Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling banned for life from NBA
Clippers owner Donald Sterling will no longer be able to attend any NBA game for life.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday mid-afternoon addressed the Donald Sterling issue and had arranged a press conference to announce the final report of the league’s investigation into the tapes released by TMZ on Friday which had recorded Los Angeles Clippers owner making racist remarks.
“I am banning Mr. Sterling for life from any association with the Clippers organization or the NBA.We stand together in condemning Mr. Sterling’s views. They simply have no place in the NBA.”- Adam Silver
The real estate mogul’s punishment was announced almost four days after he was heard on a recording released by TMZ telling his mistress, V Stiviano, to stop bringing black guests to Clippers games. He also complained that Stiviano, who frequently accompanies him at the Staples Center, was posing with black people in photographs posted to her Instagram account.
The sports news site Deadspin posted what it said was an extended, 15-minute version of the conversation. The president said the comments allegedly made by the basketball tycoon were “incredibly offensive” and showed how the United States continued to wrestle with the legacy of race, slavery and segregation.
“When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk. That’s what happened here.
“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people,” the man identified as Sterling says at one point in the recording, scolding the woman for posting photos of herself with black people.
“I’m just saying, in your … Instagrams, you don’t have to have yourself with, walking with black people.”
Adam Silver has fined Sterling 2.5 million dollars, the maximum allowed under the NBA constitution and further stated that he would push and urge the board of governor’s to exercise their authority regarding the sale of the Clippers’ team.
There has been no indication or announcement about whether the entire team would be moved to another location or would remain in Los Angeles with a new owner or the team would be cut with the players becoming free agents.
The league’s official announcement comes a day after various companies such as Red Bull, State Farm, Adidas, KIA, Virgin America associated with the Clippers organization had decided to suspend their marketing and advertising activities with the organization.
Here are further details with a clip from Adam Silver’s press conference where he announced the ban on Donald Sterling:
http://youtu.be/MEzLU1U0-_k