The Official Donald Sterling/Clippers Thread

[G R E Y]

So now they're trying the "jurisdictional issue" route to delay proceedings. Riiiiight.

Jurisdictional issue delays start of Sterling trial affecting sale of Los Angeles Clippers

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - A jurisdictional issue delayed Monday's scheduled start of a trial focusing on whether Donald Sterling's estranged wife had the authority under terms of a family trust to unilaterally negotiate a $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Lawyers for Donald Sterling moved late last week to shift the case to federal court due to alleged medical privacy violations.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas delayed the start of the trial while Donald Sterling's lawyers sought a decision from a federal judge on whether to take the case.

The motion was assigned to a U.S. District Court judge to consider and Levanas ordered parties to return to his court at 2:30 p.m. PDT. "It may very well be this is not going to be in my hands," Levanas said.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/2-billion-sale-los-angeles-clippers-hangs-balance-125434169--nba.html

[G R E Y]

So a judge denied one delay tactic of moving the trial to federal court. Trial proceeded.

Gem 1:

Sterling trial gets underway after delay

Dr. Meril Sue Platzer testified that she was hired by Sterling's wife, Shelly Sterling, to evaluate him and made the diagnosis based on imaging tests and a two-hour interview at his home with his wife and an attorney present.

''After it was over,'' she said. ''I told him and Mrs. Sterling that he probably has Alzheimer's.''

''What was his reaction?'' asked Pierce O'Donnell, an attorney for Sterling's wife.

''I'm hungry. I want to eat,'' Platzer said.

Sterling lawyers moved on to another stalling tactic.
Gem 2:

Her lawyers claim Donald Sterling has been engaging in tactics to run out the clock on the Clippers sale.

Donald Sterling's probate lawyer, Gary Ruttenberg, hammered away at the need for a postponement.

''We've been railroaded as quickly as possible into a trial where we have very little discovery,'' he said. ''We have not had adequate time to prepare.''

Hard to tell if Sterling's more spiteful or senile with his insistence on potentially losing $1B in profit.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/clippers-sale-hangs-balance-trial-073303368--nba.html

[JDR720]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BillPlaschke/status/486648610852188160[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/BillPlaschke/status/486648125143003136[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/BillPlaschke/status/486645499676463104[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/BillPlaschke/status/486642950374322177[/tweet]

[Nolan]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DanWoikeSports/status/487003898394075138[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DanWoikeSports/status/487003361741242369[/tweet]

Interesting quotes from today's proceedings.

[G R E Y]

Trial delayed:

Clippers trial put on hold past Tuesday deadline

Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas put off the next hearing until July 21 because two of Sterling's lawyers had plans for a vacation and a wedding anniversary. He set closing arguments for July 28.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/clippers-sterling-berates-nba-wife-061052409--nba.html

[DwnShft2Xcelr8]

Hope Sterling keeps the team only to end up losing all his players, all the fan support and all the reasons to be in a big market like Los Angeles.
Greatest karma ever.

[SunsRback4Good]

#SrerlingNeverLovedUs

[MalikJoakim24]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXdi7ARmTwA[/youtube]

awesome

[HotRocks34]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/491802953909800961[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/491814610056806400[/tweet]

[KyletheDingbat]

Why haven't the owners voted him out yet? What's the delay? Wasn't it supposed to happen back in May?

[Roscoe Sheed]

Why haven't the owners voted him out yet? What's the delay? Wasn't it supposed to happen back in May?

because they won't have to if the probate judge rules in Shelly Sterling's favor. Apparently the sale goes through if that is the case without having to vote him out

[MeestR]

id love for the clippers to lose their players and coach because of sterling. sponsers would walk, and ballmer could rescind his $2B deal after the teams value tanks. he could offer instead just 10% of that price -- a slap in the face to sterling, and the nba. the clippers could take over their roll as the clippers and re-become a farm team for the rest of the nba featuring late lotto picks and d league-ers. i'de like to see sterling get his 2.5 to 5 Billion then.

[flash22]

id love for the clippers to lose their players and coach because of sterling. sponsers would walk, and ballmer could rescind his $2B deal after the teams value tanks. he could offer instead just 10% of that price -- a slap in the face to sterling, and the nba. the clippers could take over their roll as the clippers and re-become a farm team for the rest of the nba featuring late lotto picks and d league-ers. i'de like to see sterling get his 2.5 to 5 Billion then.

Sterling doesn't care about 2 billion, the difference between 50 million and 2 billion to Sterling is nothing. Right now everything he doing is purely to spite the NBA.

[LAKEROLOGY]

[MeestR]

id love for the clippers to lose their players and coach because of sterling. sponsers would walk, and ballmer could rescind his $2B deal after the teams value tanks. he could offer instead just 10% of that price -- a slap in the face to sterling, and the nba. the clippers could take over their roll as the clippers and re-become a farm team for the rest of the nba featuring late lotto picks and d league-ers. i'de like to see sterling get his 2.5 to 5 Billion then.

Sterling doesn't care about 2 billion, the difference between 50 million and 2 billion to Sterling is nothing. Right now everything he doing is purely to spite the NBA.

wait. what? 50 million? i was referencing this which i thought was common knowledge by now...

LOS ANGELES -- Donald Sterling said Tuesday he believes his wife, Shelly Sterling, is only selling the Los Angeles Clippers because she is "terrified and frightened of this NBA" and that if he were to sell the franchise, he could get $2.5 billion to $5 billion because of a boom in media-rights fees.

"Do you think Microsoft is foolish? Do you think they don't think and wonder where they're going to get the money back?" Sterling asked during a contentious hourlong testimony in a Los Angeles probate court. "There's no ego involved here. There's tremendous opportunity."

The difference between 2 billion and 2.5 billion is bigger than 50 million. Try 500 million. Ya, even billionaires like Sterling know the value of 500 million. And that is the minimum Sterling thinks he could have gotten it for. The point I was trying to make is if Sterling is the one trying to make the sale, there is no way his franchise will be worth even close to that amount due to what his face does to its value. (not an ugly joke BTW).

It's like scoffing at a title loan place who will "only" give you 10 grand for your car and telling them, "I'll sell it to a dealership for at least 25-250% more." But on your way, you back into a pylon, drive through a river, and find some way to do serious mechanical damage.

This is why I want to see what kind of chaos Sterling could do not just to the NBA, but to himself too. As much fun as I have had seeing the Clippers play better than the Lakers, this downward spiral of a franchise/owner could be epic.

[flash22]

id love for the clippers to lose their players and coach because of sterling. sponsers would walk, and ballmer could rescind his $2B deal after the teams value tanks. he could offer instead just 10% of that price -- a slap in the face to sterling, and the nba. the clippers could take over their roll as the clippers and re-become a farm team for the rest of the nba featuring late lotto picks and d league-ers. i'de like to see sterling get his 2.5 to 5 Billion then.

Sterling doesn't care about 2 billion, the difference between 50 million and 2 billion to Sterling is nothing. Right now everything he doing is purely to spite the NBA.

wait. what? 50 million? i was referencing this which i thought was common knowledge by now...

LOS ANGELES -- Donald Sterling said Tuesday he believes his wife, Shelly Sterling, is only selling the Los Angeles Clippers because she is "terrified and frightened of this NBA" and that if he were to sell the franchise, he could get $2.5 billion to $5 billion because of a boom in media-rights fees.

"Do you think Microsoft is foolish? Do you think they don't think and wonder where they're going to get the money back?" Sterling asked during a contentious hourlong testimony in a Los Angeles probate court. "There's no ego involved here. There's tremendous opportunity."

The difference between 2 billion and 2.5 billion is bigger than 50 million. Try 500 million. Ya, even billionaires like Sterling know the value of 500 million. And that is the minimum Sterling thinks he could have gotten it for. The point I was trying to make is if Sterling is the one trying to make the sale, there is no way his franchise will be worth even close to that amount due to what his face does to its value. (not an ugly joke BTW).

It's like scoffing at a title loan place who will "only" give you 10 grand for your car and telling them, "I'll sell it to a dealership for at least 25-250% more." But on your way, you back into a pylon, drive through a river, and find some way to do serious mechanical damage.

This is why I want to see what kind of chaos Sterling could do not just to the NBA, but to himself too. As much fun as I have had seeing the Clippers play better than the Lakers, this downward spiral of a franchise/owner could be epic.

You don't understand my point, I know the difference between 500 million and 50 million. What I'm saying is the Sterling doesn't care if the clippers lose all of it's value and sells it for less then 100 million. He's a man who will be dead in 5 years and already has a money he could ever spend. He's not doing this for the money, he doesn't care about the money. He's doing it to smear the NBA.

[G R E Y]

Seems like Sterling's MO is to appear willing to compromise at times so as to make it seem that something may be worked out in terms of a private sale, but really these keep delaying the process of doing so. The end game seems to be to get the process to the Sept. 15 BOG meeting at which point they'll vote to take over and sell the team. Then Sterling's suit(s) against the NBA will go forward. All else are stalling tactics.

He's been losing arguments against his wife's legal team in court, so hopefully the judge rules in her favour and the team is sold. If not, and this keeps going, it will have a seriously damaging fallout for the Clippers, and by extension, the league. Probably another couple of benefits in Sterling's eyes.

Is it any wonder the NBA didn't try to throw him out before despite knowing how he was? The guy's 80, diagnosed with Alzheimer's and cancer, yet relentless. Imagine him 15-20 years ago...

Anyway, here's the latest:

Donald Sterling files a new lawsuit

LOS ANGELES -- Donald Sterling filed a suit in Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon seeking damages from the NBA, commissioner Adam Silver and his wife Shelly Sterling, alleging they defrauded him and violated corporate law in attempting to sell the franchise to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Sterling asked for an injunction to freeze the $2 billion sale, arguing that his wife had no authority to sell the franchise because he is the sole owner and shareholder of the corporation which owns the Clippers, after he revoked the Sterling Family Trust on June 9.

Shelly Sterling's attorney, Pierce O'Donnell, called the latest lawsuit "a frivolous, last-ditch act of desperation by a delusional, bitter man" who is "obsessed with ruining a record-setting $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers -- a sale that would solve the problems his racist rant started three months ago."

It is not known whether the judge in probate court will seek to consolidate this lawsuit with the current trial.

"I think you're looking at some time into the future," Samini said when asked when Tuesday's lawsuit could be resolved. "Could you get to trial in six to eight months? In a perfect world, it's possible, but you're looking at a year or so before you have a trial on that issue. ... We're not working on deadlines."

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/11249995/donald-sterling-sues-nba-wife-shelly-sterling-adam-silver-lac-basketball-club-damages

[blizzard]

Hope Sterling keeps the team only to end up losing all his players, all the fan support and all the reasons to be in a big market like Los Angeles.
Greatest karma ever.

Meanwhile I hope the Lakers will be this bad for decades, and generations will remember them as a mediorcre franchise.

[DwnShft2Xcelr8]

Hope Sterling keeps the team only to end up losing all his players, all the fan support and all the reasons to be in a big market like Los Angeles.
Greatest karma ever.

Meanwhile I hope the Lakers will be this bad for decades, and generations will remember them as a mediorcre franchise.

Lol
This guy.
While I'm concerned about a racist owning a franchise in a large market and tainting the rest of the league, you're mad at the Lakers for not being as sh*tty as the team you root for.
Great priorities, brah.

[blizzard]

Hope Sterling keeps the team only to end up losing all his players, all the fan support and all the reasons to be in a big market like Los Angeles.
Greatest karma ever.

Meanwhile I hope the Lakers will be this bad for decades, and generations will remember them as a mediorcre franchise.

Lol
This guy.
While I'm concerned about a racist owning a franchise in a large market and tainting the rest of the league, you're mad at the Lakers for not being as sh*tty as the team you root for.
Great priorities, brah.

All sane people hate Sterling and his racist comments, and besides, I'm not a Clippers fan. Just annoyed by the incredibly arrogant and butthurt Laker trolls who pollute the GB with their mean spirited, arrogant BS. That's all. Enjoy being mediocre for the next couple of years, troll.