Mrs. Sterling threatens NBA Owner Armageddon

Donald T. Sterling's wife of 58 years, Rochelle Sterling, who co-owns the Los Angeles Clippers via a trust, gave an interview to the New York Times, along with her lawyer Pierce O'Donnell. 

NYT: Have you spoken with any other N.B.A. owners since your husband’s suspension was announced? 

Mrs. Sterling: No, I haven’t. But I often wonder: If the wife of one of the owners had done this, and if the roles were reversed, would they take the team away from the man? Is it something sexist? Is it the man’s club? The owners are afraid of their own issues. Because I’m sure if anybody goes into all their records, they have skeletons in their closets. ...

O’DONNELL: The situation here from a legal perspective is unprecedented. No professional sports league has ever terminated an owner’s interest involuntarily. And what Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, means when he refers to a “slippery slope” is that if they can do it to Shelly Sterling, they can do it to any other owner. And that invokes a precedent that could then be cited. I’m sure other owners have said things in private. We’ve had owners who have taken anti-civil rights stands on certain issues over the years. So is there dirty laundry? When the owners think about this in the quiet of their thoughts, and they have to render a vote, they have to think about the implications of it. 

NYT: So if you sue the N.B.A., would you depose other owners and their team personnel?

O’DONNELL: I’d certainly be entitled to discovery. Any fair administrative process would allow us to get discovery. And I want to know a lot of different things about the records of the N.B.A. and what information they have about the conduct or misconduct of other owners that was not acted upon. The N.B.A. is as much at risk as Mr. Sterling to have this whole thing aired publicly. So it’s not risk-free for either side. To answer your question, of course I’ll ask for discovery. But it’s in everybody’s best interests to avoid Armageddon.

Not everybody. NBA Owner Armageddon is totally in my best interests. These depositions and email discoveries could provide years of great blog material.

Ar-Ma-Geddon! Ar-Ma-Geddon!

UPDATE: Pssst! Counselor O'Donnell ... You know who probably has some great tapes of Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov's most heinous phone calls? I mean, I don't know for sure, but it's my impression there's this guy who seems to have a lot of embarrassing wiretaps at his fingertips: Victoria Nuland, the EU lady, lots of good stuff.

Vladimir Putin.

Heck, Putin's probably got some hilarious wiretaps of Michael Jordan, too, just to play as an icebreaker at summit conferences with Netanyahu and Lieberman. (And, I hope, some scandalous stuff on Paul Allen: I hate that guy.)

Depose Putin. The Stiviano Precedent says that anybody's secrets obtained anyhow can be splashed in the press if they are politically incorrect enough, right? So, FSB wiretaps are fair game. And by that point Putin might be like, "Ukraine is game to you, Obama? How about I take your little NBA and smash it?"

I'd cut and paste for months.

This could be awesome.