Shelly Sterling negotiated herself a pretty little package in the sale of the Clippers to Steve Ballmer.
Details had been slowly leaking, but Nathan Fenno and James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times reveal what looks to be a complete picture. Here’s what Shelly gets if the sale to Ballmer is approved:
- Up to 10 percent of the sale price and 10 percent of annual revenues to go into the the Shelly Sterling Foundation, which she’d run
- 2 courtside tickets for each game
- 10 tickets in other sections for each game
- 12 VIP passes for each game
- 3 championship rings if the Clippers win a title
- Two-year contracts for executives Gary Sacks, Carl Lahr and Eric Miller (Sterling’s son-in-law)
- Title of “Owner Emeritus”
- Title of “Clipper’s Number 1 Fan” (Somewhere, Clipper Darrell weeps)
As a reminder, the players union once stated an opposition to Shelly remaining with the franchise as part of a compromise to remove Donald Sterling. It might not be worth union sticking to its guns on that, but I don’t like the idea of Shelly – with her own history of alleged racism – and 11 of her cronies having full run of the Staples Center 41+ nights per year.
But there could some karmic revenge at play.
Did you read that list closely? Did Shelly really bargain the exclusive right to call herself “Clipper’s Number 1 Fan”?
Yes. Yes, she did.
https://twitter.com/nathanfenno/status/477150326793854976
A Clipper is a person or device that cuts something or a 19th-century ship. The Clippers are a professional basketball team.
Thanks to a misplaced apostrophe, Shelly can claim to be the biggest fan of cutters and fast ships.
But the pro basketball team should name someone else – ideally, someone more deserving – its biggest fan.