Donald Sterling is planning to sue the NBA for over $1 billion in damages over his lifetime ban and terminated ownership.
A few days after an audio recording of Sterling making racist comments was published by TMZ, new NBA commissioner Adam Silver fined Sterling the maximum amount of $2.5 million, banned him from life from the NBA and said he could not be involved with the Clippers. Silver also said the league was moving to remove Sterling as owner of the Clippers.
That part was completed this week when Sterling’s wife, Shelly, agreed to sell the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday for $2 billion.
As of now, Sterling is not suing to block the sale of the franchise, though he could decide to do that. The reason why the team was allowed to be sold is because Sterling was declared mentally unfit to make decisions, which made Shelly the 100-percent controller of the Sterling Family Trust. That gave her the power to transfer ownership of the team.
Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski says the NBA believes it can stave off any lawsuits from Sterling and make Ballmer the team owner.
Asked source involved w/ Clippers sale process if Sterling has any legal avenue to stop Ballmer ownership, "No. He is totally boxed in."
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) May 30, 2014
Sterling may be awarded some money in damages, but I think this sale of the franchise is going through.
Photo via @bubbaprog
