Antony Ressler Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: World Cup, Ayon, Budenholzer, Hill

September 15th, 2014 at 3:28pm CST by Chuck Myron

Support is growing stronger to make both the Olympics and the World Cup of Basketball solely for players age 22 and under, one NBA GM tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who bemoans an existing system that he believes to primarily benefit Mike Krzyzewski. The change would take effect for 2018 World Cup, Wojnarowski writes. SB Nation’s Tom Ziller argues that while the NBA could work with FIBA to implement an age limit, FIBA has shown hesitancy to cooperate, and that the players union would have a case that any league-imposed restriction should be collectively bargained. Nonetheless, it seems there’s a decent chance that even without so many A-level stars, this year’s World Cup champion Team USA squad will be significantly more talented than the next American entry into the competition. Here’s more from around the NBA:

Shandong of China has jumped into the race for Gustavo Ayon as his European rights remain up in the air, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. The Spurs are reportedly still in the mix, with Ayon needing to come up with $376K to pay FC Barcelona, which holds his European rights, if he’s to put pen to paper on a deal with Spanish rival Real Madrid.
Mike Budenholzer has never held an NBA front-office job, but he played as much of a role in talent acquisition for the Spurs as anyone outside of Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford during his time in San Antonio, writes TNT’s David Aldridge amid his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. Budenholzer is in charge of player personnel for the Hawks while GM Danny Ferry is on indefinite leave.
A group that included Grant Hill as well as billionaires Tony Ressler and Bruce Karsh made a strong impression on the league when they put up a $1.2 billion bid to purchase the Clippers this spring, Aldridge writes in the same piece. The TNT scribe speculates that they could resurface as contenders for the Hawks.

Western Rumors: Clippers, Hill, Mincberg, Pera

May 26th, 2014 at 2:57pm CST by Chuck Myron

Clippers co-owner Shelly Sterling met Sunday with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who was part of a bid to move the Kings to Seattle last year, writes Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com, seconding an earlier report from TMZ Sports. Still, Sterling wouldn’t consider selling the team to anyone who would move it from Los Angeles, according to Shelburne, and the league has given no indication it will allow Sterling to facilitate the sale of the team, as her husband, banned owner Donald Sterling, would like. Shelburne has more on the Clippers, which we’ll pass along amid our look at the latest around the West:

People within the league regard Grant Hill’s bid to buy the Clippers as a viable one, according to Shelburne. Hill’s consortium includes Antony Ressler, who’s reportedly a longtime friend of Donald Sterling.
The Grizzlies have said that David Mincberg is only a scout and will have no significant front office role from now on, according to TNT’s David Aldridge. Mincberg, whom the team lists on its website as its director of scouting, reportedly had a growing influence over the team’s basketball decisions and has been at odds with coach Dave Joerger.
Grizzlies owner Robert Pera took to Twitter to deny the assertions in an earlier report from Chris Mannix of SI.com in which Pera is said to have demanded more playing time for soon-to-be free agent Ed Davis, among other, more unusual suggestions.

Donald Sterling OKs Wife To Sell Clippers

May 23rd, 2014 at 12:49pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:49pm: The NBA issued a response to the news via press release, suggesting that the league is unmoved by the proposal to have Shelly Sterling conduct the sale of the team.

“We continue to follow the process set forth in the NBA Constitution regarding termination of the current ownership interests in the Los Angeles Clippers and are proceeding toward a hearing on this matter on June 3,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in the statement.

11:11am: Shelly Sterling has agreed to sell the team only if she gets to keep a minority stake, as USA Today’s Brent Schrotenboer, Jeff Zillgitt and Sam Amick report. Since the league insists she would have to relinquish her ownership in entirety as part of any sale, as Shelburne noted, this appears to be a stumbling block.

10:36am: Several in ownership circles expect the Clippers to sell for more than $1 billion, and one source tells Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com that there’s a decent chance the selling price ends up closer to $2 billion than $1 billion, echoing a report from Grantland’s Bill Simmons (Twitter links).

9:49am: Donald Sterling has agreed to let wife Shelly Sterling negotiate the sale of the Clippers, a source tells Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com. The NBA hasn’t approved the arrangement yet, Shelburne adds (on Twitter). The league won’t consider the Sterlings’ proposal unless they divest themselves of 100% of their ownership of the club, according to Shelburne. TMZ first reported that Donald Sterling was putting the future of the Clippers in his wife’s hands.

The news is a startling turn, given the widespread assumption that Donald Sterling would put up a strong legal fight to retain the team as the NBA looked to strip it from him. The TMZ report suggests that Shelly Sterling still intends to sue if the league attempts to conduct the sale itself rather than allow her to run it, but it nonetheless is the first indication that the Sterlings are resigned to losing the team.

Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling for life late last month after determining that he made several racially charged comments on an audio recording. The Board of Governors is set to vote June 3rd to terminate his ownership, and the league maintains that would apply to Shelly Sterling as well. The Sterlings own the Clippers jointly as part of a family trust.

Shelly Sterling and her attorney have vehemently fought the assertion that the NBA’s punishment of her husband should apply to her. She claimed that she was a part of the league’s efforts to find an interim CEO for the team, though a report suggested her hope has been to control a 50% stake in the team and act as a hands-off owner. Dick Parsons, whom the league named interim CEO of the franchise two weeks ago, dismissed the notion that Shelly Sterling had any existing role with the team or that she would have one in the future.

Magic Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners are willing to jointly pay in excess of $1 billion to purchase the Clippers, and a slew of other prospective buyers have lined up. Still, it’s unclear if Johnson, one of the subjects of Donald Sterling’s racist remarks, would want to negotiate with Shelly Sterling, or if Sterling would want to do so with him. Donald Sterling reportedly fears that the league has been trying to engineer the sale of the team to Johnson. Sources told Claire Atkinson of the New York Post that billionaire Antony Ressler is preparing to try to buy the team, and Atkinson hears Ressler is a longtime friend of Donald Sterling. It’s possible, given the close proximity of the timing of Atkinson’s report and the news of Donald Sterling’s willingness to let go of the team, that the Sterlings have Ressler atop their list of preferred buyers, but that’s just my speculation.