Shelly Sterling, Steve Ballmer meet about Los Angeles Clippers sale
By Josh Sanchez
Donald Sterling has signed the Los Angeles Clippers over to his wife, Shelly, and now she will be responsible for facilitating the sale of the team.
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On Sunday, Shelly Sterling began her quest to sell the team by meeting with a potential buyer.
According to reports, Sterling is meeting with Steve Ballmer, who is the CEO of technology giant Microsoft.
From the TMZ report:
"Shelly Sterling will meet with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Sunday afternoon … and the subject of the meeting is selling the Clippers … TMZ Sports has learned.The meeting will take place at Shelly’s Malibu mansion. TMZ Sports broke the story … Donald Sterling has surrendered control of the team to Shelly.We’re told Shelly sees the handwriting on the wall — the NBA wants the team sold — but she wants to do it on her terms. She and her lawyer, Pierce O’Donnell, have been secretly meeting with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to see if they can reach an agreement whereby Shelly has the right to voluntarily sell the team."
If you recall, Ballmer was one of the men interested in purchasing the Sacramento Kings a year ago and moving them to Seattle so Clippers fans may be concerned that he could attempt to move their team.
Don’t you worry.
Ballmer has previously said that if he buys a team moving forward that he will not have any plans of moving them because he has more flexibility than he did when he considered buying the Kings.
“If I get interested in the Clippers, it would be for Los Angeles,” Ballmer told the Wall Street Journal. “I don’t work anymore, so I have more geographic flexibility than I did a year, year-and-a half ago. Moving them anywhere else would be value destructive.”
The Clippers will demand attention from a lot of potential buyers, so Ballmer would have plenty of competition if he wants the team.
While we will have to wait to see who the new owner of the Clippers will be when the Sterlings turn over the team, we do know that the Sterlings will be receiving a boatload of money.