Banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling will refuse to pay the $2.5 million fine that the NBA levied on him nearly two weeks ago, according to a letter that Sterling’s attorney wrote to the NBA.
Maxwell M. Blecher, a very well-known antitrust attorney, also wrote that Sterling’s alleged racist comments don’t warrant “any punishment at all”. Blecher also said that he believes the fine violates Sterling’s due process rights.
The news comes after the NBA-imposed deadline for paying the fine, which was earlier this week.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver issued Sterling a lifetime ban from having any association with the league or the Los Angeles Clippers, while also handing him the maximum-allowed fine of $2.5 million on April 29.
Silver also said that he would strongly urge the other 29 team owners to remove Sterling as owner and force a sale of the Clippers, which would require a three-fourths vote (23 of 29 owners). If that does indeed happen, as it is very likely to, Sterling will be forced to sell the team that he bought in 1981 for a mere $12 million.
This is not the first time that Blecher has represented Sterling in a legal battle with the NBA, as he was also Sterling’s lawyer when he moved the team from San Diego to Los Angeles in 1984, resulting in a $25 million fine from the league. Sterling then sued the NBA for $100 million, but the case was dropped after the fine was reduced to $6 million.
Despite all the overwhelming evidence against him and the extremely unfavorable public opinion he has earned for himself, one thing is becoming painfully obvious: Donald Sterling is very much a fighter, and he has absolutely no intentions of accepting his punishment, gathering his profits, and slowly fading out of the public eye.
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