Early on Friday morning reports surfaced that alienated Clippers owner Donald Sterling had agreed to relinquish all control over the franchise to his wife Shelly Sterling in order to negotiate the forced sell of the team.
Now it seems unlikely that the NBA will approve of Mrs. Sterling being in control of the team while they try to force the Sterlings out.
Via SI.com:
Sources familiar with the NBA have told SI.com the league will not approve Shelly Sterling as controlling-owner. The league does not want the Sterlings involved with the NBA. The league also has wide discretion to reject new owners, including for reasons of moral character. Shelly Sterling’s ties to her husband in the housing lawsuits could be grounds alone for the NBA to reject her as controlling owner (the fact that Donald Sterling was not disciplined over the housing litigation does not preclude the league from using the litigation against Shelly).
Despite this recent development, the NBA has made it clear that nothing would deter the process to terminate Sterling’s tenure as an NBA owner.
“We continue to follow the process set forth in the NBA Constitution regarding termination of the current ownership interests in the Los Angeles Clippers and are proceeding toward a hearing on this matter on June 3,” said NBA spokesman Mike Bass in an official release.