Disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling may have been banned for life by the NBA, but his estranged wife and co-owner Shelly Sterling doesn't intend on losing the team and will try to keep it in the Sterling family.
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Donald Sterling, who was caught on tape making racist remarks to girlfriend V. Stiviano, was banned for life by NBA commissioner Adam Silver after his private comments went public in a TMZ report that included the auido.
Shelly Sterling, a co-owner of the Los Angeles franchise since 1981, said she intends to keep the team within her family and that Silver never tried to oust her as partial owner of the team.
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"Commissioner Silver made it clear, that when he announced sanctions against Donald, that the NBA was taking no action against me or my family," Shelly Sterling said in a statement via ESPN.
Sterling is one of two alternate governors for the Clippers, along with team president Andy Roeser, who took an indefinite leave of absence on Tuesday.
Shelly Sterling is being represented by attorney Pierce O'Donnel while the NBA sorts out the ownership problem. Silver said that only Donald Sterling would be removed as owner of the Los Angeles team, which is owned through a Sterling family trust.
"This ruling applies specifically to Donald Sterling and Donald Sterling's conduct only," Silver said in the statement he gave last week announcing Donald Sterling's lifetime ban.
The NBA has maintained that they have the power to oust Donald Sterling because he signed numerous contracts agreeing that as an owner he would not take a position or action that would affect the team or the league in such a negative way. He also signed moral clauses which state that owners will be held to the highest standard of ethical and moral behavior.
The league must get 75 percent of other NBA owners to agree to oust Donald Sterling, and if he opts to fight the NBA on the topic, the league will provide his violation of those contracts as a reason for his ouster.
While many people, including Oprah Winfrey, have expressed interest in buying the team should it become available in a move that would likely cost upwards of $1 billion, Shelly Sterling's intent to keep the team in the family after Donald is removed as owner could complicate the league's attempts to sell the franchise.
It remains to be seen how this will all hash out, but Shelly Sterling doesn't seem content to lose her family's team without a fight.
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