Anatomy of Shelly's mega-deal

LOS ANGELES When asked how much money she wanted to sell the Los Angeles Clippers, the wife of disgraced team owner Donald Sterling handed a piece of paper to her lawyer with two numbers: $1.5 to $2.

What wasn't written was understood she meant billions, shocking figures for a franchise that until recently was a perpetual loser. But Shelly Sterling soon brokered a deal to part with the team for a record $2 billion, selling it to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, a buyer whose name she did not know at first.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, she offered details about negotiating one of the richest deals in sports after her husband's racist rant to a girlfriend prompted the NBA to ban him for life and force him to give up the team. That's when she stepped in.

"I was given the task and I did it," she said. "I just did what I had to do."

For a half-century, Shelly Sterling had worked in her husband's shadow, renovating and decorating their real-estate properties while he built an empire. Now she was the key decision maker.

She hired well-known attorney Pierce O'Donnell, and prospective buyers started lining up. David Geffen made an offer of $1.65 billion, and an Egyptian princess also entered the bidding war, she said.

Ballmer called her at 7 a.m. on a Saturday. "He was really enthusiastic," she said. "He said I want to come see you immediately."

She put him off until the next day and quickly called a girlfriend to find out who he was.

When they met, "he was a like a little child," she remembered. "He was so excited, so happy. We sort of connected. I felt he would be good for the team."

She said he asked her how much the other bidders had offered and then put forward his own figure $1.9 billion. That was far more than most observers believed the team was worth, but Shelly Sterling wasn't satisfied.

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Anatomy of Shelly's mega-deal