NBA statement on sale of Clippers to Steve Ballmer
By Mike Dyce
News broke Thursday evening that the Sterlings had sold the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The NBA released the following statement from Mike Bass, Executive Vice President, Communications, regarding the proposed sale of the Los Angeles Clippers:
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“Commissioner Silver has consistently said the preferred outcome to the Clippers proceeding would be a voluntary sale of the team. Shelly Sterling advised the NBA last night that an agreement had been reached with Steve Ballmer, and the NBA Advisory/Finance Committee met via conference call this morning to discuss these developments. We await the submission of necessary documentation from Mrs. Sterling. In the meantime, the June 3 special meeting of the NBA Board of Governors remains as scheduled.”
It sounds like there is a bit of skepticism coming from Silver’s office regarding the sale. They acknowledge that there is an agreement in place, but noted that the documentation hadn’t been submitted yet. Not too surprising considering that the agreement was reached less than 24 hours ago.
As a back up plan incase something falls through, the NBA is still going forward with the June 3 special meeting of the NBA Board of Governors. That way if something falls apart or comes up, everyone is still on course to meet. The last thing they’d want to do is call the meeting off, have something happen and then scramble to get everyone back together.
We’ll see how long this process takes before it becomes official, surely the NBA would like to expedite the process and help it along.