SAN ANTONIO — NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wouldn’t say it’s a done deal. He just sounded like the end of the reign of Donald Sterling as owner of the Clippers was a done deal.
“We’re almost there. There is this last piece and that is the lawsuit that Donald brought against the league and me personally,” Silver said Sunday before the Heat’s 98-96 win in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. “I have absolute confidence it will be resolved because as part of the sale agreement with Shelly Sterling, she agreed to indemnify the league against a lawsuit by her husband.
“So in essence, Donald is suing himself and he knows that. While I understand he is frustrated, I think it’s over. I think it’s just a matter of time now, and then we will move on to better topics and back to the Finals,” Silver said.
Silver said that while Sterling’s wife, Shelly, has every right to attend games “she won’t have any role with the Clippers going forward.” The sale has not been signed by Sterling, Silver said, but “it’s not necessary that he sign the trust agreement because Shelly went through this process outlined in the trust, and in essence in which Donald was found incapacitated and unable to sign on his own behalf.”
And in his only real moment he hedged, Silver admitted, “I guess anything can happen. Again, I take very seriously the fact that he has a pending lawsuit against the league. So I want to make sure that’s resolved before we say this is behind us, but I have absolute confidence it will be.”
Silver on the Game 1 air conditioning snafu: “I am satisfied that the problem has been resolved… Air conditioning is obviously running fine in the building now and they’ve taken precautions to ensure something like that doesn’t happen again. I would say that it’s certainly not one of my prouder moments in my short tenure as commissioner.”
Of course, it’s much better to have LeBron James on your side, but the Heat went into Game 2 also armed with history in their corner. The 12 previous times that the Heat lost a playoff game, they responded with a victory. Make it 13 straight. They have not lost after a defeat since June 5, 2012, when they lost in Game 5 to the Celtics in Miami for a third straight defeat in the Eastern Conference Finals. But the Heat responded with victories in Games 6 and 7. Since then, the Heat have not experienced back-to-back playoff defeats.
This is the fifth straight Finals that the teams split the first two games… The Spurs home playoff winning streak ended at nine… Ray Allen hit his 50th career Finals 3-pointer, second all-time behind only Robert Horry (56)… Spurs guard Tony Parker gave a blank look and a “no comment” Sunday morning when asked about the accusation of guard Jason Terry, now with the Kings, who suggested coach Gregg Popovich was behind the Game 1 air conditioning malfunction. Parker (3,655) moved ahead Scottie Pippen (3,642) into 13th place on the career playoff scoring list.