Los Angeles Clippers Selling to Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 Billion Pending NBA Approval

 

Los Angeles Clippers Selling to Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 Billion Pending NBA Approval

The selling of NBA franchise, Los Angeles Clippers, has been big talk in the sports world since disgraced owner Donald Sterling was banned for life from the NBA. In the past several weeks, many names have come up as future owners of the Clippers from Magic Johnson to Bill Cosby. However, on Tuesday, Donald Sterling's lawyers released a statement saying that he would fight in courts to keep the team. 

But in the latest twist, it appears that Donald Sterling's wife, Shelly, who owns 50% of the team and in some reports have said Donald gave the team over to sell, has reached an agreement for a new owner/buyer. Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has reportedly gave an offer to buy the Los Angeles Clippers for a staggering $2 billion. 

"I am delighted that we are selling the team to Steve, who will be a terrific owner," Shelly Sterling said (via Variety). "We have worked for 33 years to build the Clippers into a premiere NBA franchise. I am confident that Steve will take the team to new levels of success."

"I will be honored to have my name submitted to the NBA Board of Governors for approval as the next owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. I love basketball," Steve said in a statement. "And I intend to do everything in my power to ensure that the Clippers continue to win - and win big - in Los Angeles. L.A. is one of the world's great cities - a city that embraces inclusiveness, in exactly the same way that the NBA and I embrace inclusiveness. I am confident that the Clippers will in the coming years become an even bigger part of the community. I thank Shelly Sterling for her willingness to entrust the Clippers franchise to me, and I am grateful to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and his colleagues for working collaboratively with me throughout this process."

Ballmer has had interest in being a NBA owner for a long time and wanted to bring a team back to Seattle after the departure of the 2008 departure of the SuperSonics, now the Oklahoma City Thunder. He also went after the Sacramento Kings and move them to Seattle had moved to OKC.

Now, pending the NBA's approval, Ballmer will have his own team finally and plans to keep it in Los Angeles sharing, "If I get interested in the Clippers, it would be for Los Angeles," he told the Wall Street Journal. "I don't work anymore, so I have more geographic flexibility than I did a year, year-and-a half ago. Moving them anywhere else would be value destructive."

Tags : la clippers los angeles clippers steve ballmer steve ballmer buys clippers donald sterling shelly sterling nba clippers 2014