The NBA’s commissioner pledged to do anything in his power to force Donald Sterling to sell the Los Angeles Clippers, but the embattled owner seems unfazed.
Fox sportscaster Jim Gray reported Wednesday that he spoke to Sterling both before and after the NBA handed down its punishment. Sterling’s answer, according to Gray, was the same each time.
Sterling told Gray before the NBA’s decision on Tuesday that he has no plans to sell the Clippers.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that day in an afternoon press conference that Sterling is facing a lifetime ban from the league for making racist comments to his mistress. Silver also said he’ll urge the NBA’s Board of Governors to force Sterling to sell the Clippers.
Gray caught up with Sterling again on Wednesday, and the owner was evidently undeterred by the decision.
“I asked Donald this morning about an hour ago if there had been any change of his opinion, any change of heart now that he has been banned for life from participating in the NBA, and his exact answer was, ‘The team is not for sale. I am not selling the team,'” Gray said on Fox News.
We’ll see.
(snicker)
This guy really isn’t very bright. A sports team isn’t like a pizzeria, where you don’t have to work with the other pizzerias in town if you don’t want to. The league has a big say in who can own a team. If your ownership damages the overall brand, you’re gone. Period.
Boycott the Clippers,
Go Wiz
Obviously this is up to the nba board of govs who may yet decide to kneecap Silver and destroy the nba…but your choices are probably going to come down to making $.5-.75b profit on selling a team you paid $15m for. Or else having your franchise pulled for cause and you profit nothing. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the path you’ll likely take.
If he is allowed to remain as owner, the Clippers, NBA, and all sports fans as well as Americans, will be sorry. He is a Jim Crow, Slave owner type who will and has disrespected the rights of others to reach for happiness and security. He is a cancer and should be removed.