Clippers owner Donald Sterling handed lifetime ban following racist comments which Magic Johnson calls “a black eye for the NBA”
When Donald Sterling admonished his former girlfriend over the photographs she had shared on her Instagram web page this month, he probably thought that would be the end of the matter. The 80-year-oldbillionaire is, by all accounts, a man who is used to getting his own way.
However, what the veteran owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team may have thought was a trivial, private conversation has left him with a lifetime ban from any involvement with his team or the wider National Basketball Association, a maximum $2.5 million (£1.48 million) fine and the prospect of being forced to sell his franchise by fellow team owners.
The unprecedented disciplinary action, announced in New York on Tuesday by Adam Silver, the NBA Commissioner, is the culmination of an extraordinary race row that has gripped the United States after Sterling’s conversation was leaked to the media last week.
What Sterling is alleged to have said to the 31-year-old woman, Vanessa Stiviano, led to a protest by his players, a sponsors’ boycott of his franchise and almost universal condemnation from fans, NBA players, team owners and even the basketball-loving President Obama.
On Tuesday, Silver added his own rebuke, condemning Sterling’s “hateful opinions” and describing them as “deeply offensive and harmful”.
Sourcer: The Telegraph
