NBA approves Ballmer's bid to buy Clippers

[Spectrum]

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/...es-steve-ballmer-bid-buy-los-angeles-clippers

The NBA has approved former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's $2 billion bid to buy the Los Angeles Clippers, the league said in a statement Friday night.

The sale is subject to approval from the league's owners before it can be finalized.

Tuesday's scheduled NBA Board of Governors meeting has been canceled. Shelly Sterling had pushed to negotiate a sale before the meeting, at which both of the Sterlings' ownership interests could have been terminated.

As part of the sale agreement, Shelly Sterling and the Sterling family trust have agreed not to sue the NBA. Shelly's husband, Donald, is filing a $1 billion lawsuit against the league, his lawyer told ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne earlier Friday.

 

[jasonblacc]

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/...es-steve-ballmer-bid-buy-los-angeles-clippers

The NBA has approved former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's $2 billion bid to buy the Los Angeles Clippers, the league said in a statement Friday night.

The sale is subject to approval from the league's owners before it can be finalized.

Tuesday's scheduled NBA Board of Governors meeting has been canceled. Shelly Sterling had pushed to negotiate a sale before the meeting, at which both of the Sterlings' ownership interests could have been terminated.

As part of the sale agreement, Shelly Sterling and the Sterling family trust have agreed not to sue the NBA. Shelly's husband, Donald, is filing a $1 billion lawsuit against the league, his lawyer told ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne earlier Friday.

And this was all it was about

 

[Maxxam]

And this was all it was about

The end result is still the same... Sterling had to go. He knows that vote would have gone against him.

 

[HotSauce161]

And this was all it was about

"Because of the binding agreement to sell the team, the NBA termination hearing that had been scheduled for June 3 in New York City has now been cancelled. Mrs. Sterling and the Trust also agreed not to sue the NBA and to indemnify the NBA against lawsuits from others, including from Donald Sterling."

http://www.nba.com/2014/news/05/30/nba-sterlings-announce-settlement/index.html

A With the sale - they are out
B With the hearing - they are out

They went with A

 

[ballscout1]

Report: Donald Sterling ruled ‘mentally incapacitated,’ removed from power

Clippers owner Donald Sterling was recently declared “mentally incapacitated” by experts, according to ESPN.com. ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne reports the disgraced Clippers owner was ruled mentally unfit to negotiate the sale of the team, leading his wife, Shelly, to be declared the sole trustee of the family’s trust. On Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reportedly signed a $2 billion agreement to buy the Clippers from the Sterlings. The bid will be submitted to the NBA for final approval, but does not need confirmation from Donald Sterling due to his mental condition

Ramona Shelburne ✔ @ramonashelburne
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The Sterling Family Trust had rules & guidelines about mental incapacitation. Very recently, Donald was found by experts to be incapacitated


10:07 PM - 29 May 2014


570 Retweets 121 favorites

Ramona Shelburne ✔ @ramonashelburne
Follow
There could still be a response by Donald Sterling & his lawyers, but his first action would be to contest Shelly's move, not NBA now.

SI.com’s Michael McCann reported Thursday that the NBA could fast track the sale of the Clippers if it has a “favorable impression” about a prospective owner. Ballmer would seem to fit the criteria, having made a record offer and being previously vetted by the NBA in an attempt to buy the Kings. McCann also reports that the league could postpone Tuesday’s owners meeting, which is set to hold a vote on the ousting of Clippers owner Donald Sterling. From McCann:


Sources tell SI.com that the NBA’s top priority is for ownership to be transferred, and the league would welcome the exchange occurring voluntarily. A voluntary transfer would avert a potentially contentious hearing next Tuesday and, more importantly, avert the potential of Sterling filing a costly and lengthy lawsuit against the NBA and its owners.

Sterling, 80, has owned the Clippers for 33 years, making him the NBA’s longest-tenured owner. But the NBA recently initiated a charge to terminate his ownership, outlining a list of actions that have have “damaged and continue to damage the NBA and its teams” while also listing off a series of negative impacts on the league. The NBA is taking issue with Sterling for the following reasons:
•Disparaging African-Americans and minorities.
•Directing a female acquaintance not to associate publicly with African-Americans or to bring African-Americans to Clippers games.
•Criticizing African-Americans for not supporting their communities.

The first two items relate to comments made by Sterling to his girlfriend, V. Stiviano, in a private tape that was released by TMZ. The third item relates to comments made during an interview with CNN this month. The NBA is listing the following impacts of Sterling’s comments and behavior:
•Significantly undermining the NBA’s efforts to promote diversity and inclusion.
•Damaging the NBA’s relationship with its fans.
•Harming NBA owners, players and Clippers team personnel.
•Impairing the NBA’s relationship with marketing and merchandising partners, as well as with government and community leaders.


http://nba.si.com/2014/05/29/donald-sterling-mentally-incapacitated-clippers/

 

[jasonblacc]

"Because of the binding agreement to sell the team, the NBA termination hearing that had been scheduled for June 3 in New York City has now been cancelled. Mrs. Sterling and the Trust also agreed not to sue the NBA and to indemnify the NBA against lawsuits from others, including from Donald Sterling."

http://www.nba.com/2014/news/05/30/nba-sterlings-announce-settlement/index.html

A With the sale - they are out
B With the hearing - they are out

They went with A

Didnt want to expose those owners

 

[largebillsonlyplease]

Didnt want to expose those owners

yup
especially mark cuban.

wouldn't be surprised if they are the ones that facilitated and pushed the sale.. and probably told dude to bid that high to get a guarantee approval
while also making their clubs worth more money because of it

and they don't have to expose themselves. they win

 

[alexw]

man the more i read this, the more i realized that old racist ass jew was set up

i just find it surprising that all of a sudden he has cancer, Alzheimers, and a host of other shit where his mental capacity is now questioned

fuck outta here

 

[playahaitian]

yup
especially mark cuban.

wouldn't be surprised if they are the ones that facilitated and pushed the sale.. and probably told dude to bid that high to get a guarantee approval
while also making their clubs worth more money because of it

and they don't have to expose themselves. they win

OK this was the explanation I was waiting for.

I want to see how this is gonna be reported this weekend and if ANYONE has the balls to say the real.

 

[jasonblacc]

yup
especially mark cuban.

wouldn't be surprised if they are the ones that facilitated and pushed the sale.. and probably told dude to bid that high to get a guarantee approval
while also making their clubs worth more money because of it

and they don't have to expose themselves. they win

Has to be.......in the last 4 years 5 teams have been sold and none were sold for even close to that much. If Steve Balmer wanted to be part of the NBA that bad he could have bid 800 mill on the bucks and won.

 

[Maxxam]

Can the Clipper fan come out now? He has his freedom papers.

 

[jasonblacc]

man the more i read this, the more i realized that old racist ass jew was set up

i just find it surprising that all of a sudden he has cancer, Alzheimers, and a host of other shit where his mental capacity is now questioned

fuck outta here

who do you believe set him up, and why? Wife, NBA etc.....

 

[alexw]

who do you believe set him up, and why? Wife, NBA etc.....

read bills last post

 

[Spectrum]

man the more i read this, the more i realized that old racist ass jew was set up

i just find it surprising that all of a sudden he has cancer, Alzheimers, and a host of other shit where his mental capacity is now questioned

fuck outta here

I can't quite put my finger on it but something is just wrong. I'm not talking about the shit he did. He's a definitely a fucking racist.

But something just seems odd about the average team being worth 500 million, the Knicks being valued for 1.1 Billion last year and then the Clippers going for 2 Billion! They may be in a large market but they're one of the worst franchises in the history of U.S. sports and they don't even have their own stadium.

This transaction adds 100s of millions of dollars in value to every NBA team.

 

[alexw]

I can't quite put my finger on it but something is just wrong. I'm not talking about the shit he did. He's a definitely a fucking racist.

But something just seems odd about the average team being worth 500 million, the Knicks being valued for 1.1 Billion last year and then the Clippers going for 2 Billion! They may be in a large market but they're one of the worst franchises in the history of U.S. sports and they don't even have their own stadium.

This transaction adds 100s of millions of dollars in value to every NBA team.

man all of this is questionable

even the phone calls where she set him up

im just wondering if the powers that be wanted to make sure the clippers would be competitive in the future. (the two powerhouse teams in la = $$$$$)

clearly the sterling family doesnt have a clue and with his health deteriorating they found a way to get him out

but something isnt right about all of this

something seems sinister

 

[HotSauce161]

I can't quite put my finger on it but something is just wrong. I'm not talking about the shit he did. He's a definitely a fucking racist.

But something just seems odd about the average team being worth 500 million, the Knicks being valued for 1.1 Billion last year and then the Clippers going for 2 Billion! They may be in a large market but they're one of the worst franchises in the history of U.S. sports and they don't even have their own stadium.

This transaction adds 100s of millions of dollars in value to every NBA team.

It's been discussed ad naseum in some of the other Clip threads:
An LA team is like getting a unicorn.
-Add in the fact that the Clips are due to sign a new tv contract in a few years.
-Add to the fact that the NBA is preparing to get a new tv contract.
The team prints money. Buy and hold it and you will make your money back and then profit for years to come.

 

[Amajorfucup]

If I own a NBA franchise. Im calling around looking for investors and partners after this nonsense while the getting is good. Im selling 49% of my club and cashing out at about half bill cash while maintaining majority share..

 

[HotSauce161]

man all of this is questionable

even the phone calls where she set him up

im just wondering if the powers that be wanted to make sure the clippers would be competitive in the future. (the two powerhouse teams in la = $$$$$)

clearly the sterling family doesnt have a clue and with his health deteriorating they found a way to get him out

but something isnt right about all of this

something seems sinister

Conspiracy?
How about Sterling just put his foot in his mouth at the wrong time and the League was all too happy to finally have an excuse to get rid of him?

 

[Spectrum]

It's been discussed ad naseum in some of the other Clip threads:
An LA team is like getting a unicorn.
-Add in the fact that the Clips are due to sign a new tv contract in a few years.
-Add to the fact that the NBA is preparing to get a new tv contract.
The team prints money. Buy and hold it and you will make your money back and then profit for years to come.

It was discussed in the other threads I created. I've seen the arguments but those aren't great arguments.

The Clippers might spin off 20 million in profits at best annually. That's nothing for a business valued at 2 billion. So the profitability side is not really the good arguments. They don't print that kind of money.

They don't have the brand value of the Lakers... don't even have their own stadium.

I'm actually not even buying that despite it not making the most financial sense that Ballmer still won't eventually try to move the team to Seattle.

He's not in this for the money, obviously.

 

[REDLINE]

man the more i read this, the more i realized that old racist ass jew was set up

i just find it surprising that all of a sudden he has cancer, Alzheimers, and a host of other shit where his mental capacity is now questioned

fuck outta here

We all know ain't nothing wrong with sterling, he walks around saying "FUCK DAT BITCH" all day and now they think he's crazy

 

[largebillsonlyplease]

I can't quite put my finger on it but something is just wrong. I'm not talking about the shit he did. He's a definitely a fucking racist.

But something just seems odd about the average team being worth 500 million, the Knicks being valued for 1.1 Billion last year and then the Clippers going for 2 Billion! They may be in a large market but they're one of the worst franchises in the history of U.S. sports and they don't even have their own stadium.

This transaction adds 100s of millions of dollars in value to every NBA team.

man all of this is questionable

even the phone calls where she set him up

im just wondering if the powers that be wanted to make sure the clippers would be competitive in the future. (the two powerhouse teams in la = $$$$$)

clearly the sterling family doesnt have a clue and with his health deteriorating they found a way to get him out

but something isnt right about all of this

something seems sinister

The chick that set him up is setup in way too many power circles and has way too many connections to be a random run of the mill type chick that happened to get those tapes.

2 things happened

1, they heard ALL of those tapes, they got a hold of them and destroyed the rest of the ones.. we will never hear him name drop important influential people who's images will be crushed.

remember on the leaked ones he was mentioning how it wasn't him, this is how it is.. and how it looked to his friends and how they laughed cause she was seen with black dudes..

who are his friends?

2. they have been on the phones since the moment a vote was brought up, it was nothing more than a bluff.. i believe they have been trying to get someone in the game to get the clippers as soon as the shit dropped they knew he had to go. they were all going to be exposed 1 way or another.

The guy that bought the team has been trying to get a team but he never put up no $2 billion dollars, if he had.. he would've had whatever team he bid on. Suddenly he's willing to part with $2 billion dollars.. and it didn't take them the usual month to approve the sale, it's been a matter of hours, and days before they had to vote.

im not even connecting random dots or reaching, the timeline is laid out.

It appears sterling was the in case of emergency break glass owner. They could dump him and get him out and it would look righteous. I don't know if it was a setup right NOW or if he just got really caught slipping and they just went with the plan they had in place..

It would make sense that Cuban is not down with this because now that Sterling is out, he's probably the new in emergency break glass owner...

 

[alexw]

Conspiracy?
How about Sterling just put his foot in his mouth at the wrong time and the League was all too happy to finally have an excuse to get rid of him?

you could be right but sterling has done worse shit in the past and the nba didnt give one fuck

it just seems weird how everything is unfolding

and usually when that happens, its some bullshit going on

 

[Amajorfucup]

The Clippers might spin off 20 million in profits at best annually. That's nothing for a business valued at 2 billion.

You don't think 100years revenue to match present day valuation is a good investment?

And I thought you knew finance and economics.

 

[largebillsonlyplease]

If I own a NBA franchise. Im calling around looking for investors and partners after this nonsense while the getting is good. Im selling 49% of my club and cashing out at about half bill cash while maintaining majority share..

If you just recently sold a team, you're pissed off because you got hosed essentially.

The owner of the kings and the bucks are dancing in the street.

Guarantee you in the next 16 months and NFL team goes up for sale for the sole purpose of raising the profile of the NFL back up to above basketball.

Maybe they force the bucs family to sell due to glazer dying.

Maybe they force the bills to sell

And a dark horse, maybe they let the shit come to a boil with Snyder in D.C. and let congress get involved and let the attention get to a level where he has no choice but to either change the name or sell the team.. and they get it back that way.

dodgers sold for a billion, clippers sold for 2
nfl is not gonna take that laying down.

 

[HotSauce161]

It was discussed in the other threads I created. I've seen the arguments but those aren't great arguments.

The Clippers might spin off 20 million in profits at best annually. That's nothing for a business valued at 2 billion. So the profitability side is not really the good arguments. They don't print that kind of money.

They don't have the brand value of the Lakers... don't even have their own stadium.

I'm actually not even buying that despite it not making the most financial sense that Ballmer still won't eventually try to move the team to Seattle.

He's not in this for the money, obviously.

???
That's just the 2 tv deals. Then there are the other shared League monies, jersey sales, ticket sales, local sponsorship deals I can keep going.

Owning an LA team is a prestige thing. The major city teams are the rarest of the rare and billionaires covet those kind of things.

It's a part of the deal that the Clips stay in LA so if you mean 20 something years from now he bounces with them to Seattle, sure that may happen but not anytime soon. Not while they are chilling comfortably at Staples. When Staples is run down and outdated and they can't get the City to cough up $ for an new stadium, then he can pull and OKC but not before then. He's already on record saying he has no more ties to Seattle.

 

[Spectrum]

You don't think 100years revenue to match present day valuation is a good investment?

And I thought you knew finance and economics.

"
The most recent NBA sales were the Milwaukee Bucks ($550 million), Kings ($534 million), Memphis Grizzlies ($377 million), New Orleans Pelicans ($340 million), Toronto Raptors (an estimated $400 million as part of the sale of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment) and 76ers ($287 million). All were sold since 2011"

 

[Spectrum]

???
That's just the 2 tv deals. Then there are the other shared League monies, jersey sales, ticket sales, local sponsorship deals I can keep going.

Homie. The Clippers had operating profits of 15 million last year including ALL revenue.

 

[Spectrum]

Owning an LA team is a prestige thing. The major city teams are the rarest of the rare and billionaires covet those kind of things.

.

I can buy this above: irrational exuberance.

It's the only thing that makes sense.

 

[SKATTA]

One jewish hand to another jewish hand.

 

[Spectrum]

If you just recently sold a team, you're pissed off because you got hosed essentially.

.

The distance between the clippers and these other teams is outrageous

""
The most recent NBA sales were the Milwaukee Bucks ($550 million), Kings ($534 million), Memphis Grizzlies ($377 million), New Orleans Pelicans ($340 million), Toronto Raptors (an estimated $400 million as part of the sale of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment) and 76ers ($287 million). All were sold since 2011""

 

[HotSauce161]

you could be right but sterling has done worse shit in the past and the nba didnt give one fuck

it just seems weird how everything is unfolding

and usually when that happens, its some bullshit going on

One word -Stern

Stern was still shook from losing to him in court when Sterling moved the team to LA. He never recovered from that. He always feared Sterling would find a way to beat him if he challenged him again so he never made a move. The new commissioner has no history and no fear of Sterling. He also has momentum due to public opinion and the Union's support. Add to this the new dot com owner's that took the place of a lot of the old time cats who might have let Donald slide - these new guys put up too much $ for there teams to let Sterling screw up their investments.

 

[largebillsonlyplease]

The distance between the clippers and these other teams is outrageous

""
The most recent NBA sales were the Milwaukee Bucks ($550 million), Kings ($534 million), Memphis Grizzlies ($377 million), New Orleans Pelicans ($340 million), Toronto Raptors (an estimated $400 million as part of the sale of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment) and 76ers ($287 million). All were sold since 2011""

Yup you're throwing a lot of champagne around the house mad as fuck you didn't hold on for a couple more years which you could have easily done.

 

[Amajorfucup]

@bills, NFL doesn't need gimmicks to raise their profile. Their the lead dog regardless. However, that sale, even as an outlier, will serve as a comp of sorts for next years Forbes list of pro sports team valuation. Everybody gets a bump. But I am very interested to see what happens with the Bills now.

 

[Better]

The distance between the clippers and these other teams is outrageous

""
The most recent NBA sales were the Milwaukee Bucks ($550 million), Kings ($534 million), Memphis Grizzlies ($377 million), New Orleans Pelicans ($340 million), Toronto Raptors (an estimated $400 million as part of the sale of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment) and 76ers ($287 million). All were sold since 2011""

Daaaaaaaaaaamn!

Ballmer is from Seattle. Chris Hansen was aggressively pursuing a team to bring back to Seattle. To the point that he was even trying to fuck up the King's sale with donations to local politicos.

There is no way in hell Steve Ballmer wants the Clippers THAT badly, unless he feels it was the best chance to bring a team back to Seattle, and repair his image.

Word on the street is, he's not well liked in Seattle right now.

 

[largebillsonlyplease]

@bills, NFL doesn't need gimmicks to raise their profile. Their the lead dog regardless. However, that sale, even as an outlier, will serve as a comp of sorts for next years Forbes list of pro sports team valuation. Everybody gets a bump. But I am very interested to see what happens with the Bills now.

That's true but you know the NFL and the image they like to project. They want strangle hold. They want a team to sell for much more as opposed to just being valued.