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The Clippers may finally have a new owner in former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who is reportedly paying a cool $2 billion for the team. Hopefully, the former owner and racist Donald Sterling will find he has enough paper bills to satisfactorily dry his tears with, or perhaps shove into a pile on which to wallow. What a consolation prize.
Ballmer, 58, was the chief executive of Microsoft for 14 years. He has an estimated net worth of $20 billion, L.A. Times reports.
So while Ballmer's winning bid may not be a huge chunk of change for him, it is pretty high as far as basketball teams go. It's nearly four times higher than any previous sale of an NBA franchise. It's the second highest price paid ever for a sports team, coming in under the Dodgers 2012 sale for $2.1 billion.
In order for the sale to be finalized, Sterling has to give his blessing to his wife and Clippers co-owner Shelly Sterling, who is handling the sale. Sterling has been back and forth on the issue since the scandal begin, even though he's already been banned from the NBA for life.
Recently, he called out Orlando Magic owner Rich DeVos for his 2009 comments against gay marriage, wondering why the Amway mogul from Michigan wasn't getting the same kind of flak.
The deal must also be approved by the other NBA owners, but as long as Ballmer agrees to not move the team to Seattle, they're expected to give him the okay.
While nothing has been finalized and there are still admittedly interested parties other than Ballmer, Shelly Sterling is expected to close a deal by Friday, TMZ reports.
