Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling put his foot in his mouth again during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Sterling apologized Sunday for the taped racist remarks that led to his ban from the NBA and told Cooper that he was not a racist. But in a portion of the interview that aired Monday, Sterling further criticized NBA legend Magic Johnson, who was mentioned in Sterling’s original taped comments about not wanting his personal assistant to take photos with black people.
Sterling blasted Johnson for not doing anything to help minorities and for having “AIDS,” prompting Cooper to remind Sterling that Johnson has HIV, not full-blown AIDS.
“What kind of a guy goes to every city, has sex with every girl, then he catches HIV? Is that someone we want to respect and tell our kids about?” Sterling said. “I think he should be ashamed of himself. I think he should go into the background. But what does he do for the black people? He doesn’t do anything.”
The Clippers owner also claimed Johnson told him to stay quiet after the recording of his comments was released. Sterling posited that Johnson asked him to keep a low profile so that the former NBA player could buy the team for himself.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver released a statement apologizing to Johnson for the “malicious and personal attack” after the interview aired. Clippers coach Doc Rivers had also been informed about Sterling’s comments on a conference call earlier Monday.
“I’ll stand by Magic every day of the year because I’ve known him for a long time,” Rivers told reporters, as quoted by ESPN. “Having said that, I don’t know what’s going on out there. I tried not to get involved in that part of it right now. Whatever it is, that doesn’t sound like much of an apology to me.”
Johnson himself opted not to respond to Sterling’s comments on Twitter:
I’d rather be talking about these great NBA Playoffs than Donald Sterling’s interview.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) May 13, 2014
Watch below, courtesy of CNN:
This post has been updated.
gather around minorities, masta sterling is speaking.
thank ya masta sterling for continuing to put your foot in your mouth. i hope they speed up your ouster, clown
Next up: Donald Sterling now says Anderson Cooper “set him up” during Sterling’s interview on AC360:
“His voice changed! He kept asking me all these questions! Magic Johnson this, Magic Johnson that… Can I have some cheese to go with my whine?”
Well, call me a curmudgeon—everyone else does—but we’re at a point now where we can think up a generic name for this sort of pointless news item. For the moment I’m calling it CUBSAT—Crazy Uncle Billionaire Says a Thing. As with all crazy uncles, the best thing is to roll your eyes and ignore them.
He just removed any benefit of doubt. Should help the likes of Mark Cuban to do the right thing.
Didn’t I just see this story on The Good Wife on Sunday?