed off of it.”

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Fresh Prince of the Fall Classic: A Will Smith wins World Series for sixth-straight year

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1 hour ago

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November 3, 2025

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Fresh Prince of the Fall Classic: A Will Smith wins World Series for sixth-straight year

Forget advanced analytics, draft capital and payroll flexibility — apparently, a team needs just Will Smith to win the World Series.

With the Los Angeles Dodgers defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in seven games on Saturday night, a team with a player named Will Smith on their active roster has won the Fall Classic six years in a row.

The Dodgers accomplished the feat in 2020 and 2024 with catcher Will Smith, while the Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers swapped reliever Will Smith among them from 2021-23.

What’s even odder about this stat is that Will Smith doesn’t even need to dominate in the World Series to win. While Will Smith the pitcher has put up a respectable 3.38 ERA in his three World Series, Will Smith the catcher has a batting average of .194 with 14 hits, four homers, 10 RBIs and nine runs scored in 80 career Fall Classic plate appearances.

But those numbers don’t tell the full tale of the latter’s impact.

On Saturday night, Smith hit the first extra-inning home run in a winner-take-all World Series game in MLB history. It was his fourth career go-ahead homer in the postseason, tying Javy López and Gene Tenace for the second most by a catcher all time, behind only Johnny Bench with five. He also became the first catcher to homer in a Game 7 of the World Series since David Ross did it in 2016, and only the sixth catcher ever to do it. The ball he hit in the 11th inning traveled 366 feet — the exact same distance as Blue Jays infielder Ernie Clement‘s flyout with bases loaded that ended the ninth.

For good measure, the Dodgers clinched their back-to-back championship by turning a game-ending double play, making them just the third team ever to clinch the World Series in that fashion.

While Will Smith the catcher is locked up on the Dodgers for a while, Will Smith the pitcher last signed a one-year $5 million contract with the Kansas City Royals in December 2023 and is a free agent.

ESPN Research contributed to this story.

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Triple threat: Dodgers favored to win title in ’26

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1 hour ago

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November 3, 2025

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Triple threat: Dodgers favored to win title in '26

With their second straight World Series title and third championship in six seasons, the Los Angeles Dodgers have built a dynasty that seemingly can’t be stopped. According to bookmakers, it may not.

The Dodgers opened as the consensus favorite to win another World Series in 2026, showing +375 odds at ESPN BET. Next come the New York Yankees at a relatively distant +700 before another somewhat significant drop to the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies at +1200.

On paper, sportsbooks see a Dodgers core that is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of MLB. DraftKings sportsbook director Johnny Avello said the unique talent of the team’s lineup, even at the bottom, and an impeccable pitching staff keep Los Angeles in the outright-favorite conversation every season.

“Every year, it seems like we’ve been putting up the Dodgers as the favorite and we’ve been putting up just about the same price, like somewhere between +350 and +450,” Avello told ESPN. “There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be the favorite every year as long as they’re going to continue to keep putting a team like this out there.”

The World Series runner-up Toronto Blue Jays check in with +2000 odds to win it all in 2026, tied with the Chicago Cubs for 11th on ESPN BET’s board. It’s a significant improvement from their +6000 odds entering the 2025 campaign, which would have made them the longest preseason underdog to win a World Series since 2003 had they pulled it off against the Dodgers.

With Toronto leading 4-2 in the top of the eighth inning in Saturday night’s epic Game 7, Los Angeles was +750 on the live money line at ESPN BET. Pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who locked up the championship in the 11th inning after several stellar starting performances, was awarded World Series MVP after entering the series as a +3500 underdog to do so.

“The Dodgers were the most bet team to win the World Series and many bettors were happy to see the team win back-to-back championships,” BetMGM senior trader Matthew Rasp said in an email release. “LA opened as favorites to three-peat and we expect the Dodgers to be heavily supported by bettors once again.”

DraftKings, which opened its 2026 World Series market in recent weeks, said the Dodgers already are garnering 40% of the wagers and 25% of the handle to win another championship; the Blue Jays are second in the book’s rankings with 12% of bets and 22% of money.

Los Angeles was extremely well-supported by the betting public throughout the 2025 season: Going into the divisional round, ESPN BET said it had three times as many bets on the Dodgers to win the World Series than any other team.

At the bottom of the 2026 World Series odds board lie the Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies, both sporting astounding 500-1 odds. Both teams have become popular fade targets for bettors throughout recent seasons.

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Cubs earn major-league-high 3 Gold Glove awards

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November 3, 2025

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Cubs earn major-league-high 3 Gold Glove awards

  • Associated Press

Nov 2, 2025, 10:10 PM ET

CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs had a major-league-high three Gold Glove winners this year, with Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner taking home baseball’s most famous fielding honor.

It was the first Gold Glove for Crow-Armstrong, part of a breakout season for the All-Star center fielder. Happ won for the fourth consecutive year in left field, and it was the second Gold Glove for Hoerner at second base.

“Four straight’s pretty special,” Happ said. “We had an unbelievable defensive team this year. Just all around, I think we built off each other and kind of fed off each other and the energy, and it was a real source of pride amongst the group.”

Hoerner also won in 2023. He was slowed at the beginning of this season as he made his way back from right flexor tendon surgery on Oct. 11, 2024.

“To have an injury that directly impacts your defense and still win this award, yeah, it feels really good,” Hoerner said.

Kansas City, Boston and San Francisco each had two winners. Eight players earned the award for the first time, St. Louis-based Rawlings announced Sunday.

Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia of the Royals became the first shortstop-third baseman teammates to win in the same season since J.J. Hardy and Manny Machado for the Orioles in 2013. It was Witt’s second straight Gold Glove at shortstop.

Patrick Bailey and Logan Webb of the Giants are the first battery from the same team to win a Gold Glove in the same season since Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright for the Cardinals in 2013. It was Bailey’s second straight win at catcher.

The Red Sox winners were right fielder Wilyer Abreu and center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela. Abreu, 26, also won last year, and Rafaela, 25, earned the award for the first time.

New York Yankees pitcher Max Fried and Cleveland left fielder Steven Kwan joined Happ as four-time winners. Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson earned his third Gold Glove.

Detroit catcher Dillon Dingler, Texas second baseman Marcus Semien, Houston utilityman Mauricio Dubón and first baseman Ty France rounded out the AL winners. France was traded from Minnesota to Toronto on July 31.

San Diego right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., St. Louis shortstop Masyn Winn, third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes and Miami utilityman Javier Sanoja also won in the NL. It’s the second Gold Glove for Tatis and Hayes, who was traded from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati on July 30.

Semien earned a $100,000 bonus for winning the honor. Kwan and Witt each got $50,000, and Hayes earned a $25,000 bonus.

Voting was conducted among managers and up to six coaches from each team, who can’t select players on their own club. Since 2013, voting has been factored with a Society for American Baseball Research defensive index, which comprises about 25% of the total.

The utility category is based on a SABR formula and additional defensive statistics.

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