Shelly Sterling will fight for her share in the Clippers

Shelly Sterling, the estranged wife of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, Told Barbara Walters she will fight the NBA if it tries to take away her stake in the team."I've been with the team for 33 years through the good times and the bad times. And it's my passion and I love it.Her comments come two weeks after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the league's punishment for Donald Sterling following his racist remarks.

Now, the question remains, will the other owners vote Donald out? If they do, Shelly says her stake in the team should be separate. But USA Today reports it's extremely unlikely the NBA will let her remain part of the club. "The bottom line for the NBA is there is simply no reason to compromise when it comes to the next Clippers owner."



And the NBA maintains it does have the legal right to remove both owners. Sports Illustrated has the NBA's statement. "Under the NBA Constitution, if a controlling owner's interest is terminated by a 3/4 vote, all other team owners' interests are automatically terminated as well. ... These are the rules to which all NBA owners agreed to as a condition of owning their team." Shelly's counsel reportedly says this interpretation of the NBA Constitution is "self-serving." But other outlets remind us, Shelly's record isn't clean either.



The Los Angeles Times reports, a tenant of one of the Sterling's apartment buildings in LA filed a federal lawsuit against the couple in 2007. He claimed he was the target of discriminatory behavior.
And ABC obtained video that seems to show Shelly posing as a health inspector to illegally enter her tenant's apartment. It's not clear how – if at all – these allegations will affect Shelly's chances of keeping her stake in the team. In the interview, she said she eventually plans to file for divorce from her husband.