Moments before NBA commissioner announced that Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling had been banned for life from the league, Sterling spoke on the phone with Fox News contributor and veteran sportscaster Jim Gray. Sterling’s message to Gray: the Clippers are not for sale.
“I just spoke with Donald Sterling on the telephone just moments ago,” Gray said on Fox News’ “The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson” a few minutes before Silver made his announcement. “He is unaware of what is going to happen to him. He has not been notified. He also said that he really didn’t want to comment on the record. However, the team is not for sale and he will not be selling the team.”
At his press conference Tuesday afternoon, Silver also announced that he would urge the league’s board of governors to force a sale of the team. The league would need to get 3/4 of the team owners to vote to strip Sterling of his ownership.
During his appearance on Fox, Gray said Sterling asked him to read the press coverage of his own fate.
“[H]e is unaware of what Adam Silver, the commissioner, plans to do,” Gray said. “In fact, he asked me, and I read him the TMZ report.”
OK so if the owners vote to ‘strip’ Sterling of his franchise, does that mean he loses everything, he no longer has a franchise to sell? Or are they mandating that he sell it and the league operates the franchise in the interim?
I guess if won’t sell the team maybe that means he’ll be giving it away. How kind of him.
Anyone want to bet he assumed that he was going to get away with this and not face anything harsher than a mild slap on the wrist?
If he thought he was going to get away with making such comments once they emerged, he was an idiot. It’s hard to think of an organization less able to offend African Americans than the NBA. Basic business strategy dictates this clown has got to go.
IANAL-- but IMO-- the NBA will give Sterling the opportunity to sell within a timeframe.
Once up? They will strip him of the franchise-- sell it and render the proceeds.
jw1