Deadline for requesting review of Clippers case passes

Donald Sterling is finally out of legal options to unwind the sale of the Clippers.

After California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected Sterling’s petition to halt the $2-billion sale Aug. 13, he had 10 business days to ask the state’s Supreme Court to review the case. That deadline expired without any such petition, according to court records.

The attorney for new Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, Adam Streisand, confirmed Wednesday the deadline had passed with no appeal.

The odds of such a maneuver’s success were considered exceedingly long by attorneys familiar with the case, but Sterling’s attorneys had left open the possibility of going to the Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort to restore the Clippers to their client.

Sterling, however, remains entangled in litigation surrounding the matter, including an appeal in the Los Angeles Superior Court case that cleared the way for Ballmer’s purchase; a lawsuit that accuses his wife, Shelly, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver of fraud; and a federal antitrust lawsuit against the NBA.

But Sterling can collect only monetary damages from those cases, not reverse the sale of the franchise he owned for 33 years.

One of Sterling’s attorneys, Maxwell Blecher, didn’t return a request for comment.

After the appellate court denied Sterling’s petition earlier this month, his attorneys said their client believed he would be “completely vindicated” in his federal case against the NBA. The league countersued Sterling earlier this month in the federal case.