Steve Ballmer severely overbid for the Los Angeles Clippers based on the expected 2014 revenues of the franchise.

Ballmer's $2 billion bid is 12.1 times the expected 2014 revenues.

The book, called "Project Claret" so as not to give away on the cover sheet that these numbers are indeed the financials of the Clippers, reveals that the team is projected to finish the year with $62.3 million in revenues from ticket sales, $25.8 million from its local cable contract and $24.1 million in additional team revenue. The Clippers are also projected to receive $52.7 million on the season in shared national league revenue, according to the document. After taking away player payroll costs, total operating revenue for the 2013-14 season is projected to be $100 million.

Valuation multiples are usually based on total revenues, so the $164.9 million before player costs are extracted equals more than 12 times less than the $2 billion sale price.

"No team in the history of sports has sold for six times total revenues, so that should give you an idea of how crazy this purchase price is," said a sports banker who was not involved in the transaction.

The document cites a five-year mean of teams that have been purchased during that time at a sales price of 3.4 times total revenue.

Donald Sterling testified earlier this month that he could have gotten at least $2.5 billion for the team.