Magic Johnson Rumors | Hoops Rumors

L.A. Notes: Magic, Rivers, Farmar, D’Antoni

May 1st, 2014 at 2:36pm CST by Chuck Myron

Magic Johnson earlier this week denied interest in buying the Clippers, but he’s apparently changed his mind, judging by his remarks Wednesday, as Ben Bergman of 89.3 KPCC reports (hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).

“I will be owning an NBA team sometime,” Johnson said. “Is the Clippers the right situation? Of course. It’s one of the premiere franchises.”

The teams of Johnson’s past and perhaps his future have been most prominent in news across the league this week, and there’s more this afternoon on both the Lakers and the Clippers:

Doc Rivers hasn’t made it entirely clear whether he intends to return to the Clippers, but he says he has no interest in making the jump across Staples Center to coach the Lakers, observes Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link).
Jordan Farmar was a fan of Mike D’Antoni, but the soon-to-be free agent point guard doesn’t find the Lakers any less attractive now that the coach has resigned, as Farmar tells Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. “I want to be a Laker,” Farmar said. “I like playing for Mike. Whether it’s Phil Jackson, Mike D’Antoni or whoever else coaches this team, that won’t deter me from wanting to be a Laker.”
D’Antoni reportedly would like another NBA coaching job, but the general sentiment leaguewide is that his success with the Suns was an aberration, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. A GM who spoke to Deveney called D’Antoni a “one-trick pony.”
There seems to be a decent chance that the Clippers will sell for more than $1 billion, but It will take more than money to buy the team, as James Rainey and Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times examine.
Cavs guard Jarrett Jack believes every player in the league should boycott practices and games next season if Donald Sterling still owns the Clippers by then, as Jack said today on 95.7 The Game, tweets Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group.

Silver Bans Sterling For Life, Issues $2.5MM Fine

April 29th, 2014 at 1:17pm CST by Chuck Myron

NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced a lifetime ban and a $2.5MM fine for Clippers owner Donald Sterling. The NBA’s investigation found that it was indeed Sterling expressing racially charged statements on a recording. Sterling has been fined the maximum amount allowable in the NBA’s constitution. Silver will urge the board of governors to force Sterling to sell the team, and the commissioner said he’ll “do everything in my power to ensure that happens.”

Sterling admitted that it was his voice on the recording, Silver said, asserting that the NBA has the authority, with a vote of three quarters of the league’s owners, to force Sterling to sell. The effort to force him out will begin immediately, according to the commissioner, and he expects to receive the support from owners necessary to remove the longtime Clippers boss.

Silver believes the players will be satisfied with the decision, adding that he’s had multiple conversations with Kevin Johnson, who’s acting as the union’s voice during the Sterling saga. The NBA is not considering letting any of the Clippers out of their contracts, according to Silver.

The key response may come from Clippers coach and executive Doc Rivers, who’s expressed uncertainty about whether he’d return to the team if Sterling were to stay as owner. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports suggested earlier today that the Clippers players might follow his lead and ask for trades if Rivers were to leave.

Rumors have linked Magic Johnson to the team as a potential buyer, and Silver said today that Johnson is “always welcome as an owner in this league.” Johnson took to Twitter to express satisfaction with the NBA’s verdict.

The specter of a lawsuit from Sterling remains, and Silver said Sterling didn’t express remorse over his comments. Sterling, an attorney, is notoriously litigious, and there was speculation that the threat of a lawsuit would prompt Silver to opt for a light punishment.

Photo courtesy USA Today Sports Images. Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune, Chris Mannix of SI.com, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, and A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com provided detail via Twitter.

Wojnarowski’s Latest: Sterling, Rivers, Johnson

April 29th, 2014 at 8:12am CST by Chuck Myron

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports has news on the Donald Sterling fiasco, with the league and the player’s union set to address the issue this afternoon. Let’s dive in:

Sources tell Wojnarowski that Doc Rivers won’t return to the team next year if Sterling remains, suggesting that it would set off a player revolt that might end up with the team’s stars demanding trades.
Several league officials, including owners and members of the Board of Governors, tell Wojnarowski that they believe the commissioner has been contemplating calling for a vote among owners to strip the franchise from Sterling and take the team under league control until it can be sold.
A former Clippers official tells Wojnarowski that Sterling is enjoying the spotlight of the scandal, glad that the focus is off Rivers and the players and back on him. Sterling is likely to fight the NBA until the very end, the source tells Wojnarowski.
Though Magic Johnson took to Twitter to deny Wojnarowski’s earlier report that he’s interested in buying the team, Johnson wants to be in a position to purchase the club if it becomes available, Wojnarowski asserts. Johnson and potential investors spent time on Monday investigating the possibility of buying the team, sources tell Wojnarowski.
Sterling’s estranged wife, Rochelle, who often goes by Shelly, believes she can wind up with the Clippers, but Silver and the rest of the league owners aren’t amenable to that solution, sensing that the team must leave the family’s hands, Wojnarowski writes.
When Sterling nearly blocked the J.J. Redick sign-and-trade last summer, people close to the owner believe that it was in part because Sterling worried that Redick’s four-year, $27.755MM deal was too much for a white player, Wojnarowski hears. Sterling believes that black players possess superior athleticism, strength, and talent, according to Wojnarowski.

NBA Owners Want To Oust Donald Sterling

April 28th, 2014 at 10:58am CST by Chuck Myron

10:58am: A source close to Johnson says he has had no conversations about buying the Clippers, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Shelburne adds in a second tweet that the Clippers aren’t for sale, pointing out the difficulty the NBA faces in forcing Sterling to give up the team.

8:21am: Owners across the NBA want Donald Sterling out, and the consortium of Magic Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners is eager to purchase Sterling’s Clippers, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The sale price could be in excess of $1 billion, according to Wojnarowski. One member of the NBA’s Board of Governors tells Wojnarowski that a fine and a suspension for Sterling would be “meaningless” and would be interpreted as a failure of the league to accept responsibility for the problems set off by Sterling’s alleged racist comments.

The Guggenheim Partners, a financial services firm, and Johnson are the owners of baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, and they recently bought the WNBA’s financially troubled Los Angeles Sparks. They saw purchase of the Sparks as a strategic move that would draw themselves closer to the NBA, according to Wojnarowski. They’ve wanted to purchase the Lakers, and, as Wojnarowski reports, they recently make an aggressive push to do so before the Buss family made it clear that they’re not selling.

NBA owners are pushing commissioner Adam Silver to find a way to force Sterling out of the league, cognizant of the negative perception that will persist if they don’t, Wojnarowski writes. The sale of the team to Johnson, the target of one of the racist barbs Sterling is alleged to have made, would help the league repair its image problem. It would also smooth relations with the players union, which is seeking the maximum punishment for Sterling, as fellow Yahoo! scribe Marc J. Spears writes.