Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti thanked NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for “bringing down the hammer” by deciding to fine and ban LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life after he made racist comments to his girlfriend.
“I want to make clear that what we just heard today isn’t just about basketball,” he said in a press conference. “It stands for tolerance, diversity, it stands for civil rights, break-throughs, and most of all it stands for basketball excellence.”
“We may be a two-team town, but today we’re behind one team, and the players of the Los Angeles clippers who tonight we want to know that we love you, we are behind you, and that today we feel like justice has begun to be served,” he added. “Today we say we will not tolerate this from anybody, from any company, least of all one that bears this great city’s name. I want to thank commissioner silver for bringing down the hammer, for being as strong as he could be, for saying that none of us as Americans and certainly not as Angelenos will stand for the sort of racism that we heard articulated.”