Clippers to be forced out

NEW YORK. — National Basketball Association owners took their first concrete step on Thursday towards booting Donald Sterling from their ranks after the disgraced real estate tycoon’s racist remarks.
Hours after the league’s advisory/finance committee held a meeting to discuss NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s recommendation that Sterling be forced to sell the team, reports surfaced that the 80-year-old Sterling is battling cancer.

ESPN.com said on Thursday that unnamed sources had confirmed Sterling’s illness, first reported by the New York Post.
On Tuesday, Silver banned Sterling for life from all league activities and fined him $2.5 million over racially charged comments he made to his girlfriend that caused a furore within basketball and beyond after they were aired at the weekend.

“This afternoon the Advisory/Finance Committee met via conference call to discuss the process for termination of Donald T. Sterling’s ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers,” NBA executive vice-president Mike Bass said in a brief statement.

“The committee unanimously agreed to move forward as expeditiously as possible and will reconvene next week.”
A move to force Sterling to sell would require the approval of three-quarters of the other 29 NBA owners, and Silver said on Tuesday he was confident of gaining the needed votes. Sterling snapped up the Clippers for US$12 million in 1981. The club is now worth at least US$575 million.

A swarm of high-profile potential buyers has already surfaced, although Sterling could tie things up if he chooses to challenge any NBA action in court.
Under NBA rules, before the league can force him to sell Sterling must be presented with written charges and given time to respond.

Silver would then convene the board of governors, which would vote after hearing evidence in the case.
While the NBA began to pick its way through the process, fallout continued outside of basketball.

The president of the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP resigned on Thursday amid questions about the civil rights organisation’s relationship with Sterling.
Leon Jenkins had announced this week that the group was dropping plans to present Sterling with a lifetime achievement award and would be returning donations Sterling had made to the organisation. — AFP.