Clippers' owner Donald Sterling claims to remain very interested in winning.

"I can visualize a Clippers parade," he says. "I'm telling you, I will win. I promise you that. I will find the combination.

"How long am I going to live? Forever? I will do whatever it takes. I think the Clippers can pay more than any team in America. We have unlimited resources. I'd be thrilled to pay [$121 million as the Lakers will do this season] and do it tomorrow, if I could only sign quality players who warranted it."

When Kobe Bryant was a free agent in 2004, Mike Dunleavy told Sterling that he had worked out a deal to sign the All-Star from the Lakers.

"I drove from my house in Malibu to the Four Seasons in Newport Beach to meet Kobe and Kobe said I didn't need to say anything because he was going to be a Clipper," Sterling says, a day later learning Bryant had been convinced by Buss to remain with the Lakers.