Donald Sterling filing $1B lawsuit
ESPN.com news services
Donald Sterling isn't done fighting yet.
The banned Los Angeles Clippers owner is filing a $1 billion lawsuit against the NBA, his lawyer
confirmed to ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne on Friday, one day after his
wife, Shelly, accepted a $2 billion bid from former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to buy the team.
"The [termination] charges in the lawsuit are an invasion of his
constitutional rights, violation of anti-trust laws, breach of fiduciary
duty and breach of contract," Donald Sterling's attorney, Max Blecher,
told Shelburne.
Blecher said the lawsuit was being filed Friday afternoon and "has
nothing to do with the sale." He said Sterling is still weighing legal
action against Shelly, saying, "He's looking at it. That's a different
kettle of fish. We just got the paperwork on that yesterday. There's
been no decision made on that yet."
Donald Sterling repeatedly had vowed to fight the NBA's attempts to
force him to sell the team. That fight was temporarily derailed this
week after sources say he was found by experts to be mentally
incapacitated, paving the way for Shelly to become the sole trustee of
the Sterling family trust and empowering her to work on an agreement to
sell the team to Ballmer.
Earlier in May, two neurologists conducted a number of brain tests on
Donald Sterling at the urging of his family, a source said. Their
diagnosis was that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and likely
had been for "three to five years."
Sterling's side, as well as his wife's attorneys, had known of the
tests' results for some time, the source said. The Sterling family trust
had rules and guidelines regarding mental incapacitation, which it
defined as the ability to conduct normal and regular business affairs.
Earlier Friday, Blecher confirmed in an email to ESPN that
evaluations were performed on his client, but that the results of the
neurologists' examinations were "grossly exaggerated" and that "Mr.
Sterling is far from mentally incompetent." In similar comments to CNN,
Blecher said it was determined that Sterling had "modest mental
impairment," "a slowing down."
Shelly Sterling and her advisers initially had hoped to sell the team
without using Donald Sterling's incapacitation as a reason, according
to sources. However, when Sterling said that he intended to fight the
sale of the team in his response to the NBA, they changed course and
signed an agreement to sell it, citing the terms of the trust.
The rules of the trust did not require a court hearing first to
declare that Donald Sterling, 80, is mentally incapacitated. That
allowed Shelly Sterling to negotiate directly with Ballmer and the
league to sell the team.
Any sale agreement must be approved by the NBA office and three-fourths of the league's owners.
