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NBA Willing To Postpone Sterling Hearing

May 29th, 2014 at 3:20pm CST by Chuck Myron

3:20pm: Ballmer is the early favorite in the bidding process, Shelburne tweets.

2:39pm: The NBA will postpone its Tuesday hearing on Donald Sterling’s fate as owner of the Clippers if the league gets a “favorable impression” of the bidding group that emerges as Shelly Sterling’s choice, reports Michael McCann of SI.com. The league would keep the hearing on hold while it vetted the prospective owners, and, if it approves them, there’d presumably be no need for the hearing, since Sterling and wife Shelly Sterling would no longer own the team. The league’s preferred outcome is for the Sterlings to voluntarily sell the team, as it would like to avoid having to forcibly strip ownership, according to McCann.

The NBA is intent on resolving the Clippers ownership situation by the beginning of next season, McCann writes. The vetting process usually takes at least a month, though the NBA has already screened some of the candidates to buy the team, as TNT’s David Aldridge noted Wednesday. One such bidder is Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, though there are conflicting reports about whether he’s submitted a bid to Shelly Sterling, who began working with potential buyers last week after Donald Sterling gave her his blessing to do so. He’s apparently changed his mind and will only sell the team if the NBA withdraws its allegations against him, with perhaps further conditions attached to his would-be cooperation.

The NBA was to vote on taking the team away from the Sterlings at the end of Tuesday’s Board of Governors meeting. Donald Sterling is still pondering a lawsuit against the NBA, which banned him for life and fined him $2.5MM. Shelly Sterling is willing to sell 100% of the team, which the league would demand if it were to accept any deal she strikes, though she’s arranging for a non-ownership role with the team as part of negotiations with the bidders. It’s unclear if the NBA would go along with that.

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Latest On Potential Clippers Sale

May 29th, 2014 at 2:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:22pm: Shelly Sterling is arranging for a continued association with the team in some capacity other than as owner as she negotiates with the bidders, according to Shelburne. The ESPN scribe also reports that Magic Johnson is not a part of the Ellison-Geffen-Winfrey bid at present (Twitter links).

1:36pm: A source tells Ronald Grover of Reuters that Ballmer has not submitted a bid, while Grover also hears that the value of the Ellison-Geffen-Winfrey group bid is more than $1.5 billion.

12:28pm: Shelly Sterling has let bidders for the Clippers know that she intends to sell 100% of the Clippers, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com. That would seemingly satisfy one of the league’s conditions for allowing her to conduct the sale of the club, but Donald Sterling intends to put up resistance. Attorney Maxwell Blecher, one of Donald Sterling’s lawyers, tells Shelburne that the banned owner changed his mind and doesn’t want to sell the team after deciding last week to let his wife do so (Twitter link). Blecher tells James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times that if Donald Sterling were to agree to sell the club, he’d want the NBA to drop its allegations against him and perhaps make additional concessions.

Some bidders are concerned in the wake of Donald Sterling’s renewed fight that he’s just trying to gauge the market price of the team for use in a lawsuit against the NBA, Shelburne hears. Still, Blecher informed Shelburne that Donald Sterling hasn’t decided whether he wants to sue the league (Twitter links).

Three groups have already submitted initial bids to Shelly Sterling, as Rainey details. A consortium that includes Los Angeles investors Antony Ressler, Bruce Karsh and Grant Hill has bid $1.2 billion. People within the league see the group as viable, and Ressler is reportedly a longtime friend of Donald Sterling. Another bid comes from Todd Boehly and Mark Walter of the Guggenheim Partners and includes Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and luminaries David Geffen and Oprah Winfrey. Magic Johnson would presumably be aligned with that group, though Rainey makes no mention of the one-time Lakers star. Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer mounted a bid of his own, and it’s worth $1.8 billion, according to Mike Ozanian of Forbes.com.

A couple of other groups received extensions on a Wednesday deadline, so more bids are expected today, and negotiations will persist this weekend toward Shelly Sterling’s goal of having a deal in place or reasonably close by Monday, Shelburne reports (Twitter links). The NBA’s Board of Governors will hold a hearing on the Sterling matter Tuesday, and the meeting is set to end with a vote on whether to strip ownership from both of the Sterlings. It remains to be seen whether the league will approve any sale that Shelly Sterling presents to them or just how Donald Sterling’s interference will affect the proceedings.

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Latest On Sterlings, Clippers

May 28th, 2014 at 9:26pm CST by Cray Allred

9:26pm: Shelly Sterling and her advisers are reviewing the initial bids from five groups interested in purchasing the Clippers, according to an article by the Sports Xchange (via The Chicago Tribune). The bids are in the $1 billion to $1.2 billion range, the article notes.

WEDNESDAY, 8:36am: Shelly Sterling has set a deadline of this morning for initial bids on the Clippers, according to Shelburne, and she’s seeking binding bids before Tuesday’s Board of Governors hearing, report Brian Mahoney and Tami Abdollah of The Associated Press. Still, it’s unclear whether the league would accept any sale that she attempts to orchestrate. Donald Sterling wants June 3rd hearing dismissed and denies every charge the NBA has levied against him, Shelburne notes. The banned Clippers owner threatens legal action, claims he would be unable to receive a fair hearing and says he never intended to hurt the league with his racially charged statements, as Shelburne writes.

In claiming that the league is treating him inequitably, Sterling points to a gay slur that Kobe Bryant once directed at a referee. That argument likely doesn’t hold water, since players are governed by the collective bargaining agreement, rather than the league’s constitution and by-laws, which sets forth rules for owners, as Michael McCann of SI.com explains. Sterling also references the actions of Magic owner Rich DeVos, who has, according to Sterling, “made highly controversial comments against individuals with HIV/AIDS and generously supports anti-homosexual causes,” Shelburne reports.

TUESDAY, 10:19pm: Shelly Sterling’s statement has been issued, but the NBA plans to move forward with the June 3rd vote, tweets Shelburne.

Donald Sterling’s lawyer tells Shelburne that his client disavows the agreement he has with Shelly Sterling to sell the team for him, and will fight being forced to sell the team “to the bloody end” (Twitter links). For what it’s worth, the lawyer was unaware of the specifics of the agreement between the Sterlings, and Donald Sterling’s strategy has been anything but steady to this point.

8:15pm: Donald Sterling has issued a response to the NBA’s charges against him, maintaining his claim that the league’s attempt to oust him from owning the Clippers is illegal, reports Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today. Shelly Sterling is planning to issue her own statement asserting her position as a bystander, a source tells Schrotenboer. The deadline to respond to the NBA’s charges is tonight, and the league is set to vote on the commissioner’s plan to remove the Sterlings from ownership on June 3.

Shelly Sterling, whom Donald Sterling (but not the league) authorized to manage the sale of the team, has enlisted Bank of America in efforts to sell the team prior to the June 3 vote. She is in talks with at least six bidders that Ramona Shelburne and Darren Rovell of ESPN.com have learned of. She received a “strong” offer from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to purchase the team and keep it in Los Angeles, a person familiar with the negotiations tells Schrotenboer. Donald Sterling’s statement asserts that he has already received offers of over $2.5 billion for the team, per Schrotenboer.

The league would have to approve any sale of the team, and a spokesman reiterated to Scott Cacciola of The New York Times that it would only authorize a voluntary sale in which the Sterlings didn’t retain any interest in the team. While Shelly Sterling’s lawyer told Cacciola that she is working in cooperation with the league on the sale, there is no indication that she is no longer working to keep a minority stake in the team.

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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.

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And-Ones: Love, Celts, Cavs, Blatche, Clips, Grizz

May 20th, 2014 at 9:02pm CST by Alex Lee

Some thought tonight’s NBA Draft Lottery results could have major Kevin Love implications, though salary cap guru Larry Coon of ESPN doesn’t believe the Timberwolves star can be moved before the draft. According to Coon, such a deal would require cap room that teams will not have before July (Twitter links here).

The Celtics, who pick sixth, are a “sleeper” team in the Love sweepstakes, but owner Wyc Grousbeck says he isn’t hurrying the rebuilding effort, as he tells Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe. “That KG deal might be once in a lifetime, but I think over the next four or five years, we will get back to being contenders, if not three years,” he said. “I think we can get back there. I think this summer, one way or another, we’ll take positive steps, whether we just draft two players and continue to build, or whether we make a blockbuster deal.”

Here is what else is going on around the Association tonight, as the Heat and Pacers battle it out in Game Two of the Eastern Conference Finals:

  • ESPN’s Chad Ford considers Andrew Wiggins the favorite to land in Cleveland after the Cavaliers won Tuesday night’s lottery (via Twitter). Ford tweeted before the results were in that the Cavs preferred Jabari Parker, however he indicated afterwards (also on Twitter) that he was a corrected by a trusted source in Cleveland.
  • The admirable play of Andray Blatche down the stretch and into the postseason for the Nets could set him up for a decent pay day, writes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. Blatche has said he will opt out of his one-year player option for next season, though Brooklyn controls his Early Bird Rights according to Bontemps.
  • Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News provides the transcript of today’s post-television interview session with new Warriors coach Steve Kerr, which is a bit juicier than what we relayed earlier on. Per Kawakami, Kerr covets a big man that can shoot. Meanwhile, Golden State GM Bob Myers also indicated the team will pursue shooting this summer, tweets Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group.
  • Speaking before the lottery proceedings, commissioner Adam Silver detailed the process that comes with a forced sale of the Clippers. However, Silver did indicate that he will continue to urge owner Donald Sterling to sell the team on his own, writes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.
  • Though he hasn’t been assured that his role is permanent by Grizzlies owner Robert Pera, GM Chris Wallace said at a Thursday afternoon press conference that he believes Memphis can win the NBA title next season, writes Zack McMillin of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “We’re a very formidable team. We just have to find a way to make that next step. Is it easy? No, but it’s attainable and we’re not going to rest until we hang that championship banner and have this parage this town deserves,” Wallace said.
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And-Ones: Love, Sterling, Nets

May 19th, 2014 at 10:33pm CST by Cray Allred

Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck tells Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe that Boston won’t start any serious trade discussions until the lottery is over. “Nothing has been discussed until we see the pick,” Grousbeck said. “When we see what pick it is, the phones will start ringing and we’ll start answering the phones.” Here’s more from around the league:

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NBA To Hold Sterling Hearing June 3rd

May 19th, 2014 at 2:12pm CST by Zachary Links

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.”

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And-Ones: Draft, Sterling, Pippen

May 15th, 2014 at 11:02pm CST by Cray Allred

Doug McDermott came in at just over 6’6″ in height and 6’9″ in wingspan at the combine, measurements that a league executive tells Sean Deveney of The Sporting News are “potentially disastrous” for the projected top-10 pick. Deveney thinks the forward will slip into the late lottery or worse. The measurements increase the concerns over his ability to defend at the wing we noted in our prospect profile of the Creighton All-American. Here’s a roundup of more of tonight’s notes from around the league:

  • Julius Randle, Noah Vonleh, Jerami Grant, Kyle Anderson, and DeAndre Daniels all turned out average or better measurements in wingspan, per Deveney. Randle’s length was of particular concern prior to the combine, as we noted in our prospect profile of the Kentucky forward.
  • Nik Stauskas unexpectedly sat out combine drills today, telling reporters including Brendan F. Quinn of MLive.com that he had little to gain by demonstrating his established shooting skills. Instead, the shooting guard hopes to prove his stock through physical testing and interviews at the combine.
  • The league likely won’t take action to strip the Clippers from Donald Sterling until after the season, reports Michael McMann of SI.com in a piece outlining the steps the NBA will take to perform the ouster.
  • McCann says that a divorce between the Sterlings, or any other attempts to complicate the legal process, likely won’t hinder the league’s efforts based on straightforward CBA provisions for ownership transition.
  • Donald Sterling’s lawyer sent a letter to the league, threatening to sue the NBA and informing the league of his client’s refusal to pay the $2.5MM fine levied against him by Adam Silver, McCann reports in a separate piece.
  • The fine was already past due, and failure to pay should actually bolster the league’s case, tweets Larry Coon of Basketball Insiders.
  • Scottie Pippen is considering an offer to work for the Knicks, possibly as an assistant coach, according to a report from Marc Berman of The New York Post.
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Clippers/Sterling Rumors: Tuesday

May 13th, 2014 at 7:17pm CST by Chuck Myron

Donald Sterling hinted in his interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he might not put up the legal fight he’s been expected to mount to keep the Clippers, as Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding observes. Ding asserts that Sterling’s wife, Shelly, doesn’t pose as significant a stumbling block to the NBA’s plan to strip the team from the family as reports have indicated. Once the Clippers emerge from the mess, they’re poised to become a glamour franchise, Ding writes, noting that some around the Lakers are “hugely worried” about the success of the Clips and the specter that Magic Johnson or another celebrity will soon own them. Here’s more on the Clippers:

  • Magic shared his thoughts with CNN’s Anderson Cooper about Donald Sterling’s reluctance to let the Clippers go: “He’s a man who’s upset and he’s reaching. He’s reaching. He’s trying to find something that he can grab on to help him save his team. And it’s not going to happen” (passed along by Shelby Grad of the Los Angeles Times, hat tip to the Chicago Tribune).
  • The NBA Advisory/Finance committee held a conference call on the Clippers and will reconvene next week (first passed along via tweet from RealGM). Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today passed along that the committee discussed Donald and Shelly Sterling’s recent TV appearances, interim CEO Dick Parsons, and the ownership termination process (Twitter link).

Earlier updates:

  • Earlier today, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin recoiled at Donald Sterling’s claim that the Clippers players still love him, notes Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times.
  • Pierce O’Donnell, Shelly Sterling’s attorney, says they’re “ready to go to war” over the league’s contention that it can remove her from ownership of the team at the same time it votes her husband out, as O’Donnell tells Scott Cacciola of The New York Times.
  • In the same interview, O’Donnell threatened to depose owners and personnel from other teams around the league in a potential lawsuit against the NBA. “To answer your question, of course I’ll ask for discovery. But it’s in everybody’s best interests to avoid Armageddon,” O’Donnell said.
  • Shelly Sterling tells Cacciola that she hasn’t spoken to other owners in the league since her husband was banned, but she suggests owners around the NBA would stick up for her husband if they weren’t afraid of a player backlash.
  • We passed along the latest on Magic Johnson’s bid to buy the Clippers earlier today.
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NBA Eyeing Sale Of Clippers To Magic Johnson

May 13th, 2014 at 8:24am CST by Chuck Myron

Magic Johnson has gone back and forth in public statements about whether he wants to buy the Clippers, but many around the NBA believe commissioner Adam Silver and the league’s owners want to sell the team to him, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners, who together as a consortium own baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, are willing to pay in excess of $1 billion to buy the Clippers, Wojnarowski writes. Banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling fears that the league is steering the team toward Johnson, and that’s part of the reason why Sterling keeps assailing Johnson in racially charged rants, according to Wojnarowski.

The Yahoo! scribe first noted the interest of Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners last month, even before Silver issued Sterling’s lifetime ban and the league began to formally move toward forcing the sale of the Clippers. Johnson denied any such interest, but Wojnarowski continued to hear that the Hall-of-Famer wanted the team, and Johnson ultimately acknowledged his desire a couple of weeks ago.

Several groups and investors have made their designs on purchasing the Clippers known, but it appears as though Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners have the inside track. Silver issued an apology to Johnson on Monday after Sterling’s latest verbal attack. Still, legal challenges loom not only from Sterling but also from his wife, Shelly, who jointly owns the team as part of a family trust. There’s little chance that the matter will reach resolution anytime soon, so it could be a while before Johnson or any new Clippers owner takes control of the team.

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