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NBA owners agree to force sale of LA Clippers

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National Basketball Association team owners have agreed to proceed with efforts to force the sale of the LA Clippers following a heated race row. Owner Donald Sterling was banned from the sport for life this week after he was recorded making racist remarks. The 10-member NBA advisory committee met on Thursday and unanimously agreed to move forward in the process of terminating Mr Sterling’s ownership. A number of celebrities have expressed interest in purchasing the sports team. “The committee unanimously agreed to move forward as expeditiously as possible and will reconvene next week,” said NBA executive vice president Mike Bass. A forced sale of the LA Clippers would require the approval of three-quarters of the 30 team owners in the NBA. But Mr Sterling could oppose the sale in the courts, according to sports lawyers. Television star Oprah Winfrey, media executive David Geffen and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather have been among those touted as prospective buyers. Another casualty of the row emerged on Thursday evening, when the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) resigned. Mr Jenkins had intended to present Mr Sterling with a “lifetime achievement award” later this month, a move he withdrew after the recording emerged in which the Clippers owner made racist comments. In his resignation letter, Jenkins said: “In order to separate the Los Angeles NAACP and the NAACP from the negative exposure I have caused the NAACP, I respectfully resign my position.'” In the 10-minute audio recording, Mr Sterling can be heard criticising his girlfriend V Stiviano for posting online photographs of herself with black friends at Clippers games. “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you are associating with black people. Do you have to?” the man says. On Tuesday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Mr Sterling had acknowledged it was his voice on the recording. It was not clear how or when the conversation was recorded. Mr Silver subsequently announced Mr Sterling’s expulsion from the NBA along with a $2.5m (£1.5m), the maximum allowed. Mr Sterling’s remarks caused an immediate uproar in Los Angeles and among basketball fans across the country. The Clippers are competing in the first round of the NBA playoffs, drawing extra scrutiny to the incident. Team coach Doc Rivers later said the lifetime ban and fine for Mr Sterling was the “start of a healing process”. (BBC sports) No automatic shirts for foreign-based invitees, says Falcons’ coach Okon

The national senior women’s boss has warned all eight invited foreign-based players to prove themselves or risk being thrown out as there won’t be automatic places for them
Head coach of the national senior women’s team, Edwin Okon has said there will be no automatic shirt for the invited eight foreign-based professional for the African Women Championship (AWC) qualifier against Rwanda.
Okon and the Nigeria Football Federation are turning attention to the players abroad as they try not to take chances in the country’s qualification for the AWC which also serves as a route to the World Cup.
The invited players are former African Women Player of the Year Perpetua Nkwocha and Helen Ukaonu, both of Sunnana SK in Sweden, Francisca Ordega and Faith Ikidi both in Pitea IF also in Sweden and Desire Oparanozie in Atasehir Belediyespor in Turkey.
Others are Sarah Micheal from KIF Orebro of Sweden, Onome Ebi of Minsk FC, Belarus, and Osinachi Ohale from Houston Dash United, U.S.
“All the players invited have been informed to report to camp in Abuja early enough up till May 13. We have limited time to prepare for the Rwanda game, but at least five days training will be enough to know if they are fit to play, but there is no automatic shirt for any of them,” Okon told Goal.
The River Angels of Port Harcourt coach said that his determination to rebuild the senior women national team informed the need to give the overseas players the chance to prove themselves.
“We are not shutting the door against any player – those foreign-based players will come down here. We will mirror them and find out if they merit making the team. Thier invitation is not automatic.
“Some of the players are not regulars in their club as they sit mostly on the bench. [The technical crew] will look at them alongside the home-base players, then those who perform well will make the team, but there is no automatic shirt,” Okon said.
The Super Falcons will visit the She-Amavubiof Rwanda for the first leg match of the qualifier in the weekend of May 23 and May 25, while the return leg in Nigeria has been fixed for the weekend of June 6-8.
The 2014 AWC is scheduled to hold in Namibia from October 11 to October 25. (goal.com)

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