Donald Sterling Withdraws Support For $2 Billion Deal, Plans To Sue NBA

Donald Sterling's attorney, Maxwell Blecher, says that Donald Sterling has withdrawn his support for the $2 billion sale to Steve Ballmer. Blecher further states he's been instructed to proceed with a $1 billion federal suit against the NBA.

Last Wednesday, it looked as though Sterling had agreed to the deal and had further agreed not to pursue any legal actions against the league. Things got tricky later when Sterling, apparently under the misapprehension that it was part of the deal already, demanded that the lifetime ban and fines be rescinded as a condition to the sale.

Sterling recently saw a draft of a statement from the league which he thought absolved him of the penalties, but a person familiar with the NBA's position said the statement, which was not released to the public, offered no such relief.

"In terms of saying something in a draft press release that indicated they would be dismissing the lifetime ban and the fine, that is not true at all," said the person, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. "That doesn't mean that [Sterling] wouldn't have read something like that into it.

"But if they interpreted it that way that is wrong and there is no thought of lifting the lifetime ban or the fine being rescinded."

The NBA did not relax its position and now Sterling has called the whole thing off and plans to sue the NBA for violating antitrust laws, his constitutional rights, and breach of contract.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

[ AP]