Donald Sterling’s Wife Says She’s Keeping The L.A. Clippers & Clippers’ Head Coach Responds

The Sterling are looking to make the NBA’s forced sale of the Los Angeles Clippers difficult.  Donald Sterling’s estranged wife, Shelly Sterling announced she plans to keep the team.  Clippers' head coach Doc Rivers says that's going to be very hard for her to do.  

This past Wednesday, Donald Sterling’s estranged wife Shelly Sterling announced she plans to keep the team.  F.Y.I, the Los Angeles Clippers are actually owned by a family trust and Shelly Sterling has been a co-owner of the team since Donald Sterling bought it in 1981. That said, Sterlings estranged wife says she has no intention of selling her team.  In a statement sent to ESPN, Mrs. Sterling states that she will plans to keep the teams as the NBA isn't taking action against her:

Commissioner Silver made it clear, that when he announced sanctions against Donald, that the NBA was taking no action against me or my family

One day after Clippers President Andy Roeser took an indefinite leave of absence, Mrs. Sterling announced her intentions of maintaining team ownership.   As it turns out Roeser and Mrs. Sterling are the only two alternate governors of the team. Last Saturday, the NBA said they are going to appoint a CEO for the Clippers to oversee day-to-day operations, until things are settled.

In the meantime, Mrs Sterling is going to have a very difficult time trying to keep the Los Angeles Clippers.  Not long after she vowed on ESPN that she wasn't going to sell, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers stated that it would be a “very hard situation” if Sheryl Sterling tried to retained ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers:

I don’t even want to comment on it because I don’t know yet. I think it would be a very hard situation, I’ll say that much. I think it would be very difficult. I guarantee you every person wouldn’t be on board with it. Whether I would or not, I’m not going to say, I just know that would be a very difficult situation for everybody.

Mrs. Sterling’s lawyer Pierce O’Donnell informed ESPN that Mrs. Sterling has a legal right to try an keep her team and intends to fight any forced sale by the NBA:

Despite all of the furor during the past week, Mrs. Sterling still has property rights. She has worked tirelessly over the years to build up a franchise that was once a cellar dweller into a sports powerhouse. She has the same right as anyone else in America to enjoy and control the fruits of those labors, and that includes deciding whether to keep or sell her 50 percent interest in the team.