‘Clippers could lose players, sponsors’

NBA franchise’s interim chief predicts mass exodus is Donald Sterling remained associated with the LA Clippers.

Sterling was banned for life for taped racist remarks [AP]

The Los Angeles Clippers could face an exodus of players, sponsors, fans and their coach if embattled owner Donald Sterling is still associated with the team, Richard Parsons, the franchise’s interim chief executive said at a trial over the NBA team’s $2 billion sale.

Parsons, the former Time Warner CEO who was installed by the NBA to run the Clippers in May, testified that the team would likely lose profitability and its overall value if sponsors, one of its top revenue streams, leave because of Sterling.

“We have a bunch of sponsors who are sitting at the edge of the pool and they don’t want to go into the water,” Parsons told Los Angeles Superior Court a day after failed settlement talks between Sterling, 80, and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who won the bidding for the team.

The real estate billionaire has been banned for life by the NBA for taped racist remarks that were made public. He has vowed to block the NBA-record sale that his estranged wife brokered with Ballmer because of the way the league treated him, his lawyers said.

Also on Tuesday, Sterling filed a lawsuit against his wife Shelly Sterling, the NBA, its commissioner Adam Silver and the corporation that owns the Clippers, alleging that all the shares of the team belong to him after he revoked his family trust.

Parsons testified it was imperative that a new owner be in place before the start of the season in October or it could throw the team into a “death spiral”.

Source: Reuters