NBA commissioner Adam Silver said yesterday he was baffled by the latest attack on the league and himself from embattled Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
Speaking in a TV interview from Game 3 of the NBA championship finals in Miami, Silver said the league has no role in the brewing dispute between Donald Sterling and his wife, Shelly, who has negotiated a proposed US$2 billion sale of the club to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.
Donald Sterling, who was facing the prospect of being stripped of the club over racially charged remarks he made to a girlfriend that became public in April, had said he would go along with the deal, but on Monday changed course and said he would fight it.
Donald Sterling is also pursuing a US$1 billion lawsuit against the NBA and Silver, and in his latest broadside issued on Tuesday through a lawyer said the league was violating his rights “in order to draw attention away from their own discriminatory and repulsive conduct.”
He also said that he is fighting for the fundamental rights of Americans against the NBA, which he calls “a band of hypocrites and bullies” and “despicable monsters.”
In a statement issued through attorney Bobby Samini and published on Tuesday on the Los Angeles Times Web site, Sterling accuses Silver of ignoring “the NBA’s own discriminatory practices, including those that occurred under his many years of leadership.”
“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Silver said. “This is about Donald Sterling and his conduct, and if he wants to litigate, he’ll litigate.”
Silver banned Donald Sterling for life from the NBA and fined him US$2.5 million when his comments disparaging black people created provoked outrage.
However, proceedings to strip him of the club were halted after Shelly Sterling, acting as the head of the Sterling Family Trust, negotiated the blockbuster deal with Ballmer.
Donald Sterling at one point indicated he would support the sale and drop the US$1 billion lawsuit he filed against the NBA on the same day the deal was announced. However, on Monday he reversed course, reiterating his claim that because the comments were made in a conversation recorded without his permission they could not be the basis for sanctions.
Donald Sterling is reportedly facing a court challenge from his wife, who according to the Los Angeles Times was to ask a judge yesterday to confirm her authority to sell the Clippers.
Donald Sterling’s attorney, Maxwell Blecher, told the newspaper he had been notified by Shelly Sterling’s lawyers that they plan to go to court yesterday to clarify who is in control of the family trust.
“The understanding we have is that she is going to go in and say that he has cognitive impairment that has prevented him from making decisions,” Blecher said. “And that is something we will oppose.”
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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