The NBA announced that it has “initiated a charge today seeking to terminate the ownership of Donald Sterling” in the Clippers (full statement courtesy of Eric Pincus of the L.A. Times on Sulia). The league’s Board of Governors will convene on June 3rd for a hearing on Sterling and if 3/4 of the vote goes against him, he will be ousted.
The NBA Constitution provides Sterling with the opportunity to respond to the charge by May 27, as well as the right to appear and make a presentation at the special meeting of the Board of Governors, according to the statement. The hearing will be presided over by Wolves owner Glen Taylor, who is the NBA Board of Governors Chairman.
“Mr. Sterling’s actions and positions significantly undermine the NBA’s efforts to promote diversity and inclusion; damage the NBA’s relationship with its fans; harm NBA owners, players and Clippers team personnel; and impair the NBA’s relationship with marketing and merchandising partners, as well as with government and community leaders,” the statement reads. “Mr. Sterling engaged in other misconduct as well, including issuing a false and misleading press statement about this matter. All of these acts provide grounds for termination under several provisions of the NBA Constitution and related agreements.”
So DONALD Sterling is in big trouble here, unless he can somehow invalidate the recordings because they were illegally obtained OR can find a favorable judge.
However, SHELLY Sterling will be a huge tripping stone here, because she might actually have a court case to bring if the NBA forces her to sell as well. I’m not a lawyer, but that seems like very sticky grounds, and even if they do succeed in forcing her to sell per the NBA charter, she sounds like she’ll be taking the NBA to war in courts for wrongful treatment.
Either way, anyone who thinks this will be over by June 4th is fooling themselves. June 4th is just the day that the lawyers’ meters begin to run.
i agree when it comes to the court rooms this can very well carry over until next offseason. wonder how this affects the clippers offseason plans with free agents and will coach doc rivers walk away
from what I understand stripping donald sterling also means stripping any other partners in that ownership so that would include shelly but I agree this will be a long process, we all know the litigation past of the Sterlings, they not going to go down easily