Shelly Sterling has decided that she is not willing to give up her portion of the Clippers ownership and has already hired an attorney to fight for her stake in the organization.
Shelly has been co-owner of the Clippers since Donald first purchased the franchise in 1981 and is one of two alternate governors of the franchise. The other would be team president Andy Roeser who began his indefinite leave of absence earlier this week.
Shelly has hired attorney Pierce O'Donnell to represent her in this case and O'Donell has already come out to say his client, Shelly Sterling, will fight to retain her ownership stake in the Los Angeles Clippers.
Clippers head coach Doc Rivers was asked how he felt about Shelly retaining her ownership of the franchise. Rivers said that "I think it would be a very hard situation, I'll say that much. I think it would be very difficult. I guarantee you every person wouldn't be on board with it. Whether I would or not, I'm not going to say, I just know that would be a very difficult situation for everybody."
Rivers said that allowing Shelly to retain her ownership would be difficult because of her relationship with Donald "because we wouldn't know who was really in charge."
Rivers wouldn't elaborate too much further than that since he is in the middle of a playoff series against NBA MVP Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
This has the possibility of turning into an even uglier situation than it has already been for the NBA. The commissioner and the rest of the owners need to settle this problem fast.
The NBA players were already planning a walk-out on the NBA's biggest stage, the playoffs, but didn't feel the need to after Sterling was banned for life. However, if a Sterling family member is still the owner once this is all said and done then it would still be a possibility that the players fulfill their previous plan.
The NBA reportedly believes that they have enough legal ground to force Donald Sterling to sell his franchise based on multiple contracts Sterling made with the NBA, including agreeing that an owner will not take any position or action that will materially and adversely affect a team or the league, and clearly he broke that contract.
Sterling also signed moral clauses, which state that each owner will be held to the highest standards of ethical and moral behavior.
As long as the board of governors can influence 75% of the owners in the NBA that Sterling broke these contracts then the NBA will be getting rid of such a black eye to the league. That should be the easy part since all of the owners across the NBA have already come out to support NBA commissioner Adam Silver's decision to force Sterling out of the ownership group.
So getting rid of Donald should be the easy part, barring any judicial setbacks since he is an attorney that loves courtroom debates. Shelly Sterling on the other hand, may be the real thorn in the NBA's side when it comes to getting new ownership for the Los Angeles Clippers.
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