When all made a collective sigh of relief over beleaguered entrepreneur Donald Sterling finally approving the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers, a press release sent from his camp indicated that the sports saga is far yet from over.
Yahoo was among the recipients of a press release dated June 10 by Sterling insisting that he will not be selling the Clippers. In the document, Sterling now accused the National Basketball Association of violating his rights to privacy and freedom of speech.
"The NBA continues to thrive and exact its reign of terror in large part from the money it receives from the Fans. The NBA is a band of hypocrites and bullies. They will not stop until someone stands up. The have taken the liberty to desecrate my privacy rights and my right to own property. I have no doubt that they will continue to find new ways to violate my rights and the rights of any other person in order to draw attention away from their own discriminatory and repulsive conduct," Sterling charged.
Yahoo said that the sports league has decided to punish Sterling not because of his racist behavior, but his actions that had cost the private NBA league money. Citing an earlier case filed by the US Department of Justice against him for housing discrimination, the news outlet said that former commissioner David Stern and the group of basketball team owners looked the other way as his actions had no financial effect on the league. However, Sterling's controversial remarks regarding minorities, and especially on a highly-regarded Hall of Famer, had cost the league sponsorship money and drawn attention away from the NBA's money-drawing activities, which led to the league to impose punishment and conduct other legal actions according to the NBA constitution.
On the other hand, Sterling will expect a fight from none other than his wife, Shelly, who had negotiated the $2 billion sales agreement to former Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer. According to the Associated Press, a source confirmed Shelly's attorney's efforts to seek an emergency order on Wednesday that would ensure that the sale of the Clippers to Ballmer would go through without a hitch.
Moreover, Yahoo said that Sterling's latest press release has launched an owner termination hearing that support's Shelly's latest reported efforts for the sales agreement to push through, NBA.com said.
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