From ESPN:
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s team of lawyers has hired four private investigation firms to dig up “dirt” on the NBA’s former and current commissioners and its 29 other owners, a source confirmed to ESPN.com. …Sterling needs to crowdsource this as well: set up a website where anybody in the world can enter any funny story they know about Michael Jordan, Jerry Reinsdorf, Bruce Ratner, Mikhail Prokhorov, Mark Cuban, Peter Guber, James Dolan, or Paul Allen.Investigators were given a six-figure budget over the next 30 days to examine the league’s finances, allegations of previous discriminatory conduct and compensation to past commissioner David Stern and current commissioner Adam Silver, said the AP source, who spoke Thursday night on condition of anonymity. …
The person said the investigators also are looking into whether other owners made any off-color jokes, or racist or sexist remarks.
“The gloves are off, as they say,” the person said. “Have them dig up all the dirt they can find.”
… “Now his objective is to demonstrate for everybody that the NBA is a damned hypocrite,” Sterling attorney Bobby Samini told ESPN.com on Wednesday. “…
“He realized these guys will literally go to any low to get this sold,” the person said. “Even if it gets [him] nothing other than exposing all these guys and shaking up the league and seeing a change in the leadership of the league, it’ll be worth it to him.”
The firms will be engaged in an “audition” of sorts, the individual said: “Whoever delivers the best [material] is going to stay on for the next round, and it might be all four of them … 29 owners is not a small undertaking.”
