Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling strongly pushed back against the idea of selling his basketball team in a audio recording published Thursday.
“You can’t force somebody to sell property in America!” Sterling said to an unidentified person on the recording, which was obtained by Radar Online. “Well, I’m a lawyer, that’s my opinion.”
It’s unclear when the conversation took place. Radar Online said the source of the recording provided an affidavit confirming that Sterling spoke on the call, and described the person Sterling was speaking with as a long-time friend.
Last month Sterling was banned for life from the NBA by league commissioner Adam Silver for making racist comments that were caught on tape. Silver also said he’d ask the league’s Board of Governors to force Sterling to sell the Clippers. Sterling reacted to the ruling at the time by asserting that “the team is not for sale.”
On the new recording, the Clippers owner also vehemently denied that he was a racist.
“You know I’m not a racist!” he told his unidentified friend, adding that because he grew up as a Jew in East L.A., where his classmates were mostly black and Hispanic, “people must have a good feeling for me.”
Listen below:
