Hearing called off; Sterling files suit
LOS ANGELES — The NBA called off a hearing to oust Los Angeles Clippers co-owner Donald Sterling in advance of a vote on a potentially record-breaking deal negotiated by his wife Shelly to sell the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.
Shelly Sterling negotiated the deal late Thursday despite objections expressed through her estranged husband’s attorneys.
The NBA said in a statement yesterday that the league, Shelly Sterling and The Sterling Family Trust “resolved their dispute over the ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers. Under the agreement, the Clippers will be sold to Steve Ballmer, pending approval by the NBA Board of Governors, and the NBA will withdraw its pending charge to terminate the Sterlings’ ownership of the team.”
But Donald Sterling is still fighting, filing suit yesterday in federal court against the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver and asking for damages in excess of $1 billion. It alleges that the league violated Sterling’s constitutional rights by relying on information from an “illegal” recording that publicized racist remarks he made to a girlfriend.
It also said the league committed a breach of contract by fining Sterling $2.5 million and violated antitrust laws by forcing a sale.
“Mr. Sterling’s lawsuit is predictable, but entirely baseless,” NBA general counsel Rick Buchanan said. “There was no ‘forced sale’ of his team by the NBA — which means his antitrust and conversion claims are completely invalid. Since it was his wife Shelly Sterling, and not the NBA, that has entered into an agreement to sell the Clippers, Mr. Sterling is complaining about a set of facts that doesn’t even exist.”
The NBA had been prepared for a lawsuit, saying in its statement that “Mrs. Sterling and the Trust also agreed not to sue the NBA and to indemnify the NBA against lawsuits from others, including from Donald Sterling.”
Donald Sterling was stripped of his ability to act as a trustee of the family’s fortunes, including the Clippers, after two neurologists determined he was suffering from dementia earlier this month and was deemed “mentally incapacitated,” according to a person close to the Sterling family.