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Kanye West to Steve Ballmer: I’ll Redesign Clippers Mascot

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
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By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
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March 14, 2016, 1:34 PM ET
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Once again, Kanye West wants to show off his designer skills.

West tweeted on Sunday to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer by asking him if he could “please redesign the Clippers mascot.” Ballmer, who bought the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team for $2 billion in 2014, indicated he was open to the idea, replying that he’d at least be willing to chat with West about his team’s mascot.

“Love Chuck, but love your creativity,” Ballmer tweeted back to West. “Let’s talk. Lunch?”

Ballmer then thought better of his lunch idea, saying that he’d rather “grab a Clips (sic) game together and talk.” West responded he’d be willing to have lunch this week with the Clippers owner.

The Clippers unveiled their new mascot a couple of weeks ago during a home game. Dubbed Chuck the Condor, the mascot is grey with a pink face and blue nose. He wears a Clippers jersey and sneakers.

Read more: Steve Ballmer Just Did a Trampoline Dunk

Ballmer, who apparently signed off on the design, was so excited about Chuck’s addition to the Clippers that he celebrated the mascot unveiling with a dunk. The dunk, which was achieved with help from a trampoline and almost went awry as Ballmer nearly overstepped the springboard surface, soon went viral. It was just the latest in a long line of antics the 59-year-old billionaire has enjoyed over his career.

A Ballmer-West team, however, may be one of the more interesting chapters in the former Microsoft (MSFT) CEO’s career. West is well known for his own outspoken antics, most recently taking to Twitter to talk about his debt and hope that Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg would help him out.

Ballmer, of course, is best remembered for a wide range of fun and games, including spoofing A Night at the Roxbury to promote Windows and running around a stage, drenched in sweat, screaming “developers” over and over again.

After retiring from Microsoft in 2013, however, Ballmer was interested in doing something else. And in an interview with Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech dinner in San Francisco last week, he revealed that he quickly met with the NBA to see how he could buy a team.

“I like basketball and I’ve liked basketball for a long time,” he said.

For more about Ballmer’s life after Microsoft, watch:

But whether Ballmer, who’s passionate about whatever he’s doing, and West, who thinks he’s the best at whatever he does, can work together, remains to be seen. West, who has his own fashion line, seems intent on changing Chuck’s look. Ballmer, however, seems pleased with his fashion. It should be interesting to see if Ballmer and West find some common ground or have a falling out.

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After all, this is the same West who believes his “tweets are a form of contemporary art only compromised by people trying to tell me what to tweet and not to tweet.”

Word of advice: Don’t make the same mistake with Chuck the Condor, Steve.

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