Report: Sterling Has Alzheimer's Disease

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s mental incapacity is caused by Alzheimer’s disease, according to TMZ.

TMZ quotes sources close to the Sterling family who confessed that Sterling underwent an examination earlier in May by two well-known neurologists, who conducted a CT scan and a PET scan on his brain. Both doctors agreed that Sterling is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and also asserted he may have had the disease for up to five years. The doctors concluded that Sterling’s mental capacity was limited enough that he was in no shape to run the business of owning the Clippers.

The same sources also informed TMZ that the trust agreement that governs the family’s ownership of the Clippers asserts that if two qualified doctors believe that either Donald or Shelly displays “an inability to conduct business affairs in a reasonable and normal manner,” they must be barred from running the team. Thus, the doctors’ diagnoses could have barred Sterling from operating the team, even before it was sold for $2 billion to former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer by Shelly Sterling. 

TMZ reports that Sterling does have the power to appeal the doctors’ conclusions, and if he does not, the team will not be his to run. But if Sterling wants to invalidate the letter he wrote to NBA commissioner Adam Silver on May 22 giving control of the Clippers to his wife, saying he was mentally incapacitated because of his Alzheimer’s, the trust agreement may force him out anyway.