Knicks · OT: Shelly Sterling plans to keep Clippers...Doc might be available... (page 1)

The plot thickens or not...Also does the NBA void players contracts if they can't get the Sterlings to sell...

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story...

LOS ANGELES -- Clippers co-owner Shelly Sterling confirmed Wednesday that she intends to keep ownership of the team in her family, despite the NBA's move to oust her estranged husband, Donald Sterling, who was banned for life by commissioner Adam Silver last week in the wake of racist remarks he made that were published by TMZ.

Shelly Sterling has been a co-owner of the Clippers with her husband since 1981 and is one of two alternate governors. The other, team president Andy Roeser, began an indefinite leave of absence Tuesday. The team is owned by a family trust.

"Commissioner Silver made it clear, that when he announced sanctions against Donald, that the NBA was taking no action against me or my family," Shelly Sterling said in a statement given to ESPN.

She has hired attorney Pierce O'Donnell to represent her interests as the NBA moves to terminate her husband's ownership of the team.

Silver said last week that no decisions have been made regarding members of the Sterling family other than Donald.

"This ruling applies specifically to Donald Sterling and Donald Sterling's conduct only," the commissioner said.

ESPN's Darren Rovell reported Tuesday that the NBA believes it has the legal grounds to force Donald Sterling to sell the team because he has signed numerous contracts with the league agreeing that an owner will not take any position or action that will materially and adversely affect a team or the league. Owners also sign morals clauses, which state they will be held to the highest standard of ethical and moral behavior.

The NBA will maintain that Donald Sterling violated those contracts should he choose to fight the league's plan to force him to sell the team. The league must get 75 percent of owners to agree to make the move.

When morals clauses are enacted and result in termination of agreements, including endorsement deals, the courts often are charged with interpreting who was right, but sources with knowledge of the NBA's legal strategy believe the league has enough ammunition to force Donald Sterling to sell.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the league for life in the wake of Sterling's racist comments. Full coverage »

Shelly Sterling's position is potentially a complicating factor for the league, if its aim is to force a sale of the team to new owners outside the Sterling family. It could become further complicated if either Shelly or Donald Sterling files for divorce.

Many big names -- including a team of Oprah Winfrey, Oracle's Larry Ellison (the fifth-richest man in the world, according to Forbes) and entertainment magnate David Geffen -- have expressed their interest in perhaps buying the team, which could sell for upwards of $1 billion.

On Saturday, the league announced it would appoint a CEO who would take over day-to-day operations of the Clippers.

NBA owners, meanwhile, on Wednesday held their second discussion about ending Donald Sterling's ownership, with the advisory/finance committee holding a conference call.

League spokesman Mike Bass said Wednesday that the committee discussed the search for a new CEO and got an update on deputy commissioner Mark Tatum's visit with Clippers employees. The owners plan to convene again next week.

We'll have a coach hired before its resolved.

Unwinding the Clippers ownership will take some time. The league is bringing in its own CEO to run the team ASAP.

Doc and the players will be under contract. The Sterling ownership, like most teams is complicated and the team is in a Family trust.

FOr all we know they can drag it on for some time and if the old man's cancer takes him first, does that not accomplish the same thing?

I know we all want Sterling hung out to dry quickly but this might not be resolved so fast.

Before we argue the benefits of Doc we have to recognize his contract, Phils intent, and does the dude want to relocate AGAIN after less than a year in Los Angeles. He left Boston because he did not want to rebuild. Does he want to even be here for basketball or personal reasons.

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story...

Doc: Tough if Shelly retains control

Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers said Thursday at the team's training facility that "it would be a very hard situation'' if Shelly Sterling, the wife of Donald Sterling, retained her portion of ownership in the team.

Shelly Sterling's attorney, Pierce O'Donnell, said his client would fight to retain her ownership stake in the Clippers.

"I guarantee you every person wouldn't be on board with that,'' Rivers said. "Whether I would or not, I'm not going to say.''

Shelly Sterling confirmed Wednesday that she intends to keep ownership of the team in her family despite the NBA's move to oust her estranged husband, who was banned for life by commissioner Adam Silver last week in the wake of racist remarks he made that were published by TMZ.

Shelly Sterling has been a co-owner of the Clippers with her husband since 1981 and is one of two alternate governors. The other, team president Andy Roeser, began an indefinite leave of absence Tuesday. The team is owned by a family trust.

Shelly Sterling has hired O'Donnell to represent her interests as the league moves to terminate her husband's ownership of the team.

Silver said last week that no decisions had been made regarding members of the Sterling family other than Donald.

ESPN.com's Darren Rovell reported Tuesday that the NBA believes it has the legal grounds to force Donald Sterling to sell the team because he has signed numerous contracts with the league agreeing that an owner will not take any position or action that will materially and adversely affect a team or the league. Owners also sign morals clauses, which state they will be held to the highest standards of ethical and moral behavior.

The NBA will maintain that Sterling violated those contracts should he choose to fight the league's plan to force him to sell. The league must get 75 percent of owners to agree to make the move.

Can players contracts be voided??

doc? why da fuq would we want doc? we can have steve kerr

I don't expect anything to happen anytime soon. Even if player contacts are voided the salary cap rules will be in effect so we can't get any of the good ones.

Player contracts won't be voided. This is basically the opposite of a team being stuck with an injured guy on a big contract.

If the contract is voided some players might not get new ones that equal the old ones. The union would never put up with this. What if a player is injured?

In the event the team was bankrupt like NOLA the league steps in and runs it. They could trade players.

Part of the franchise value is its players. While the league will move to out Sterling they won't destroy the value of the team. The players can retire, nobody is forcing them to play. The league is doing what it can to remove the offending element (sterling) but players are not subject to abuse or mistreatment. It may be hurtful, but sterling is banned even if his legal team prevails in holding up the sale via litigation.

Doc needs to stop discriminating based on association. Shelly Sterling has every right to keep her share of the team. She is already on record condemning her estranged husband.

^agreed. I don't get it

They never divorced because it fractures the franshise into two owners. If they divorce, and they should the holding in the Family trust also need be split. As I mentioned, I don't know the structure but Im guessing its a seporate LLC, with Donald, Shelly and the rest of the family having shares. It would be clean for the trust to sell the team, but if she don't want her half sold, Im not sure if the NBA can outright force it. Donald yes, but her???

Silver did the right thing but when the dust settles will the NBA be able to surgically extract Sterling as quick and clean as they would like us to believe? Basically it was a great PR move and the right thing to do but can they actually do it?

What if she sues for divorce, fractures the ownership, then Donald sells out his part, leaving shelly and the famlily with controlling interest with a minority shareholder group (could be literally a minority shareholder group!!!) and thus the end result is donald out and some other group now invested with rights of first refusal to buy controling interest should the family trust so desire to sell? If Sterling does this it could save years of litigation. For all we know the prick might only have a year or two left to live as well.

He is an uber ass and the face of evil but he is a 30 year owner with a very valuable franchise.

I bet the whole Sterling TMZ scoop made players and staff aware of a ton more dirty laundry, particularly their racial profiling of tenants. Bomani Jones said in that radio interview with Dan Le Batard that Shelly went door-to-door in their buildings pretending she was doing a government survey or something and actually was recording the race/ethnicity of the tenants. The whole fact that she is still married to him and supposedly sued the mistress makes their relationship seems very co-dependant and shady. I can understand why players and staff would want the entire Sterling family out of ownership. It will just be very tricky since the tape and Donald's words are the motivation for the move.

Ok now it makes sense

DrAlphaeus wrote:I bet the whole Sterling TMZ scoop made players and staff aware of a ton more dirty laundry, particularly their racial profiling of tenants. Bomani Jones said in that radio interview with Dan Le Batard that Shelly went door-to-door in their buildings pretending she was doing a government survey or something and actually was recording the race/ethnicity of the tenants. The whole fact that she is still married to him and supposedly sued the mistress makes their relationship seems very co-dependant and shady. I can understand why players and staff would want the entire Sterling family out of ownership. It will just be very tricky since the tape and Donald's words are the motivation for the move.

I get that and Bomani had some great points. Now, can you indict her based that? How long ago was that? Did that information used against tenents? Its shady, but as we know its shady because of Donalds comments. She has been estranged for years and lived seporate lives. I know a few couples that are seportated for years and live entirely seporate lives but there is financial reasons why they legally stay married.

Its an interesting phenom. Staviano has been milking him for money and she opened up a pandora box of trouble for herself as well.

I said this from the start - the Sterlings are not going to take this lying down, I don't care what the NBA bylaws say. Sure they can get rid of Donald but they cannot get rid of his (ex?)wife or the rest of his family based solely on his own comments.

The NBA cannot pick who the next owner is and if she wants the team or to keep her portion of it, I believe she will eventually prevail.

I am not saying I think it is the right thing, but law is a funny thing - it comes down to interpretation. Anyone who thinks just because the NBA bylaws sound harsh and exact, that it means they can be followed to the letter, simply have not dealt with lawyers at the level the Sterlings will be coming with.

OasisBU wrote:I said this from the start - the Sterlings are not going to take this lying down, I don't care what the NBA bylaws say. Sure they can get rid of Donald but they cannot get rid of his (ex?)wife or the rest of his family based solely on his own comments.

The NBA cannot pick who the next owner is and if she wants the team or to keep her portion of it, I believe she will eventually prevail.

I am not saying I think it is the right thing, but law is a funny thing - it comes down to interpretation. Anyone who thinks just because the NBA bylaws sound harsh and exact, that it means they can be followed to the letter, simply have not dealt with lawyers at the level the Sterlings will be coming with.

The by-laws i doubt ever had language written to deal with this level of complexity. While Sterling as an owner complies to those bylaws the interpretation will be challanged by the league. Generally the league might prefer to resolve via arbitration given its antitrust status and the stench that Sterling can unleash in a public trial. Like what? think the 29 other owners have some bad things around their lives and ownership? Some might be public knowledge but when old news is bought back up its never good for business.

Bottom line will be "Whats good for the league".

OasisBU wrote:I said this from the start - the Sterlings are not going to take this lying down, I don't care what the NBA bylaws say. Sure they can get rid of Donald but they cannot get rid of his (ex?)wife or the rest of his family based solely on his own comments.

The NBA cannot pick who the next owner is and if she wants the team or to keep her portion of it, I believe she will eventually prevail.

I am not saying I think it is the right thing, but law is a funny thing - it comes down to interpretation. Anyone who thinks just because the NBA bylaws sound harsh and exact, that it means they can be followed to the letter, simply have not dealt with lawyers at the level the Sterlings will be coming with.

The NBA ultimately will not be able to hold weight in court as the team is owed 50-50 by the mans wife. Even if they removed D Sterling--what grounds could they remove his wife?

BRIGGS wrote:

OasisBU wrote:I said this from the start - the Sterlings are not going to take this lying down, I don't care what the NBA bylaws say. Sure they can get rid of Donald but they cannot get rid of his (ex?)wife or the rest of his family based solely on his own comments.

The NBA cannot pick who the next owner is and if she wants the team or to keep her portion of it, I believe she will eventually prevail.

I am not saying I think it is the right thing, but law is a funny thing - it comes down to interpretation. Anyone who thinks just because the NBA bylaws sound harsh and exact, that it means they can be followed to the letter, simply have not dealt with lawyers at the level the Sterlings will be coming with.

The NBA ultimately will not be able to hold weight in court as the team is owed 50-50 by the mans wife. Even if they removed D Sterling--what grounds could they remove his wife?

Exactly.

It is interesting that some of the media are trying to make the case that she is Don's proxy and by keeping her in he will remain involved with the team. At the end of the day I don't think there is much anyone can do to remove her. She is not the one who caused this.

Vmart wrote:Doc needs to stop discriminating based on association. Shelly Sterling has every right to keep her share of the team. She is already on record condemning her estranged husband.

Shelly Sterling has already settled out of court a racial discrimination cases on her own, not including her husband according to Mike and Mike..She has paid a settlement of 3 million dollars out of court in one case...

holfresh wrote:

Vmart wrote:Doc needs to stop discriminating based on association. Shelly Sterling has every right to keep her share of the team. She is already on record condemning her estranged husband.

Shelly Sterling has already settled out of court a racial discrimination cases on her own, not including her husband according to Mike and Mike..She has paid a settlement of 3 million dollars out of court in one case...

plot thickens

is there anymore info on that?

Some links about Shelly in this article:

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/746...

Refers to this ABC 7 LA report: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?sectio...

She posed as a health inspector BTW. Haven't seen anything that has her listed as a defendant on her own, so would love to see that link.

Nalod wrote:

DrAlphaeus wrote:I bet the whole Sterling TMZ scoop made players and staff aware of a ton more dirty laundry, particularly their racial profiling of tenants. Bomani Jones said in that radio interview with Dan Le Batard that Shelly went door-to-door in their buildings pretending she was doing a government survey or something and actually was recording the race/ethnicity of the tenants. The whole fact that she is still married to him and supposedly sued the mistress makes their relationship seems very co-dependant and shady. I can understand why players and staff would want the entire Sterling family out of ownership. It will just be very tricky since the tape and Donald's words are the motivation for the move.

I get that and Bomani had some great points. Now, can you indict her based that? How long ago was that? Did that information used against tenents? Its shady, but as we know its shady because of Donalds comments. She has been estranged for years and lived seporate lives. I know a few couples that are seportated for years and live entirely seporate lives but there is financial reasons why they legally stay married.

Its an interesting phenom. Staviano has been milking him for money and she opened up a pandora box of trouble for herself as well.

No doubt, it will be tough for the Board of Governors to indite her for her husband's words, if those words are the sole reason for their action. But I bet the players and staff are getting the lowdown on Shelly too... situations like this tend to get people talking openly about things they've noticed and heard over the years but never felt comfortable talking about.