Fansided

NBA’s legal strategy to force Donald Sterling to sell Clippers emerges

By Patrick Schmidt

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Apr 29, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Demonstrators hold up signs in front of Staples Center demanding the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers prior to game five of the first round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs. The NBA handed down a lifetime ban on Clippers owner Donald Sterling after it was confirmed that he made racist comments captured on a recording by his girlfriend. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 29, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Demonstrators hold up signs in front of Staples Center demanding the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers prior to game five of the first round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs. The NBA handed down a lifetime ban on Clippers owner Donald Sterling after it was confirmed that he made racist comments captured on a recording by his girlfriend. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports /

It has been a week since the landmark decision by the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver when he announced a lifetime ban and a $2.5 million dollar fine for Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling after his racist comments were revealed after his mistress V. Stiviano who secretly recorded him.

Sterling has been adamant that the Los Angeles Clippers are not for sale and that he intends to fight his removal as owner of the franchise he bought prior to the 1981 season. However, according to Darren Rovell of ESPN, the NBA constitution revealed last Tuesday shows that grounds exist to remove an owner if that owner “fail(s) or refuse(s) to fulfill its contractual obligations to the Association.”

One of the contract obligations signed by Sterling states, “an owner will not take any position or action that will materially and adversely affect a team or the league. Owners also sign morals clauses, which state that they will be upheld to the highest standard of ethical and moral behavior.”

The NBA needs a 75 percent vote to force Sterling to sell the team and there will be no shortage of suitors to purchase the franchise that could sell for upwards of $1 billion.

In the interim, Sterling can drag this process out and take the league to court where they determine if Sterling is in breach of the contract. Further, the NBA said a CEO will assume day-to-day operations of the franchise after team president Andy Roeser takes an indefinite leave of absence.

The Clippers took a 1-0 series lead over the league MVP Kevin Durant and Oklahoma City Thunder with a dominant 122-105 victory on Monday night.

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