Report: Shelly Sterling seeks court's help to resolve Clippers sale
Donald and Shelly Sterling continue their battle over the L.A. Clippers. (John Green, Cal Sport Media via AP Images)
With Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling refusing to sell the franchise and continuing his lawsuit against the NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver, lawyers for his estranged wife Shelly Sterling are seeking an emergency order from a California probate court for an expedited hearing to confirm her authority to sell the team, reports Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com.
Shelly Sterling sold the Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on May 29 for a reported $2 billion, this after, doctors found Donald Sterling to be "mentally incapacitated."
Donald Sterling agreed to the sell the team and drop his lawsuit, but it was reported earlier this week that the deal was off.
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Sterling, in a statement, said he will not sell his team and called the leadership of the NBA "incompetent, inexperienced and angry" and that they continue to "exact its reign of terror in large part from the money it receives from the fans."
"Two things happened," Sterling's attorney Max Blecher told ESPN. "She decided to go for the mental incompetency to get rid of him. I think that ticked him off. And the frosting on the cupcake was [NBA commissioner Adam] Silver saying he was never going to repudiate the ban or the fines. I think Sterling [is] looking at this like, 'There's no dignity for me. I might as well fight.'
"If the league had reached out to him and said, 'Let's work something out, we can restore your dignity,' I think it's possible he would have changed his mind. But they didn't ... so he decided it wasn't worth doing the sale. He doesn't need the money. He wanted to fight for his dignity."
