One of the worst owners in sports strikes again.

Clippers Owner Donald Sterling to GF -- Don't Bring Black People to My Games ... Including Magic Johnson | TMZ.com

I think he needs to look at his roster and realize he's the one bringing black people to his games. :) Will be an interesting test for the new commissioner how he handles this.

Just amazing that you can have a completely racist NBA owner.

Head scratching that they got this far into a relationship even factoring in how much he's worth.

I almost have to think it's really not a big deal to guys like Blake Griffin or Chris Paul or even Doc Rivers. Those all seem likesmart dudes(other than Blake being maybe a young earther) and they willingly play in LA like it's nothing. The big test would be if LeBron somehow ends up in LAC this summer. If so, it's official that nobody cares

The unfortunate thing of NBA contracts. If you or I think the boss is a racist redneck we can quit and probably find a similar job within the next week. Being a NBA player doesnt give you many options as they are tied down to contracts and team control. Hopefully the NBA does something or even better lets hope the African American fanbase boycotts their games until the NBA does something.

Hopefully his GF gets rid of him also.

Where did this leak come from?

He probably gets kicks out of in his mind "owning" his players.

Maybe that rules out Blake. But Chris Paul could go anywhere he wanted last summer and elected to stay in LA. Doc Rivers probably had other coaching options but was willing to take Sterling's money.

I think Sterling is a POS, but I'm just saying this is maybe one of those things that is much more outrageous to the viewing public than it is to the actual employees involved.

Nobody really thought there was a chance of that last time and it was almost entirely because of Sterling. Everyone knew he was a racist scumbag, ask Baron Davis or anyone who pays him rent, and locally a lot of people have been waiting for something like this if it gets him kicked out.

I would imagine 10M makes a lot of problems go away

Such a POS that my uncle was *this* close to staying with the Celtics rather than following Doc and taking the same position with a team that was 30 wins better.

LeBron came out with some strong words before the game, saying there's no room for Sterling in the league and putting it squarely on Silver to take action.
LeBron James: 'No room' for Sterling in NBA if comments accurate - CBSSports.com

Seriously, how insane is it that the owners get to act like they're being generous by giving the players a 50-50 split of revenue when someone who has perennially been one of the worst, if not the worst, owner in sports can piggyback on the NBA's success and see his investment grow from $12 million in 1981 to probably close to a billion today.

James is right. The NBA needs to force Sterling to sell at this point.

Forbes has them worth $595m and IMO I wouldn't be shocked if true value was easily twice that.

Yeah, that's Bucks and Kings territory whereas the Clippers are in a market that can entice top-five players and coaches while having zero winning tradition and a grade-A scumbag in charge of things .

Likely the reason they're valued at $595 million is because of Sterling. If there was a real owner in place, I do believe they'd be worth twice that.

Easy fix-
Magic Johnson gets a group of investors together and they buy the team. Then they entice Orlando to give up their nickname. Call the team either the Los Angeles Magic or the Hollywood Magic.

Profit

Easier fix: Magic Johnson gets Showtime to pony up a bunch of money to buy the team. Entice Orlando to give up their nickname.

Bingo. Showtime Magic live again!

Or you just call them the Los Angeles Showtime

I saw this question asked elsewhere, so I'll pose it here: has there been confirmation that's Sterling on the tape?

I mean, this IS the (ex)girlfriend who is currently being sued by the estranged Mrs. Sterling for about $2m and there were previous threats that she would "get even" with them. With TMZ now reporting that she will not be cooperating with the NBA investigation, her motives are at least questionable here.

edit to add: I haven't the foggiest idea what Sterling sounds like or anything, for all I know he's got some uniquely identifiable voice & there's no question about it or whatever. I didn't even think of the possibility that it could be a fake until I saw it mentioned online earlier tonight.

Wouldn't people familiar with him be calling that aspect into question?

{shrug} Not like he's a guy that has much of a fan club, best I can tell. Far more fun to just go after the rich old white guy.

I mean, let's see how long it takes for me to end up hung, drawn and quartered for simply repeating the question (I think it came originally from one of his attorneys fwiw).

I was speaking more to how Forbes undervalues NBA franchises to the point that the Kings, a bottom-five franchise, sold for $550 million when Forbes was valuing the average NBA franchise in the low $300 millions (and keep in mind that the league turned down an offer from the group that wanted to move the Kings to Seattle that was willing to go $100 million higher than the Sacramento group's valuation).

I think her revenge was merely taping him. She knew what he could likely say if prodded to do so.

Given the circumstances (which I'd never even heard of before today) there really isn't anything that would be beyond the realm of possibility to me here.
I suspect we'll be learning quite a bit more about the girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend ?) in the days & weeks to come.

"Mr. Sterling is emphatic that what is reflected on that recording is not consistent with, nor does it reflect his views, beliefs or feelings. It is the antithesis of who he is, what he believes and how he has lived his life. He feels terrible that such sentiments are being attributed to him and apologizes to anyone who might have been hurt by them."
Thats not even trying to deny its him.

Jon, if you have not been hung, drawn and quartered by now, I think you will be safe with this question.;)

I am sorry I can't too worked up about this one. Donald Sterling's views have been on display for over three decades now. He is what he is. As far as going after the rich white guy, the NBA and it owners have shown no willingness to do this past. Maybe it is due to it being much more fun to go after the players.

Donald Sterling is the NBA's and its owners' mess, not Chris Paul's and the Clippers' - Yahoo Sports

But that exact same statement begins with the following (which has to be what I saw, team president rather than an attorney as I misremembered earlier)

and yet none of that says "Donald Sterling insists that is not him on that tape" or anything close to it. it basically says "it may have been edited to be out of context but its him...its totally him"

Yeah, wouldn't he know whether or not he said that?

His apology doesn't hint at it being edited. It is the same ole, "Oops, I got caught. Please forgive me as that isn't who I really am."

Go get those rich white guys. Thank god you're here hold the line.

Because the 20 something insanely hot girl was with him for his personality? His looks? Maybe he is cocky and funny?

What does this have to do with my comment?

The NAACP has announced the no longer plan to give Donald Sterling his second lifetime achievement award from the organization.

That and James Harden deciding to show up for game 3

SI

That was a disgrace even before this story broke. Sterling has settled multiple discrimination and harassment cases for millions. There are plenty of people in L.A. that they could have chosen, but I'm sure this was about a donation given or a donation to come. Shameful.

This wouldn't have been his first award from the group, previously honored him back in 2009.

At the time (which was in the middle of the failed Elgin Baylor lawsuit no less), the local chapter head cited Sterling's generosity in donation thousands of tickets per game to local youth groups as well as what we do know is that for the most part [Sterling] has been very, very kind to the minority youth community.

But a line judge just has to watch someone's arms and make sure nobody goes downfield on a pass play. On a play like that you have to watch Carter's feet for traveling and also make sure he wasn't stepping out of bounds, watch his hand/the ball to make sure he got the shot off on time, and also watch for a foul that could take place up top (normal shooting foul), down low (offensive player kicking his leg out) or in the midsection (the push with the off hand they would definitely be watching for since Chris Paul got away with one the night before).

Also it was an inbounds play with 1 second and change left that everybody in the stadium thought was going to go to Dirk or Monta Ellis, so it's not like one guy had his eye trained on Carter the entire time.

Back a few years ago when all of the big names hit FA and people were talking about the Clippers, I asked the question of how realistic it was any non-white player would sign with the Clippers when they had other options. Chief and I had a little discussion, but the basics were "It's LA, it's millions, they'll come"

I guess the only thing that shocks me about this is that THIS is the story that looks like it might bring this guy down. THIS. Forget the fact that rather than just telling his girl what to do he actually did discriminate against large groups of minorities and was forced to pay 7 million plus dollars to get out of the deal. Forget his history of ridiculous behavior (heckling his own players at one point) THIS is what gets him.

I guess it's good to know. Intentionally limit the options of minorities and if I'm rich enough I can recover. Piss off Magic Johnson and it's go time.

Good lord. . .

Even if you had the most trustworthy people in the world swearing that the comments were real, the story doesn't get anywhere near as big without the audio (or video in those cases). That's why it's "this" that did him in.

As the resident Clippers fan, needless to say my massive disdain for DTS has not gone down. I have wanted him gone for years. I root for the Clips in spite of him. He is a terrible person and this was a well known fact on Friday.

The NBA can't force him to sell the team, but I hope they have the power to basically make it so he can only be an absentee owner. But that's probably not possible either.

This column is probably the best thing out there for answering "why now?"

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nba...s-david-stern/

Everyone else around the league was fine with letting Sterling shit all over the place because he was creating a toxic environment that ensured the Clippers would be a laughingstock. People could point to his past incidents and say "yep, that's why the Clippers are the Clippers."

Now that the Clippers got Paul gift-wrapped to them, it put Sterling in a position of legitimacy where what he says isn't coming from some fringe lunatic but from the owner of one of the more visible/marquee franchises.

It's like having an old racist uncle. You might first think that it's not worth the trouble of calling him out when he goes on one of his rants because you only have to see him on Christmas and Thanksgiving, and he's going to die in a few years anyway. But then one day he wins the Mega Millions and becomes semi-famous, and all of a sudden everybody you know's coming up to you and saying "Wait, you're related to that guy who won the lottery, right?" Then it becomes something where never mentioning him in conversation with your friends and acquaintances isn't going to work and you'll have to be more vocal in distancing yourself from his views.

Marge Schott him for a few years, then the NBA can flip the team for nearly a billion and call it good. Hell those Seattle guys would pay a billion for LA's 2nd team and would move them to Seattle and there you go, Chris Paul as a Sonic? Almost makes up for stealing Durant and company.

I realize Clips fans wouldn't appreciate this. And I wonder if it's more lucrative to be LA's 2nd team or Seattle's 1st.

I agree with the deserved outrage about Sterling, but the takes in that article are awful. If that's the best out there, then the Internet needs to take a day off.

LA's second.

And it's not even close.

I'd vote for LAs 3rd.

But this is the same NBA that let a team move from Charlotte to New Orleans and Seattle to Oklahoma City.

NBA ain't care.

If two dudes are willing to drop a billy on your league to replace a curmudgeon owner for a payday. Lakers surely want their market and can evict the Clips out of Staples. Not saying it'll happen, but...it's tailormade for it if they need a team to relocate without really pissing off a fanbase.

I don't disagree though. They said a few years ago that NYC metro could support 6 MLB teams and even being NHL 3rd team is more lucrative than most markets in NHL, so surely this is no different.

Sponsors starting to drop the Clippers- Carmax is out and Statefarm is being reported to be as well.