With any luck, Donald Sterling may be out of our lives soon. Earlier this week, he dropped his fraud accusation against the NBA and wife Shelly Sterling concerning their handling of the sale of the Clippers to Steve Ballmer, with his lawyers saying the felt it smarter to focus solely on the antitrust suit he has filed against the NBA.
Now, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Sterling’s lawyers are negotiating with the NBA on possibly dismissing that suit, too.The development grew out of a meeting last week between Maxwell Blecher, representing the former Clippers owner, and one of the NBA’s attorneys, Jason Russell.
“During that meeting, Mr. Russell and I began negotiating a possible dismissal of this action,” Blecher wrote in a declaration filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Sterling filed the antitrust suit against the league after commissioner Adam Silver issued a lifetime ban following this spring’s leaks of audio tapes of the 80-year-old Clippers owner making racist comments to mistress V. Stiviano. His wife, Shelly, negotiated the sale of the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.
Even though there was never a way to get the Clippers back, Sterling’s suit ensured we were going to have to keep hearing about him. If he drops this suit, he might go away forever.
Fingers crossed.