One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Donald Sterling And NBA Settle Lawsuit Over Clippers Sale
Team owner Donald Sterling of the Los Angeles Clippers and V. Stiviano at the 2013 NBA Playoffs at AT&T Center on May 19, 2013 in San Antonio, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
By Oren Peleg
Former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has agreed to settle his lawsuit with the NBA over the 2014 sale of the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
According to the L.A Times, Sterling filed the lawsuit in 2014 alleging that the NBA, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, and others (including Sterling's estranged wife Shelley Sterling) had conspired to remove Sterling as the team’s owner. According to ESPN, Sterling filed an initial $600 million antitrust lawsuit in 2014, which was dismissed by a judge in March 2016. Despite U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin's stated skepticism that "Sterling suffered any injury at all, let alone an antitrust injury," Sterling appealed the dismissal.
No details of the settlement have been made available.
Sterling “is happy with the outcome of the settlement," Sterling’s attorney Bobby Samini told LAist. Samini noted that the voluntary dismissal of the suit was filed on Friday, and at all related lawsuits were dismissed as well.
“Finally, in the third season of Steve Ballmer's ownership of the Clippers, the last piece of litigation is mercifully over,” Pierce O’Donnell, an attorney representing Shelley Sterling, wrote in a statement to the Times. “Donald's quixotic legal challenge to the record-shattering $2 billion sale was doomed from the very outset. Now all of us fans—Shelly Sterling being the No. 1 fan—can focus on cheering the Clippers to their first NBA championship."
We reached out to the NBA for comment but didn't immediately hear back.
Sponsored message
Sterling was banned for life from the league after an audio recording of him making racist comments surfaced in 2014.
In other news, the Clippers will play the Kings tonight in Sacramento.
Oren Peleg is a writer in Los Angeles. He also contributes to The Jewish Journal, Render Media, and Eater LA.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
