Donald Sterling has instructed his attorney to pursue a $1 billion lawsuit against the NBA and Adam Silver while withdrawing his support for the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers negotiated by his wife.

Last week, both Sterling and Blecher indicated publicly that they would accept the record $2 billion sale to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

"The deal is off," Max Blecher wrote in an email.

Blecher declined Monday to comment on whether the NBA's refusal to drop Sterling's lifetime ban and $2.5 million fine is the impetus for his change of heart.

"There is absolutely no possibility that the lifetime ban will be rescinded or that the fine will be changed in any way," Silver told reporters Saturday in an address at the NBA Finals.

The NBA remains confident that the sale will move forward eventually.

"Nobody doubts this thing will go through in the end. I guess it's just a matter of what mood Donald wakes up in tomorrow," one source close to the situation said.

Shelly Sterling indemnified the NBA from damages in future lawsuits from her estranged husband as part of the sale agreement with the NBA. She negotiated the sale as the sole trustee of the Sterling family trust, which owns LA Clippers LLC, after two neurologists had declared Donald Sterling unable to conduct his own business and legal affairs.