Tag: donald sterling
Late Night Roundup: Getting Your Story Right On Iraq

Late Night Roundup: Getting Your Story Right On Iraq

The Daily Show took a look at the massive media frenzy surrounding the Brian Williams controversy — and that at least somebody is finally being held accountable for lying about the Iraq War.

Jimmy Kimmel hosted another expert on journalism, who actually spoke sympathetically about Brian Williams and the flaws of an embellished memory: Bill O’Reilly. Hmm, maybe this isn’t such a good idea.

Conan O’Brien lambasted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson for planning a new late night show on the National Geographic channel — and Tyson himself showed up to steal away both co-hosts Andy Richter and the Moon away from Conan.

David Letterman hosted NBA commissioner Adam Silver, and discussed last year’s racial controversies surrounding former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, and other political challenges that have faced the league since.

With the movie of Fifty Shades of Grey about to come out, the good folks at Late Night with Seth Meyers had men on the street in New York read excerpts of the book out loud. (Note: Most definitely not safe for work!!!)

Appeals Court Denies Sterling Bid To Block Clippers Sale

Appeals Court Denies Sterling Bid To Block Clippers Sale

Los Angeles (AFP) — A California appeals court rejected Donald Sterling’s last-ditch bid to scupper the sale of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

Sterling had filed the petition on Tuesday, the day the National Basketball Association announced that Ballmer’s $2 billion purchase of the club had been finalized.

Ballmer said he was “humbled and honored” after the transaction was sealed when a California court order went into effect confirming that his wife Shelly Sterling had the authority to sell the team.

The court of appeal ruled that there was no basis for an order blocking the deal and noted that the sale had already closed.

“Thus, there is nothing for this court to stay,” the court said in the ruling on Wednesday.

“Even if the sale had not closed… petitioner has failed to show that the balancing of the relative harm favors granting a temporary stay.”

The team went on the block after the NBA slapped a life ban on Donald Sterling, who bought the club in 1981 for $12.5 million.

The action was in response to a video aired on celebrity website TMZ that showed Donald Sterling criticizing his girlfriend for having her picture taken with black people.

In the storm that followed, the 80-year-old billionaire initially agreed to the sale of the team, but then abruptly withdrew his support.

His wife, however, moved to sell the Clippers as a trustee of the family trust that owned the team after Sterling had been declared mentally incapacitated.

The NBA board of governors had previously approved the sale and Ballmer now takes on the title of Clippers governor.

Ballmer’s attorney Adam Streisand said in a statement that he has no doubt Donald Sterling will appeal to the Supreme Court, but said he was “supremely confident” that the sale is sealed and Ballmer is now the “undisputed owner” of the Clippers.

AFP Photo/Robyn Beck

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U.S. Judge Approves Los Angeles Clippers Sale

U.S. Judge Approves Los Angeles Clippers Sale

Los Angeles (AFP) – A U.S. judge gave the go-ahead for the $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, ruling that embattled owner Donald Sterling could not block the move.

The ruling by California Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas on Monday came after a three-week trial pitting the 80-year-old Sterling — barred from the National Basketball Association for life for making racist remarks — against his estranged wife Shelly, who made the deal with Ballmer.

Levanas said the sale could go forward immediately, even if Donald Sterling — who had challenged his wife’s authority to sell the NBA franchise — appeals. He had 15 days to file an objection to the ruling.

Shelly Sterling negotiated the sale on behalf of the family trust, after Donald Sterling’s position as co-trustee was terminated when two medical experts declared the billionaire real estate mogul mentally incompetent to handle trust affairs.

“This is a good thing for the city, for the league and for my family,” she told reporters, adding she thought her husband would eventually be “happy” with the sale.

Levanas rejected claims by Donald Sterling that his wife’s efforts to have him declared incompetent were based on fraud, saying the court “did not find any compelling evidence” of any wrongdoing and that Shelly Sterling’s testimony had been convincing.

Donald Sterling’s attorney Max Blecher said after the ruling was read that he was “deeply disappointed.”

In April, recordings of Sterling making racist comments to a girlfriend led NBA commissioner Adam Silver to ban him for life from the sport and launch proceedings to strip him of the team.

Neurologist Meril Platzer told the court earlier this month that Donald Sterling was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and likely had been for at least three years.

Sterling had argued that his decision in June to dissolve the family trust — which came after he initially agreed to the team’s sale — kept his wife from making any move to sell the Clippers. Levanas rejected that claim.

An August 15 deadline to complete the sale to Ballmer is fast approaching.

In a statement, NBA executive vice president of communications Mike Bass welcomed the ruling.

“We are pleased that the court has affirmed Shelly Sterling’s right to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to Steve Ballmer. We look forward to the transaction closing as soon as possible,” Bass said.

The sale would bring an end to an ugly chapter in NBA history — one that included player and fan protests. Sponsors abandoned the team, and the controversy clouded the Clippers’ run to the second round of the NBA playoffs.

The $2 billion price tag, for a team that has never won a championship, would set an NBA record — well above the record $550 million paid for the Milwaukee Bucks in April.

It also would mark a massive financial return for Sterling on a club he purchased in 1981 for just $12 million.

Monday’s ruling may, however, be complicated by a separate suit filed by Donald Sterling against his wife, the NBA and Silver, claiming they defrauded him when they moved to sell the Clippers to Ballmer.

He is seeking an injunction to halt the sale of the team, as well as unspecified damages.

Pierce O’Donnell, the lead attorney for Shelly Sterling, said in his closing arguments earlier Monday that Shelly Sterling “cared about her husband” and was a “decent woman.”

Blecher, however, denounced a “scheme” against his client, and said there was no proof that Sterling was no longer capable of making business decisions.

“It was clear in the process of his testimony that he was alert,” he said, adding that Shelly Sterling had “unclean hands.”

“If we get the right to appeal (the judge’s) mistakes will not stand up,” he insisted.

AFP Photo/Robyn Beck

Closing Arguments Scheduled In Sterling Trust Case

Closing Arguments Scheduled In Sterling Trust Case

Los Angeles (AFP) — Donald Sterling’s lawyers opted not to call Shelly Sterling as a witness in their court fight to block her sale of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and abruptly rested their case.

The move sets the stage for closing arguments on Monday in the case in which Donald Sterling is challenging his estranged wife’s authority to sell the club for $2 billion to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

The final witness called on behalf of Donald Sterling was doctor Jeffrey Cummings, an expert in Alzheimer’s disease who acknowledged under cross-examination by Shelly Sterling’s lawyer Pierce O’Donnell that the two doctors who found the Clippers owner mentally incompetent did not have to state the reason for their examinations beforehand.

Donald Sterling’s lawyer, Maxwell Blecher, had been expected to call Shelly Sterling, but decided not to after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas said he could not ask his client’s estranged wife about her lawsuit against her husband’s former companion, V. Stiviano, or about the Clippers owner’s antitrust lawsuit against the NBA.

After the court proceedings O’Donnell said that Donald Sterling’s argument that he had been the victim of fraud had “disappeared like that.”

Shelly Sterling negotiated the deal as the trustee of the Sterling family trust, after Donald Sterling’s position as co-trustee was terminated when two medical experts declared him mentally incompetent to handle trust affairs.

The sale was precipitated in April, when recordings of Sterling making racist comments to his would-be girlfriend Stiviano led to his being banned from the NBA for life by league commissioner Adam Silver.

An August 15 deadline to complete the deal is approaching, with the risk that the offer could be withdrawn if it isn’t finalized by then.

O’Donnell voiced confidence that Levanas will see Donald Sterling’s efforts as a “diversion” and refuse to block the sale.

O’Donnell also scoffed at the latest lawsuit filed by Sterling on Tuesday against his wife, the NBA, the Clippers and Silver saying it raised “the same old issues”.

“Donald Sterling is running out of courts in which to file cases,” O’Donnell said, noting that the octogenarian billionaire has filed suits in federal and state court and well as battling his wife in probate court.

Levanas told lawyers for both parties he wants the closing arguments to be focused on whether Shelly Sterling had authority under the family trust to remove her husband as a co-trustee because of his alleged mental incompetence and whether her husband’s subsequent revocation of the trust had any effect on her ability to sell the team to Ballmer.

AFP Photo / David Mcnew

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