{"id":16257,"date":"2014-06-10T21:41:10","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T03:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=16257"},"modified":"2014-06-10T21:42:40","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T03:42:40","slug":"sterling-changes-mind-will-fight-for-clippers-sue-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/sterling-changes-mind-will-fight-for-clippers-sue-nba\/","title":{"rendered":"Sterling changes mind &#8212; will fight for Clippers, sue NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) &#8212; Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling will not support the sale of the team and will go forward with a federal lawsuit against the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>Sterling&#8217;s attorney on Monday said his client would not approve the $2 billion sale to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer &#8212; a deal brokered by his wife, Shelly, a trustee of the team.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Sterling agreed to the sale and agreed to drop his $1 billion lawsuit. The 80-year-old billionaire real estate investor changed his mind after being informed that the National Basketball Association would not revoke his lifetime ban from the league and $2.5 million fine levied after a recording of racist comments he made to his girlfriend was made public. In the recorded conversation and in subsequent interviews, Sterling also mentioned Jewish issues.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and others involved in the sale and the lawsuit obtained and published Monday by ESPN, Sterling said he was &#8220;extremely sorry for the hurtful statements I made privately. I made those statements in anger and out of jealousy all in the context of a private conversation. While this is not an excuse for the statements, like every other American, I never imagined that my private conversation would be made public.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The action taken by Adam Silver and the NBA constitutes a violation of my rights and fly in the face of the freedoms that are afforded to all Americans,&#8221; wrote Sterling, who is Jewish. &#8220;I love the team and have dedicated 33 years of my life to the organization. I intend to fight to keep the team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The sale of the Clippers would be the highest price ever paid for an NBA team. In 1981, Sterling paid $12.5 million for the then-San Diego Clippers.<\/p>\n<p>Under terms of the deal, Shelly Sterling would be allowed to run a charitable foundation funded by 10 percent of the team&#8217;s sale, with Ballmer having the right to buy back the shares upon her death, according to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>Three-quarters of the league\u2019s 29 owners must approve the sale to Ballmer.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Sterling%20changes%20mind%20--%20will%20fight%20for%20Clippers%2C%20sue%20NBA\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1491],"tags":[5331,5332,5333,1961,5540],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16257"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16260,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16257\/revisions\/16260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}