LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The estranged wife
of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling on Thursday testified that
her husband was eager for her to sell the NBA team and pleased when she
was able to fetch a league-record $2 billion.
Shelly Sterling, 79, told a probate court in a trial over the
disputed sale of the Clippers to former Microsoft Corp chief
executive Steve Ballmer that her husband did not want the NBA to
confiscate the team and sell it at auction after the league banned
him for life.
"Every day we talked about what I was doing and who I had talked
to," Shelly Sterling said about courting bidders, adding: "He was on
the same page as I was ... He was very happy and very proud of me
and said, 'Wow, you really did a good job.'"
Donald Sterling, 80, was banned by the league for racist remarks
made in private that were taped and published. He has been deemed by
physicians to have early Alzheimer's disease and unable to conduct
his own business affairs, handing his wife control of the trust that
owns the Clippers.
Shelly Sterling has asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael
Levanas to confirm her as the sole trustee of the family trust that
owns the Clippers and to back the sale to Ballmer.
Sterling has contended that his wife and her attorneys misled him
into submitting to the medical examinations and has vowed to block
the sale of the pro basketball franchise.
Levanas will decide whether Shelly Sterling acted in accordance with
the family trust, and if Donald Sterling's move to revoke the trust
after the deal with Ballmer would invalidate the sale.
Closing arguments in the trial, which was scheduled to end on
Thursday, were pushed back to July 28, ending any hope that the
Clippers sale would be finalized by July 15, according to its term
sheet. The next scheduled trial date is July 21.
Ballmer's attorney, Adam Streisand, said Ballmer would extend the
sale's deadline to Aug. 15.
Shelly Sterling moved to sell the team because it would have had
diminished value at an NBA-forced auction and that players did not
want to play for Sterling.
"My fear was that the players weren't going to play," she testified.
"They were going to strike. The sponsors wouldn't sponsor."
Under cross-examination, Shelly Sterling said there was no plot to
oust her husband as trustee by arranging for doctors to examine his
mental fitness.
"I wanted to know what was wrong with my husband and his mood
swings, his yelling and cussing," she said. "I had no other purpose
in mind. He had given me permission to sell the team."
Sterling, who was combative in two previous days on the stand, said
he believes the Clippers are worth up to $5 billion.
The NBA has said it could seize the Clippers from the Sterlings and
put the franchise up for auction if the deal is not approved by
Sept. 15.
Wife
testifies Sterling was happy with $2 bln Clippers sale
