Sterling vs. Sterling Trial Looms Over Los Angeles Clippers — $2B Sale in Limbo
Image by getty images
Shelly Sterling on Wednesday was granted a trial next month in Los Angeles to resolve a dispute with her estranged husband Donald Sterling over who controls the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, leaving its $2 billion sale up in the air.
Shelly Sterling has asked a probate court to confirm her as the controlling owner of the team after Donald Sterling promised to block the franchise’s NBA-record sale to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.
Donald Sterling, 80, was banned for life by the National Basketball Association in April and fined $2.5 million by the league after tape of racist remarks he made in private were leaked to the media. He has owned the Clippers for 33 years.
A four-day trial in Los Angeles Superior Court is set to begin on July 7 and offer a resolution ahead of the NBA owners’ July 15 vote on whether to approve the sale to Ballmer.
Attorneys for Shelly Sterling filed the emergency request for a hearing to try to reinforce her status as the sole trustee of the family trust and her right to sell the team without Donald Sterling’s blessing.
They allege that if the sale to Ballmer is not completed by the NBA’s Sept. 15 deadline the league will seize and sell the Clippers franchise at public auction.
Last month, two neurologists found Sterling to have Alzheimer’s disease, which triggered the clause transferring control of the trust that owns the team to Shelly Sterling.
According to the clause, Sterling would not have the standing to block the sale to Ballmer that was agreed to by Shelly Sterling and tentatively approved by the NBA.
Donald Sterling’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment but have disputed that Sterling has early Alzheimer’s disease.
If the Los Angeles probate court rules that Donald Sterling can halt the sale, the NBA will reinstitute a hearing among owners to terminate Sterling’s ownership, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Sterling, who originally approved the deal with Ballmer, has also sued the NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver for at least $1 billion, alleging he was forced to sell the team due to a recording made illegally according to California law.
Silver has maintained that an agreement struck with Shelly Sterling after the deal with Ballmer indemnifies the league against any legal action taken by her husband, so the Sterling Family Trust would have to pay any possible damages awarded to Donald Sterling.
Meanwhile, a former Clippers “Fan Relations Intern” has sued the trust for wages and damages, alleging the team violated U.S. and California labor laws by not paying its interns.
Frank Cooper alleges he worked between 40 and 50 hours weekly for about two months in late 2012, often performing work similar to that of paid employees. He said the unpaid work reflects a trend of employers mislabeling workers as interns to avoid paying wages.
“These programs purport to be training programs, but provide little value to the worker while enriching the employer through the provision of free labor,” says the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Language apps are putting Hebrew school in teens’ back pockets. But do they work?
-
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
-
Fast Forward Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil for undermining U.S. foreign policy on antisemitism, judge rules
-
Fast Forward Is the Passover Seder Zionist?
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 3
Fast Forward How Coke’s Passover recipe sparked an antisemitic conspiracy theory
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion This Nazi-era story shows why Trump won’t fix a terrifying deportation mistake
-
Opinion I operate a small Judaica business. Trump’s tariffs are going to squelch Jewish innovation.
-
Fast Forward Language apps are putting Hebrew school in teens’ back pockets. But do they work?
-
Books How a Jewish boy from Canterbury became a Zulu chieftain
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.