LOS ANGELES — Donald Sterling won’t get to fight for his Los Angeles Clippers in front of NBA owners next week. His only chance now is in court.

He could just pocket about $1 billion, his share of the proceeds from the record-breaking sale of a team that the league was prepared to take away from him. But don’t count on it. His lawyers say he’ll fight the league and his family to keep the team he bought for just $12 million in 1981.

His estranged wife negotiated the deal to sell the Clippers for $2 billion to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, saying she owns half the team and controls the family trust. A person close to the family told The Associated Press that Shelly Sterling took over the family’s assets because Donald Sterling, 80, was stripped of his ability to act as a co-trustee after two neurologists determined he was suffering from dementia.

The individual, who is familiar with the trust and the medical evaluations but wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said Sterling was deemed “mentally incapacitated” according to the trust’s conditions because he showed “an inability to conduct business affairs in a reasonable and normal manner.”

“There is specific language and there are protocols about what to do, and steps in order to get a sole trustee position and that’s what took place in the last couple of days,” the individual said.