Report: Attorneys for Shelly Sterling seek protection from Donald Sterling

Donald Sterling purchased the Clippers for $12.5 million in 1981. (Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images) The attorneys for Shelly Sterling will make an "urgent"

Donald Sterling purchased the Clippers for $12.5 million in 1981. (Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images)

The attorneys for Shelly Sterling will make an "urgent" request to a judge on Thursday to seek protection for their legal team and doctors after they determined her husband -- embattled Clippers owner Donald Sterling --  is mentally incapacitated, the Associated Press reported late Wednesday night.

According to the report, Shelly's team will look to protect her witnesses by asking the judge to essentially order her 80-year-old husband and his representatives not to "threaten, harass or intimidate" them, according to the report.

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The trial gets underway in July to determine whether she can sell the Clippers franchise to former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.

An audio recording of Sterling, who purchased the Clippers for $12.5 million 1981, was released in April -- a day before his 80th birthday -- in which he was heard making disparaging remarks about African-Americans. Sterling later admitted to being the voice making the comments on the phone call, which he was having with a friend, although he said he did not know at the time that he was being recorded.

He was subsequently fined the maximum penalty of $2 million by the NBA per league bylaws and banned for life from the league.

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