Steve Ballmer tells us that he is absolutely not moving the L.A. Clippers to Seattle

AP

Steve Ballmer, owner of the LA Clippers NBA team

Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer wants the world to know, again, he's not moving his basketball team to Seattle, or anywhere else, he told Business Insider.

"L.A. Clippers! Stop this we should move them. I'm not moving them," he laughed. "I love Seattle. Seattle is wonderful. But the Clippers are an L.A. team."

The new calls to move to Seattle come after a lot of recent drama surrounding the Clippers.

There was the backhanded way that coach Doc Rivers learned that his All-Star guard, Chris Paul, wanted to be traded, from his agent, not himself. There was the agreement to trade him to Houston in exchange for a deal that included Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell, a first-round pick and $661,000.

There were all the news stories blaming the trade on tension between Paul, coach Doc Rivers and River's son, Austin, who also plays on the team - stories that Paul and Austin Rivers later refuted that.

So here's one drama we can lay to rest: Ballmer's answer on moving the team is an unequivocal, "no."

Ballmer had heard it all before, but the idea of relocating gained new steam again after Bill Simmons published an "An 11-Step Guide to Saving the Clippers" commenting on what the Clippers needs to do now that they've lost one of the faces of the franchise in Chris Paul.

Simmons made a pretty solid argument why Seattle is a better choice for the team, saying they "could be the Pacific Northwest's version of how Silicon Valley embraced the Warriors. Seattle not having an NBA team is dumber than James Dolan having an NBA team."

In the post, Simmons told Ballmer: "You're never toppling USC, UCLA, the Lakers, and the Dodgers. You could own Seattle ... Building that Inglewood stadium is the equivalent of being in a failing relationship and saying, 'I know what will save us - let's have a kid!'"

No matter. It's in Ballmer's hands and that means L.A. gets to keep both NBA teams, while Seattle continues to have none.