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Steve Ballmer willing to pay $2 billion for Clippers

Steve Ballmer willing to pay $2 billion for Clippers

Shelly Sterling has informed the NBA of her deal with Steve Ballmer to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers, but the league isn’t ready to call off next week’s owners hearing just yet.

First, it needs more information about the potential record-breaking $2 billion sale she agreed to with the former Microsoft CEO.

“We await the submission of necessary documentation from Mrs. Sterling,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said Friday in a statement. “In the meantime, the June 3 special meeting of the NBA Board of Governors remains as scheduled.”

The league is planning a hearing that day to consider the charge against her husband, Donald Sterling, for damaging the league with his racist comments. Owners could vote to terminate his ownership – and Shelly’s as well – during that hearing.

But Commissioner Adam Silver has said he would prefer the Sterlings sell the team, and Shelly Sterling announced late Thursday night that she’d signed a binding contract for a sale of the Clippers by The Sterling Family Trust to Ballmer.

— Associated Press

May 30 NBA statement regarding proposed sale of Clippers

The following statement has been issued by Mike Bass, Executive Vice President, Communications, regarding the proposed sale of the Los Angeles Clippers:

“Commissioner Silver has consistently said the preferred outcome to the Clippers proceeding would be a voluntary sale of the team. Shelly Sterling advised the NBA last night that an agreement had been reached with Steve Ballmer, and the NBA Advisory/Finance Committee met via conference call this morning to discuss these developments. We await the submission of necessary documentation from Mrs. Sterling. In the meantime, the June 3 special meeting of the NBA Board of Governors remains as scheduled.”

May 28 statement from NBA on Clippers ownership situation

The following statement has been issued by Mike Bass, Executive Vice President, Communications, regarding today’s meeting of the NBA Advisory/Finance Committee:

“The Advisory/Finance Committee met again today via conference call and discussed the separate responses from Donald and Shelly Sterling to the charge to terminate their ownership interests in the Los Angeles Clippers. These documents, along with the charge, were distributed to the NBA Board of Governors, which will meet on June 3 at 1 p.m. in New York City to hear and vote upon this matter.”

Clippers ownership situation update: NBA issues new statement

The following statement has been issued by Mike Bass, Executive Vice President, Communications:

“This evening, the NBA received responses from Donald and Shelly Sterling to the charge to terminate the current ownership interests in the Los Angeles Clippers. The NBA Board of Governors will meet on June 3 at 1 p.m. in New York City to hear and vote upon this matter. Should the Board vote to sustain the charge, the Sterlings’ interests in the Clippers will be terminated and the team will be sold.”

Alvin Gentry to interview for Utah Jazz head coaching job

Here’s the Orange County Register blog with a report on the Utah Jazz:

Alvin Gentry to interview for Utah Jazz head coaching job

Alvin Gentry, the Clippers associate head coach and architect of their top-rated offense, is scheduled to interview with the Utah Jazz for their head coaching position.

The news was first reported by Yahoo.

Gentry has been the head coach in Miami, Detroit and Phoenix. In three seasons as the Clippers head coach, Gentry went 89-133.

Gentry’s career record as a head coach is 335-370, with his greatest success coming in Phoenix.

Chris Paul shaken up by playoff elimination

Here’s ESPN Los Angeles reporting on Clippers point guard Chris Paul:

Chris Paul shaken up by playoff elimination

Chris Paul was able to look around the room this time.

The blank stare that had come over his face after his nightmarish final seconds in Game 5 had been replaced by the angry glare that comes with an early vacation he has become all too familiar with in his nine seasons in the NBA.

As Paul faces a long offseason with more questions than he cares to answer about the team to which he has committed at least the next three years of his career, he will enter his 10th season in the league having never made it past the second round of the playoffs after the Los Angeles Clippers were eliminated by the Oklahoma City Thunder 104-98 in Thursday’s Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Paul took the loss particularly hard. He blamed himself for the team’s collapse in Game 5 after two crucial turnovers and a foul helped give the Thunder an improbable comeback victory. He also put the blame on his shoulders for the Clippers’ inability to hold a 16-point first-half lead in an elimination game at home.

He tried his best to hold back tears as he said goodbye to his teammates for the last time this season in the locker room. Paul has been around long enough to know he can’t take playing on teams this talented, and for a coach like Doc Rivers, for granted. This was his best shot at winning a title, or at least getting to his first conference final, and it ended at the same stop it had in the past.

Multiple law firms have refused to help Donald Sterling, reports TMZ

Here’s TMZ with the Donald Sterling latest:

Donald Sterling has been REJECTED by at least 8 big law firms in his quest to sue the NBA … we’re told because they think he’s toxic and would piss off their existing clients.

Multiple sources in the legal world tell TMZ … Sterling has reached out to a number of extremely large, prestigious firms, both in L.A. and San Francisco, looking for representation … but none were receptive.

Our sources say partners in the firms feel representing Sterling would alienate both their African American clients and corporate clients that are hyper-sensitive to controversy.