It seems that Doc Rivers can stop making threats, or Chris Paul can sleep easier. Steve Ballmer is officially $2 billion poorer, but the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, while Donald Stering is on his way out; not just from the league, but from recognition altogether, becoming just an old, retired and rich racist and not one with a team.

The Sterlings will battle the money thing among themselves. Rumors are that the lawyers of Shelly Sterling and Donald Sterling are approaching a settlement regarding how the money is spread, and what happens to the Sterling family trust. All that doesn’t matter anymore; it has nothing to do with sports, because Donald Sterling lost in all of his court ventures to try and block the sale.

Ballmer, formerly the Microsoft CEO, is finally an owner of an NBA team. He tried bringing the Sacramento Kings to Seattle, but eventually the league and the capital city of California did just about enough to keep the Kings there. Funny how the NBA didn’t really make that much of an effort when the Supersonics were stripped away from the Northwest by Clay Bennett and taken to Oklahoma City, becoming the Thunder.

Ballmer paid a record amount of money for an NBA team, and if you consider this was just for the basketball team and no real estate, it’s a bigger purchase than what the current owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers paid a few years ago. They spent $2.15 billion when acquiring the franchise, but it came with more than just baseball in mind.

What does this mean for the Clippers? Business as usual, as everything else remains the same. They’re still the best team in the city, by a huge margin. Their stars – Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, aren’t going anywhere. Their head coach, which has supposedly upgraded them last season (although we didn’t see it in the playoffs), is staying, and can stop making threats about leaving the team if Sterling stays on board.

The Donald Sterling chapter is over, at least as far as the NBA is concerned. An owner who never really saw much success, and made everyone nauseated when the ugly side of his personality showed up, eventually giving a lot of Clippers fans their wish: For Donald Sterling to not be the owner of the team.

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