Donald Sterling threw a Hail Mary Tuesday, hoping an appeals court would step in and overturn the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to Steve Ballmer.
Turns out, Donald Sterling is no Doug Flutie.
We tried to tell you before that when Donald Sterling and his attorneys filed a writ of mandate trying to stop the sale of the Clippers it would fail. Ramona Shelburne of ESPN confirms that it has indeed fallen well short.
Now it's officially over. Court of appeals turns down Donald Sterling's writ of mandate
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) August 13, 2014
Appelate court rules: "The evidence before this court indicates the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to Steven Ballmer has closed."
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) August 13, 2014
Appelate judges said: "Petitioner [Donald Sterling] has failed to show otherwise. Thus, there is nothing for this court to stay"
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) August 13, 2014
No judge was ever going to step in and undo a completed $2 billion sale.
Sterling also asked the Appellate Court to overturn the lower court’s ruling that cleared the way for the sale. That was rejected.
As we’ve been saying, Donald Sterling is out of the Clippers and out of the NBA. He is not getting back in the club. Ever. His wife Shelly on the other hand…
Donald is still a rich, bitter, old man with his attorneys on speed dial so you can expect a lot of continued niceness lawsuits over the coming years — he is already suing the NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver on anti-trust grounds (and the league is counter-suing) plus he is suing the league for fraud. He’s got the money to try and make things uncomfortable and ugly for the NBA, and he might even have some level of success at that.
But he’s lost what he really wanted. He loved being the owner of the Clippers — he didn’t love the Clippers, but rather the perks and attention that came with owning them — and that is gone forever.