Embattled Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has surrendered control of the NBA club to his estranged wife Shelly, who is in talks with the league to sell the team, according to media reports Friday.
Celebrity gossip website TMZ reported Sterling, banned for life from the NBA this month by league commissioner Adam Silver for racist comments that have damaged the league, realized the league would force him to sell eventually, citing unnamed sources close to the Clippers organization.
The move would allow Shelly Sterling and her attorneys to control some terms of the sale, as she was not banned by the league.
TMZ reported Shelly Sterling, who has a secondary ownership stake in the Clippers, is prepared to sue the NBA if the league orders an involuntary sale of the team.
“Shelly Sterling’s preference has always been to find a way to resolve this dispute amicably with the NBA in a mutually satisfactory manner,” TMZ quoted Shelly Sterling attorney Pierce O’Donnell as saying.
ESPN reported that Shelly Sterling was in talks with the league to orchestrate a sale.
The NBA, in a response to the latest reports, would not confirm any talks with her, saying only that it remains on target to conduct a June 3 hearing before league owners at which Donald Sterling could be stripped of the Clippers.
“We continue to follow the process set forth in the NBA constitution regarding termination of the current ownership interests in the Los Angeles Clippers and are proceeding toward a hearing on this matter on June 3,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement.
NBA owners are expected to vote upon Sterling’s fate after the hearing, likely ending his tenure as owner of the Clippers if it gets that far.
Sterling has until Tuesday to make a formal reply to the league’s charges against him.
The league previously has said that while it has no ban on Shelly Sterling, her ownership stake would be terminated if her husband is tossed out as the Clippers owner under terms of the franchise agreement Donald Sterling signed when he bought the club for $12 million in 1981.
The Clippers are valued at nearly $600 million by Forbes magazine and could fetch substantially more given the publicity and potential bidders could include Magic Johnson, Oprah Winfrey and unbeaten boxer Floyd Mayweather.
Shelly Sterling has more leverage against Donald Sterling than the league, given the potential for obtaining property in a potential divorce.
While ESPN reported the NBA has not agreed to any Shelly Sterling-orchestrated deal just yet, such a move could produce a quick settlement to the scandal that would give the league faster closer than a potentially messy court trial and enable the Sterlings to profit from the asset of the club, a long-time loser coming off the winningest regular season in team history.
Assessing fair market value for the team could be a sticking point, as a deal would have to satisfy the Sterlings and the league and any new owner would have to be approved by other league club owners not just win a bidding war for the Clippers.
The mess began a month ago when TMZ posted a recording of Donald Sterling saying he did not want his girlfriend bringing black people to Clippers games or posting photos on social media of herselves with black people.
Sterling later apologized, said he had made a “terrible mistake” and the 80-year-old real estate tycoon claimed he was goaded into making the comments as he was trying to seduce the woman, known only as V. Stiviano.
But Silver has started proceedings to have Sterling stripped of ownership of the club for causing the league substantial damage through his original comments and later remarks, saying they have undermined the NBA’s relationships with financial backers, fans and the public.
Clippers players wore their jerseys backwards during a warm-up session before a playoff game to protest Sterling’s comments and other NBA players have said there is no place in the NBA for Sterling and would consider a boycott if he remains in charge of the Clippers when the new season begins in five months.
The Clippers, with the Sterling controversy a major distraction, lost to Oklahoma City in the second round of the NBA playoffs.
Clippers coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers said it would be “hard” for players to accept Shelly Sterling as an owner of the Clippers herself, fearing that she is not as estranged from her husband as she might want people to believe and that she would be really running the team as a shadow proxy for Donald Sterling.