Shelly Sterling: L.A. Clippers Will Be Sold To Steve Ballmer For $2 Billion

Los Angeles Clippers co-owner Shelly Sterling, left, has announced a "binding contract" to sell the team to former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. Any sale of the team would require the NBA's approval before it is made official. Mark J. Terrill/AP
Los Angeles Clippers co-owner Shelly Sterling, left, has announced a “binding contract” to sell the team to former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. Any sale of the team would require the NBA’s approval before it is made official. Mark J. Terrill/AP

Shelly Sterling says her family’s trust has reached a deal to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. The wife of embattled Clippers owner Donald Sterling issued a news release announcing a “binding contract” Thursday night.

“I am delighted that we are selling the team to Steve, who will be a terrific owner,” Shelly Sterling said in the news release. “We have worked for 33 years to build the Clippers into a premiere NBA franchise. I am confident that Steve will take the team to new levels of success.”

As of early Friday, news of the deal had not been announced by the Clippers or the NBA. Before any sale of the team becomes official, it would require approval from the NBA’s Board of Governors.

As TNT basketball analyst David Aldridge notes, the deal also needs the backing of Donald Sterling, as the team’s majority owner. Speaking about the reported deal last night, Aldridge said it was too early to say the deal is done. He noted that Sterling has recently signaled that he’s willing to fight the NBA.

“Until Donald Sterling says, ‘I am going to sell the team, and I am going to sell the team to Steve Ballmer, none of this matters,” Aldridge said in a TNT broadcast archived by league website NBA.com.

A report by The Los Angeles Times hints at a possible family drama playing out behind the scenes:

“Donald Sterling’s lawyers have asserted that he needs a final sign-off before the team can be sold. However, according to two media reports, Shelly Sterling has said her husband was not capable of making the decision to sell the team. The Times has not verified that report.”

News of the potential sale comes days before the NBA’s Board of Governors is scheduled to meet on Tuesday to vote on whether to take control of the team away from the Sterling family.

The $2 billion sales price would set a new NBA record, dwarfing the $550 million paid for the Milwaukee Bucks last month. When he bought the then-San Diego Clippers back in 1981, Sterling reportedly paid $12.5 million.

If the new Clippers sale comes to pass, it would more than double the estimated price several experts had been throwing around since Sterling first came under pressure to sell. Estimates of the team’s value had ranged from $700 million to around $1 billion. The price tag is also roughly equal to the most recent estimate of Sterling’s net worth by Forbes.

Reports of the sale come a week after news emerged that Sterling had agreed to let his wife negotiate a deal to sell the team. And it comes almost exactly one month after the NBA hit Sterling with a lifetime ban and a $2.5 million fine in the fallout that followed a secret recording of him making racist remarks.

In the news release announcing the deal to sell the team, prospective new owner Ballmer said, “I will be honored to have my name submitted to the NBA Board of Governors for approval as the next owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. I love basketball. And I intend to do everything in my power to ensure that the Clippers continue to win – and win big – in Los Angeles.”

Citing an “an individual with knowledge of the negotiations,” the AP says Ballmer recently visited Shelly Sterling:

“Ballmer beat out bids by Guggenheim Partners and a group including former NBA All-Star Grant Hill after presenting an ‘all-around superior bid,’ the individual said. Ballmer made more than an hour-long personal visit to Shelly Sterling’s Malibu home Sunday and laid out his plan.”

Ballmer would become the second Microsoft veteran to own an NBA team: company co-founder Paul Allen owns the Portland Trailblazers.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.image
Read original article – Published May 30, 2014 7:26 AM ET
Shelly Sterling: L.A. Clippers Will Be Sold To Steve Ballmer For $2 Billion

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