California court tosses Sterling case against Clippers sale

A California court has ruled that the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers last year was legal, quashing former owner Donald Sterling's attempt to reverse the deal triggered by controversy over his racist remarks.

A three-justice panel of California's Court of Appeal ruled that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas had not erred in approving the $2 billion sale of the team to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

The sale came following a threat by the NBA to take control of the franchise after Sterling was banned for life for making racist comments which were secretly recorded by a former girlfriend.

Shelly Sterling, the 81-year-old tycoon's estranged wife, took control of the family trust and oversaw the sale following the controversy.

Donald Sterling had attempted to argue the deal was invalid as he had already revoked the trust before the sale in July 2014.

But in an 18-page ruling, Justice Madeleine Flier said Sterling's claim was of no importance.

"Assuming Donald effectively revoked the trust on June 9, 2014, Donald fails to demonstrate such revocation precluded the probate court from authorizing the trustee to sell the Clippers in accordance with the terms of an agreement established prior to Donald's revocation," Flier wrote.

Flier said Sterling's wife, Shelly Sterling, had acted in the best interests of the trust's beneficiaries when she sold the team for an amount higher than she and her advisers thought possible.

"The amount caused Donald to congratulate (Shelly,)" Flier noted. The $2 billion price tag was around $400 million more than the sale had been expected to raise.

Donald Sterling filed for divorce from Shelly Sterling in August.

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With Sterling saga over, Ballmer gets ovation from Clipper Nation

LOS ANGELES - With his trademark top-of-the-lungs, high-fiving, rambunctious enthusiasm, former Microsoft Corp chief executive Steve Ballmer introduced himself to Los Angeles Clippers fans on Monday, promising a new era for the NBA team after former owner Donald Sterling was banned for life over racist remarks.

Ballmer, 58, who paid an NBA-record $2 billion for the Clippers, greeted the several thousand gathered at the team's Staples Center home with the primal screams that punctuated meetings at the Seattle technology company.

"I couldn't be more honored or excited or fired up to be here," Ballmer exclaimed as he was welcomed with a standing ovation.

Ballmer, who said he will be a courtside fixture at games, took over the Clippers last week, ending Sterling's 33 years of ownership that were marked by decades of losing and second-tier status to local rival, the Lakers.

The NBA banned Sterling for life in April, days after his privately taped remarks imploring a girlfriend not to publicly associate with black people were published.

The remarks, which were publicized during the Clippers' playoff run, sparked public outrage, prompted sponsors to cut ties with the team and caused Clippers players, who are mostly black, to consider a boycott.

The 80-year-old real estate billionaire also unsuccessfully fought in court to keep the team after his estranged wife, Shelly Sterling, struck the deal with Ballmer.

"Everything is about looking forward," Ballmer told the crowd, striking a tone about new beginnings for a team that finds itself for the first time as a playoff contender behind superstars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.

'A GREAT CHANGE'

The playoffs came after the Clippers acquired top players in recent years. Now they are also in a new position of commanding the off-season spotlight.

"We made lemonade out of lemons," Ballmer said alongside eight of the team's players who were in attendance, praising their performance last year during the Sterling saga.

Sterling's comments embarrassed the NBA and Clippers supporters.

"I think it's going to be a great change, a positive change," said Clippers fan Teri Renty. "It's something we desperately needed, and it will really be great for the team in giving them the energy and the momentum to look forward to good things."

The rally served as a restart for fans who were given t-shirts in Clippers red, white and blue that read "We are Clipper Nation" along with "It's a New Day" on the back.

Head coach Doc Rivers, who considered quitting if Sterling remained as owner, characterized the Ballmer era as one of relief for fans, who had for years been publicly reserved in their support for the longtime Western Conference doormats.

"Now they can actually say it and be proud of it, and I'm very happy for them," Rivers told reporters after the rally.

"If we do it right, the name can stand for something."

(Additional reporting by Alicia Avila; Editing by Mary Milliken and Ken Wills)

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Court denies Donald Sterling's bid to halt 2B Clippers sale

LOS ANGELES - A California appeals court on Friday rejected disgraced Los Angeles Clippers co-owner Donald Sterling's attempt to have the $2 billion sale of the NBA team put on hold until his appeal can be heard.

In denying Sterling's latest attempt to block the sale brokered by his estranged wife, Shelly Sterling, to former Microsoft Corp chief executive Steve Ballmer, the court said there was nothing for it to review at this time, according to an order posted on the website of the state appeals court.

Shelly Sterling, 79, was given the go-ahead by a Los Angeles probate judge last month to consummate the NBA-record sale as the court said she had the power and fiduciary duty to complete the deal with Ballmer.

Lawyers for the 80-year-old real estate billionaire, who has been banned for life by the NBA for racist remarks, say the probate judge ruled too broadly in allowing the Clippers sale to move forward pending Donald Sterling's own appeal.

The appeals court's rejection of Sterling's petition is another victory for the NBA as the league has so far been able to remove an owner without having to take the action itself, legal observers say.

The all-cash deal is set to be completed by Aug. 15, ahead of the NBA's Sept. 15 deadline. The league has said it could confiscate the franchise and sell it at auction if the sale is not completed by that date.

Shelly Sterling struck the deal with Ballmer in May, a month after the NBA banned her husband after his privately taped remarks imploring a girlfriend not to publicly associate with black people were published.

Sterling's remarks during the Clippers' playoff run sparked public outrage and prompted sponsors to cut ties with the team.

The team's interim chief executive, Richard Parsons, testified at the probate trial that head coach Doc Rivers was ready to quit if Sterling still owned the team and players were ready to do the same.

Sterling, who initially blessed the deal to Ballmer, has said that he wants to hold onto the team on principle and that he believes it is worth much more than $2 billion.

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NBA discussing timing of action on Clippers owner

NEW YORK -- NBA officials met to discuss the league's bid to strip Clippers owner Donald Sterling of his team on Wednesday but have not settled on a timeline for action against the disgraced billionaire.

A statement by NBA executive vice president Mike Bass said members of the league's advisory/finance committee had spoken again in a conference call to address the process of ousting Sterling.

"The Committee reviewed the status of the search for a new CEO of the Los Angeles Clippers, was updated on meetings held this week between NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum and Clippers employees, and addressed the process and timing regarding the termination of Mr. Sterling's ownership of the team," Bass said.

A further meeting would take place next week.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling, the longest-tenured NBA team owner, for life after racist remarks he made in a private conversation with a girlfriend were made public.

The comments, first released by celebrity website TMZ, included Sterling saying he didn't want his girlfriend bringing black people to Clippers games or posting photographs of herself on social media with black people.

A firestorm of outrage followed, leading the Clippers players to wear their uniforms inside out in a pre-game warmup before Silver banned Sterling and fined the 80-year-old real estate mogul $2.5 million, the maximum allowed under league rules.

NBA owners also started the process of setting up a vote to strip the team from Sterling, a move that could push him to sell the Clippers, who are likely to attract bids of more than $600 million, or take the NBA to court in a legal fight that could be bitter and lengthy.

Meanwhile, Clippers co-owner Shelly Sterling told The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that she hopes to maintain ownership of the team.

Sterling's attempts to keep her share may put a snag in the league's plans to strip her husband of ownership. The newspaper said she has hired a lawyer to help her keep her share.

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Los Angeles Clippers owner Sterling battling cancer: report

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, newly banned from basketball over racist comments attributed to him, has been battling prostate cancer, sports network ESPN and other media reported on Thursday.

The reports come after the National Basketball Association launched a bid on Thursday to oust the 80-year-old as owner of the franchise, as urged by league Commissioner Adam Silver.

ESPN, citing unnamed sources, reported that Sterling has cancer. The New York Post, which first reported the news, also cited unnamed sources as saying Sterling has been battling prostate cancer for an extended period of time.

Reuters could not independently confirm these reports. Officials for the Clippers and the NBA did not immediately return requests for comment.

Silver on Tuesday declared Sterling banned from the NBA for life, fined him $2.5 million - the league maximum - and called on the 29 other club owners who make up the governing board to exercise their authority to force Sterling to sell the Clippers.

The scandal has angered fans and players, and numerous commercial sponsors have pulled their support from the team, before and after the NBA moved to expel Sterling.

Sterling was banned from any further ties with his team or professional basketball, and stripped of his seat on the NBA governing board, days after two websites released audio recordings in which a voice said to be Sterling's is heard criticizing a female friend for "associating with black people".

Silver said Tuesday that Sterling has acknowledged to the NBA that the recording was authentic but did not apologize. (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Writing by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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NBA bans Clippers owner for life over racist comments

NEW YORK - The NBA banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling from professional basketball for life on Tuesday and fined him $2.5 million in an unprecedented rebuke for racist comments that drew outrage from players, fans, commercial sponsors and even President Barack Obama.

Sterling, 80, the longest-tenured owner of any of the 30 National Basketball Association teams, will be barred from any role in the operations of his franchise or from serving as one of the league's governors, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told a news conference in New York.

Silver also urged the other owners to vote to force Sterling to sell the Clippers, a first-time use of such a sanction that would require approval of three-quarters of the current owners.

Asked whether Sterling could end up as essentially an absentee owner if the league fails to force a sale of the team, Silver replied: "I fully expect to get the support I need from the other NBA owners to remove him."

The drama unfolded as the Clippers, long an NBA doormat overshadowed by the Los Angeles Lakers, were capping off their best season ever in a first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors of Oakland, California.

Apparently energized by the NBA's decision, which came two days after a stinging defeat in Oakland, the Clippers scored a 113-103 win on their home court over the Warriors on Tuesday night to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

The Sterling controversy, which quickly grew into a national discussion of race relations transcending basketball, began over the weekend when the celebrity website TMZ.com released an audio recording of a voice, said to be Sterling's, criticizing a woman friend for "associating with black people."

In it, he asks her not to invite former Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin "Magic" Johnson to Clippers games.

"The views expressed by Mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful," Silver said as he confronted his first major crisis since he was named commissioner in February.

Silver told reporters that Sterling confirmed to the NBA it was his voice on the recording but did not apologize.

He said he felt "personally distraught that the views expressed by Mr. Sterling came from within" a league at the forefront of racial integration in American sports and where most of the players are black.

Obama, the first black U.S. president, called Sterling's comments "incredibly offensive racist statements."

Sterling could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

LEGAL OPTIONS

It was not immediately clear whether Sterling would seek to challenge the ban in court. But lawyers with expertise in sports law gave him little chance of successfully suing the NBA, citing league governance rules that all owners must accept.

"Having agreed to the NBA constitution and bylaws, I think courts will generally make him adhere to the agreement that he freely entered into," said Jeffrey Kessler, a lawyer who serves as outside council to the NBA Players Association.

Nathaniel Grow, a University of Georgia professor of sports law, agreed, saying the NBA commissioner is "almost like a judge and executioner, and whatever he says goes."

The prospect of forcing Sterling to sell the team he has owned for 33 years set off speculation about potential buyers.

Billionaire media executive David Geffen is interested in acquiring the Clippers, a person who had been informed of his thinking told Reuters after Tuesday's announcement, although a previous expression of interest never produced an offer.

"Magic" Johnson, a part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team who once had a stake in the Lakers and has built a media empire catering to African-American consumers, has been mentioned as a possible suitor for the Clippers.

But as of Monday, a day before the NBA announcement, Johnson was tweeting to fans: "I want to put a stop to a rumor. I am not trying to buy the Clippers, they already have an owner."

Asked whether any of Sterling's relatives, including his wife, Rochelle, might exercise an ownership or managerial stake in the team even if Sterling himself were removed, Silver seemed to leave the question open.

"There have been no decisions about other members of the Sterling family," he said. "This ruling applies specifically to Donald Sterling and Donald Sterling's conduct only."

The decision to ban Sterling drew praise from around the league. The Clippers said in a statement that the team "wholeheartedly" supports the NBA's move, and members of the cross-town rival Lakers joined Mayor Eric Garcetti at a news conference in a show of support for Silver.

"I want to personally thank Commissioner Silver for bringing down the hammer, for being as strong as he could be," Garcetti said." Clippers head coach Doc Rivers expressed relief at the outcome before Tuesday night's game, saying, "It's not over, but it's the start of a healing process that we need."

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA player now serving as a special adviser to the NBA Players Association, also hailed the move, saying Silver "is not only the owners' commissioner, he is also the players' commissioner."

WILL HE SELL?

While Silver expressed determination to expel Sterling from the league altogether, some observers said the 29 other NBA franchise owners would be hesitant to back any move that could set a precedent that could jeopardize their property rights.

"Every owner would be worried that it would create a situation where people later came after them," said Robert Boland, chairman of New York University's sports management department.

The recording on TMZ.com included part of an argument between Sterling and a model who uses the name V. Stiviano about photographs posted to Instagram. "People call you and tell you that I have black people on my Instagram. And it bothers you," the voice said to be Stiviano's says.

"Yeah, it bothers me a lot that you want to ... broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to?" the voice said to be Sterling's says.

A lawyer for Stiviano declined to comment on the decision.

Stiviano was named last month as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by Sterling's wife, Rochelle, seeking to recoup spousal community assets she claimed her husband gave Stiviano without his spouse's consent, including $240,000 in living expenses, $1.8 million to buy her a duplex and several luxury cars.

A series of Los Angeles Clippers' commercial sponsors moved to distance themselves from the team. Auto dealer CarMax Inc and Virgin America airlines said after Tuesday's announcement they were ending their sponsorship, and State Farm said it was "continuing the pause" in its sponsorship.

Sprint said it had "suspended all marketing activities with the Clippers for the immediate future," despite the NBA ban.

Samsung said it was reinstating its advertising of the Clippers' Tuesday night game.

Sterling bought the Clippers, then based in San Diego, in 1981 for $13 million at a time when basketball was far less commercially successful. The franchise could now be worth as much as $800 million, Boland estimated. The team moved to Los Angeles in 1984.

Sterling was sued as a property owner in 2003 for discrimination in housing by the U.S. government. The lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles accused him of telling his staff to rent to Asian tenants but not black or Hispanic people.

Silver said the decision to ban Sterling from the game had not taken his past into account. He said, however, that when the owners vote on whether to force him to sell, "they will take into account a lifetime of behavior."

(Additional reporting by Julian Linden, Curtis Skinner and Chris Francescani in New York, David Ingram in Washington, and Dana Feldman, Lisa Richwine, Alex Dobuzinskis, Ron Grover and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Steve Gorman, Grant McCool, Ken Wills and Paul Tait)

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Mayweather 'very interested' in buying LA Clippers

MANILA – American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. has expressed interest in buying the Los Angeles Clippers, after the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver declared that team owner Donald Sterling has been banned for life.

Silver on Tuesday banned Sterling from the sport and fined him $2.5-M over his racist comments that drew the ire of current and former players, fans, sponsors, other NBA team owners, and President Barack Obama.

Silver also urged the other NBA team owners to vote to force Sterling to sell the Clippers franchise. Sterling is the longest-tenured owner in the league, having owned the team for 33 years.

Mayweather, who is set to fight Marcos Maidana on May 3 in Las Vegas, told reporters that he wants to purchase the team.

“Do we want to buy the Clippers? Yes, we do. We’re very, very interested in buying the Clippers,” Mayweather, a big basketball fan, said, as quoted by RingTV and other media outlets.

“We’d keep the Clippers right where they’re at,” he added. “When I’m off and I’m not boxing, I’m at the games all the time.”

“It’s fun to go to the games and to talk trash to the players. Shoot the s*** with the players, but we do want to buy the Clippers. We do. Me and my team do want to buy the Clippers, and we can afford the Clippers.”

Mayweather, the highest paid athlete in the world, said he will talk to Golden Boy chief executive Richard Schaefer and “a couple of my other billionaire guys” regarding a potential purchase of the Clippers.

“We can come together and see what we can come up with,” he said. “Hopefully, we can do it. And it’s not just talk. I do want to. I wouldn’t mind. Once I get ownership in the Clippers, I can no longer bet, so I would have to stop that.”

Mayweather is not the only one interested in buying the Clippers. Billionaire media executive David Geffen is also interested, Reuters reported.

Former Laker and now part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers Earvin “Magic” Johnson has denied rumors that he is interested in buying the Clippers, however.

Mayweather refused to say anything negative about Sterling, however, saying the man “always treated me with the utmost respect” and invited him to games.

The controversy surrounding Sterling started over the weekend when TMZ released an audio recording with a voice said to be Sterling’s, criticizing a woman friend for associating with “black people,” and asking her not to invite Johnson into Clippers games.

Silver later told reporters that the voice on the recording has been confirmed as Sterling’s.

“The views expressed by Mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful,” said Silver. -- With a report from Reuters.

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Specter of racism still haunts US sports

WASHINGTON - The furor surrounding comments attributed to Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has again cast an unfavorable light on racism in American sport.

Sixty-seven years after Jackie Robinson famously broke baseball's "color line" when he went to bat for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the specter of racism still looms large over US professional sport -- from outspoken billionaire franchise owners to foul-mouthed players and bigoted fans who spew xenophobic nonsense behind the anonymity of Twitter avatars.

"Racism remains a problem throughout our society as a whole, and sports merely reflects that," said Ray Halbritter, who has been leading a campaign for the Washington Redskins to drop their racially charged name.

"The good news in the Sterling situation is that everybody acknowledges that his statements are unacceptable," Halbritter, representative of the Oneida Native American nation in upstate New York, told AFP.

Sterling, 80, has yet to apologize for a recording in which he reputedly asks a twenty-something female friend to stop bringing African-American friends to Clipper games and stop posting their photos on her Instagram feed.

"It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to?" says a male voice on the recording, which Sterling's estranged wife has confirmed as his.

"You can sleep with (black people). You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it... and not to bring them to my games."

President Barack Obama, the first African-American to be elected US president and also a well-known basketball fan, swiftly denounced the comments as "incredibly offensive racist statements," while basketball legend Magic Johnson questioned whether Sterling was fit to own a National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise.

- Redskins controversy -

Sterling, a real estate mogul estimated by Forbes business magazine to be worth $1.9 billion, is by no means the first US sports franchise proprietor to come under fire for racism.

In the 1990s, Marge Schott of baseball's Cincinnati Reds offended just about everyone with her casual use of racist language, her mocking Japanese accent, her admiration for Hitler and her belief that men with earrings were "fruity."

She sold her majority stake in the Reds in 1999, three years after she was banned by Major League Baseball from her close involvement in the team's day-to-day operations.

More recently, in the US capital, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder has stubbornly resisted pressure from Native Americans and their allies to rebrand his National Football League (NFL) team.

"While Sterling has tried to retroactively disassociate himself with the abhorrent comments in question, Dan Snyder proudly defends his own continued promotion of a dictionary-defined racial slur," Halbritter said.

In November, in the NFL, the Miami Dolphins suspended Richie Incognito over the racially tinged harassment of a black team-mate, while in 2013 the Philadelphia Eagles suspended Riley Cooper after a video emerged of him using racially abusing a bouncer at a Kenny Chesney country music concert.

- 'Pervasive problem' -

Social media has meanwhile enabled some fans to anonymously churn out bigoted sentiments, such as in July 2013 when chart-topping Latino singer Marc Anthony sang "God Bless America" at baseball's All-Star classic.

"Welcome to america where god bless america is sung at our national pastime by a mexican," sneered one of many Twitter mentions that overlooked the fact that Anthony was born in New York to Puerto Rican, and thus American, parents.

Debra Nixon, a professor at Nova Southeastern University in Florida who specializes in diversity issues, said racism in American sports, and indeed throughout American society, remains "a pervasive problem."

"And it's going to keep happening until we really begin to do something constructive (about discussing race in America)," she told AFP, "as opposed to just having someone apologize until somebody else messes up."

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