BASKETBALL

Sterling amends complaint

Former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling said he could have gotten more than the record $2 billion that Steven Ballmer paid to buy the team but circumstances of the sale reduced the price. The Los Angeles Times reported the claim is contained in an amended complaint to Sterling’s federal lawsuit against the NBA. The complaint also adds Sterling’s wife to the suit, which seeks more than $600 million. Rochelle Sterling’s attorney Stephen Smith calls the filing “desperate and frivolous.” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling last year after he was recorded making racist comments. Sterling’s suit says his wife conspired with Silver. It also names two doctors who concluded that Sterling had Alzheimer’s disease, leading Rochelle Sterling to remove him from a trust that owned the Clippers.

The NBA says the Players Association has informed the league that it won’t agree to smoothing the increased revenues from national TV deals, which will create a significant spike in the salary cap. The league’s new contracts with ESPN and TNT begin in 2016-2017 and will be worth more than $2.6 billion. Because the salary cap is tied to revenues, that will cause it to soar in the first season, giving many teams spending money they otherwise wouldn’t have. To prevent that, the league has sought to set a cap figure that would lead to gradual increases, but executive vice president of communications Mike Bass said Wednesday the union rejected that approach. NBPA executive director Michele

Roberts said last month the union had turned down the league’s first smoothing proposal. Oklahoma City Thunder Coach

Scott Brooks said Kevin Durant should return to the lineup in about “a week to two weeks.” Brooks said before the Thunder’s game Wednesday night with the Los Angeles Clippers that Durant had been re-evaluated earlier in the day. Brooks says the 2014 NBA MVP “is progressing” and “had another good workout today” but isn’t ready to return to the lineup. Durant has missed 36 games with an assortment of foot and ankle injuries. He last played Feb. 19 against Memphis and had surgery three days later to replace a screw that was causing discomfort in the right foot that he broke during the preseason. Using Brooks’ timetable, the soonest Durant would return would be March 18 against Boston. Oklahoma City plays four games between Wednesday and then. Minnesota forward Kevin Garnett sat out the Timberwolves’ game against the Phoenix Suns to rest a sore knee. Coach Flip Saunders

said Garnett, who last month returned to the Wolves in a trade with Brooklyn, will play Friday at Oklahoma City.