Things are heating up quickly in the ongoing Donald Sterling saga, and the latest actions by Sterling may drag this process out even longer.
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According to Sports Illustrated’s Michael McCann, Sterling has hired antitrust lawyer Maxwell Blecher, and has threatened to sue the NBA:
BREAKING: Let the games begin. Donald Sterling hires famed antitrust lawyer and threatens to sue the NBA: http://t.co/OqQVTDCeYs via @SINow
— Michael McCann (@McCannSportsLaw) May 16, 2014
According to McCann, Blecher wrote a letter to NBA Executive Vice President Rick Buchanan. In the letter, Blecher claims that Sterling did nothing wrong, no punishment was warranted, and that Sterling will not pay the $2.5 million fine levied on him by Commissioner Adam Silver.
Blecher also argued that Sterling has not violated any article in the NBA constitution, and that his due process rights were violated since Sterling was banned for life by Silver without any formal proceedings.
Sterling has stayed in the news this week, giving his first public interview to CNN’s Anderson Cooper and apologizing for his words in the recording. Unfortunately, Sterling also took time to attack Magic Johnson, claiming that he was a bad example for the children of Los Angeles.
Nobody expected Sterling to go down without a fight. He does not want to sale the team, and obviously does not plan on cooperating with any NBA decision to force a sale without exhausting every option he has to keep the team.
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With rumblings that players across the NBA will not want to play as long as Sterling remains owner, and this issue likely stretching out for a long time, the NBA could be facing a serious issue at some point next season.
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