Posted on 05/30/2014 1:38:59 AM PDT by iowamark
I imagine Donald Sterling is going to fight this one too, but…
Shelly Sterling has been granted the authority to sell the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers to Steve Ballmer because her husband and co-owner Donald Sterling has been declared mentally incapacitated under the terms of the trust the couple owns the team through. That made her the sole trustee and decision maker.
That according to the tapped in Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.
There have been reports and rumors that Donald Sterling has been battling dementia, which is the reason his former mistress claimed to make the recordings that sparked the controversy in the first place (he would forget what he had previously said). Donald also is reportedly battling prostate cancer.
Donald and Shelly Sterling each own half of the Clippers through a trust, although Donald is the recognized primary owner by the league under its constitution. However, a finding of mental incapacity would change the dynamic of control of the franchise.
NBC has confirmed that Shelly Sterling and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer have signed papers where Ballmer will buy the Clippers from the trust for $2 billion (a record NBA price, almost four times the previous high). Those papers have been sent on to the league office for review.
The league has yet to comment on the latest reports. As of now there is an NBA Board of Governors’ meeting (the other owners) scheduled for June 3. At that meeting the owners would conduct a hearing then vote on whether to strip Sterling of his ownership of the franchise in response to the backlash that followed his prejudiced comments on a recording released to TMZ, plus later in a CNN interview.
Reports have suggested the league would postpone that meeting and vote if a sale agreement (with terms, a price and a new owner they liked) was in place before next Tuesday. Shelly Sterling and Ballmer are hoping this fits that criteria. For the league, a sale by the Sterlings is a much cleaner process.
Donald Sterling had publicly flip-flopped between saying, “Why would I want to fight my partners?” as he did on CNN and promising to “fight to the bloody end” in court as he did through his lawyer in an official response to the charges against him from the league.
However if he has been declared mentally incapacitated that would take him out of the picture. Under the terms of the trust he did not have to be declared incapacitated by a court of law, the structures are different, Shelburne reports.
We do not know how recently this incapacity was declared, under what circumstances, and how it would hold up to a legal challenge in court. It seems fair to assume that Donald Sterling’s first move would be to fight this ruling.
However if this holds up it seems as if the saga of the Sterlings could have a path to ending. Which is what everyone wants (except possibly Donald Sterling).
How convenient.
He has PC Alzheimer’s: forgetting which things are politically incorrect to talk about.
I think the dynamic is if you are perceived as racist, you are mentally ill and will be treated as such. And we don’t want the mentally ill to have weapons, now do we???
Glad that Magic’s attempt using his pawn “V” to buy Clippers at a fire sale price totally failed.
That linkage is already happening. Look at the drive to have the records of PTSD vets who seek counseling used to deny them the right to own guns or the possibility that under Obamacare, medical records would be integrated with other government data bases to make determinations as the government sees fit.
Yep. Soon we will all be mentally ill. But I’ve been mentally ill since Obama was elected. I am sure I will recover once he is out of the WH.:)
Sterling’s going to be laughing at the NBA all the way to the bank —
I wonder what happened? The other bids were much lower:
On Thursday, Ballmer outbid two groups, one led by media mogul David Geffen that offered $1.6bn and included TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Oracle chief executive, Larry Ellison, a source close to the process told Reuters. A group of Los Angeles investors also bid $1.2bn for the team. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/30/steve-ballmer-buys-donald-sterling-los-angeles-clippers-nba?CMP=twt_gu
Sounds like the auction fell apart when Ballmer jumped up to 2 bil. You can sometimes do that at an auction -- jump the price quickly and make people consider whether they really want to go there.
Also possible that there are other problems that made other high rollers bow out. They use 2 arenas, so maybe that's an issue.
If declared to be mentally unfit would that have an impact on the NBA actions? And of course how does the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title V come in picture?
And what exactly us he “ guilty” of?
Actions, including scummy associations, that led to sponsor withdrawals, a PR disaster, and thrwatened plauer walkout that would have negatively impqcted the earning power and assets of his fellow owners.
This sounds like it was Hitler inspired.
Have a shrink declare someone mentally ill so they have no rights and you can do whatever you want to them.
More like “we’ll give you two billion if you let us make you the poster boy for getting the people to support the use of surveillance of private home activities for pubic shaming, banishment and divestiture of property rights.”
That’s the issue, isn’t it?
Contract terms aren’t allowed to violate the law, right? So what’s being done here is offering a carrot and stick to the NBA to quickly approve the sale (they probably want the team to go to Oprah or Magic Johnson).
Carrot is quick, no muss no fuss execution of the $2 billion deal. Stick is that if they don’t approve the deal the Sterlings invoke the Americans With Disabilities Act and dig in their heels on retaining ownership.
The Sterlings (or perhaps their advisors) are being very, very smart here in totally manipulating the situation to their advantage ...
If he is mentally unfit, then how can he be punished for his words??
The NBA should be sued for punishing the mentally handicapped like that
Lol.... certainly a basketball franchise is not “real property”. Property rights generally apply to real property. You think they really said “we’ll give you 2 billion if you’ll let us push our agenda?” I don’t think so....
I agree with you. 6 months ago it was a 500 million dollar franchise. Today its worth 2 billion. And somehow we’re suppose to believe the NBA won on this and forced the dirty old man out of basketball? Yeah like whatever.
The ADA even goes further: the NBA is legally required to provide reasonable accomidations to him.
The Sterlings have it within their power to make a HUGE mess for the NBA, if they want to.
What’s your argument, that he has nothing to sell?! LOL!
And yeah billionaires never get paid off for manipulating social or political agendas.
Must be nice to live in your world. Ice cream and jump rope every afternoon under the big oak tree in the garden.
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