Steve Ballmer officially takes control of Clippers

Steve Ballmer officially became the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday for a record $2 billion. The team said the sale closed after a California court confirmed the authority of Shelly Sterling, on behalf of the Sterling Family Trust, to sell the franchise to the former Microsoft CEO. Her estranged husband, Donald Sterling, had unsuccessfully fought the sale of the team he owned since 1981 in court. The NBA Board of Governors had previously approved the sale. “Really excited – in a pretty hardcore way – to continue the path to making the Clippers a better and better basketball team, and a better and better citizen of the Los Angeles community,” Ballmer told The Associated Press in a phone interview. – Associated Press