Welcome To The Donald Sterling Show!

erikthredd

There's a new show coming to Hulu called Clipped that's about Donald Sterling and the Clippers. Ed O'Niell will play Sterling and Laurence Fishburne will play Doc Rivers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPIcQNMQchQ

Guy gets his team taken away, now he gets to watch Al Bundy show the world how racist he really is 🤣Let's Rock!

SanctionII

Donald Sterling was a long time practicing attorney working in So. Cal. He handled real property cases, including landlord tenant matters and other cases involving contracts. His legal experience came into play when he purchased the Clippers in the early to mid 1980's and moved the team from San Diego to LA.

It is my understanding that he purchased the team for about $10,000,000.00. As part of his purchase he agreed to assume unpaid debts of about $7,000,000.00 owed by the Clippers to various creditors. This assumption of about $7,000,000.00 in debt was part of the $10,000,000.00 sale price of the team. Thus he actually only had to come up with about $3,000,000.00 to purchase the team.

It is my understanding that after the purchase of the team was completed, Mr. Sterling began the process of resolving the $7,000,000.00 in assumed debt by negotiating with the creditors. Instead of the creditors choosing to go through the process of suing on the unpaid debt and then trying to collect any judgment that the creditors obtained, the creditors agreed to settle for amount that was much less than the $7,000,000.00 balance owed.

As a result the true purchase price actually paid was less than $10,000,000.00.

Once Mr. Sterling became the owner of the Clippers he operated the team in a manner where it always was one of the least successful teams. When the team ended up with very good players, they were traded away to other teams instead of being signed to expensive contracts.

Mr. Sterling attempted to become part of the "in crowd" in So. Cal., attending Clipper games with his group of friends and groupies. He was married, but sought the attention and company of younger women.

When David Stern stepped down and new commissioner Adam Silver took over, the Donald Sterling fiasco erupted. Silver was faced with a problem posed by an owner (Sterling) who was viewed as "not worthy" of being in the ownership club. Silver (and some owners of other teams) ended up deciding that Sterling had to go. The documents governing the operation of the league has language in it that was relied upon by Silver to support the position that Sterling had to go. Sterling was banned from appearing at NBA games and from participating in other NBA activities. He still had ownership rights.

I understand that eventually Mr. Sterling's wife jumped into the dispute. Mr. Sterling was in his early 80's (I think) and was claimed to have suffered a decline in his mental faculties. His wife initiated court proceedings in LA Superior Court seeking judicial relief against her husband (possibly a conservatorship of Mr. Sterling and/or of his estate). The outcome of these court proceedings was that Mr. Sterling's wife was given the authority to act on her husband's behalf. She then proceeded with entering into and closing a sale of the Clippers to the current owner (Steve Balmer of Microsoft fame).

Al Bundy playing Donald Sterling will be fun to watch.