Embattled Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has agreed to sell the team for $2 billion and will drop his lawsuit against the National Basketball Association, his lawyer Maxwell Blecher said on Wednesday, five weeks after taped racist remarks Sterling made caused the NBA to ban him for life.

Sterling, 80, sued the league and commissioner Adam Silver for at least $1 billion in damages last week at the same time as the NBA tentatively approved a deal his estranged wife had struck to sell the franchise to former Microsoft Corp chief executive Steve Ballmer for a NBA record price of $2 billion.

Sterling, who has owned the Clippers for 33 years, brought shame on the league and delivered the first crisis of Silver's tenure, which began in February.