Former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling's legal feud with the NBA is not ending any time soon as he filed notice that he is appealling last month's dismissal of his anti-trust lawsuit against the league.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver together with Sterling's wife Shelley were the defendants in a lawsuit Sterling filed arising from the sale of the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2B in 2014, wrote Los Angeles Times. The suit claims they engaged in a conspiracy to remove him as owner following his racist remarks against African Americans.
Sterling's court action, seeking more than $1B in damages, was dismissed by US District Judge Fernando M. Olguin last month. The judge described parts of the suit as "plainly insufficient" and "clearly implausible," but this did not prevent Sterling from filing an appeal with the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeal.
According to the Los Angeles Daily News, the league countersued saying that it suffered harm after Sterling's rants against blacks were widely publicized. Last year, attorneys for the 81-year old Sterling amended the complaint to include the last two NBA commissioners Adam Silver and David Stern, his wife Shelley and the two doctors who found him mentally incapable of continuing as Clippers owner.
Donald, reported the Bleacher Report, claimed that he could have gotten more than what Ballmer paid for but the circumstances of the sale greatly reduced the price. But according to Pierce O'Donnell, Shelly's lawyer, "Ironically, Donald, in defeat, is the beneficiary of $2 billion, secured by Shelly in her courageous battle in doing the right thing to protect her family and ensure that her beloved team would be sold to a conscientious owner who would take the team to the next level of excellence."
On Thursday, O'Donnell condemned Sterling's legal maneuver as a sham and an abuse of the judicial system. He also called the appeal patently frivolous with practically no chance of prevailing in court.
