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May 25, 2014

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Yao eying deal to buy Clippers

RETIRED Chinese superstar Yao Ming is lining up investors to make a bid for the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Clippers if embattled owner Donald Sterling has to sell, ESPN.com reported on Friday.

Yao is just the latest celebrity to be linked to a potential Clippers bid since Sterling was engulfed in a scandal over racially charged remarks that became public in April.

ESPN, citing unnamed sources, said that Yao and another former NBA player, Grant Hill, were working separately to find investors to launch bids.

Celebrity gossip website TMZ and other US media outlets reported on Friday that Sterling has surrendered control of the club to his estranged wife, Shelly, who is in talks with the league to sell the team.

The Clippers are valued at nearly US$600 million by Forbes magazine and could fetch substantially more given the publicity surrounding the team and its location in a major US market.

Yao became an NBA star with the Houston Rockets, who made him the first pick in the 2002 NBA draft. He owns a team in China, the Shanghai Sharks.

Hill retired last year after a 19-season career that ended with the Clippers.

Other big names keen on the Clippers include software billionaire Larry Ellison, television powerhouse Oprah Winfrey, and unbeaten boxer Floyd Mayweather.


 

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