NBA Scandal -- Ever Wonder How LA Clippers' Owner Spends $$$ He Saves On Good Players?

The Smoking Gun ^ | August 15, 2004 | The Smoking Gun

[L.N. Smithee]

NBA Owner In Sex Scandal

Los Angeles Clippers boss admitted he paid to play

AUGUST 12--Just what the NBA needs, another sex scandal: Donald Sterling, the miserly tycoon who owns the Los Angeles Clippers, testified last year that he regularly paid a Beverly Hills woman for sex, describing her as a $500-a-trick "freak" with whom he coupled "all over my building, in my bathroom, upstairs, in the corner, in the elevator." Sterling's graphic testimony--which came during a two-day pretrial deposition in connection with a lawsuit he filed against the woman, Alexandra Castro--will surely nettle basketball commissioner David Stern, who normally has to explain away the behavior of 20-something athletes, not married 70-year-old club owners worth nearly a billion. During a sworn January 2003 deposition, Sterling denied having a relationship with Castro, though he changed his testimony when questioned again last August. In often explicit detail, Sterling recounted three years of transactions with Castro, whom he met in mid-1999 (below you'll find excerpts from Sterling's deposition). While acknowledging that, "maybe I morally did something wrong," the Clippers owner was not shy when it came to describing hour-long sessions with Castro, whom Sterling credited with "s***ing me all night long" and whose "best sex was better than words could express." Testifying that he was "quietly concealing it from the world," Sterling had a blunt appraisal of his "exciting" relationship with Castro: "It was purely sex for money, money for sex, sex for money, money for sex." Sterling, a Los Angeles real estate mogul, bought the Clippers in 1981 for $12.5 million and the franchise--one of the most profitable in the NBA--is now worth more than $200 million. Since Sterling's purchase, the team has amassed the NBA's worst combined record and gained a reputation as a stingy operation that will trade an exceptional player before paying him a superstar's salary. (14 pages)

[L.N. Smithee]

A warning to the sensitive: The fourteen pages of the deposition that The Smoking Gun has posted are shocking in the way that Sterling raves about the sexual talent of Ms. Castro time and time again. It's almost like a letter to Penthouse, but he is speaking for posterity before several witnesses instead of writing and sending it anonymously. He even speaks without any apparent fear or shame about how much time he spent with his wife and family all week long, and then continued to note how the beautiful Castro was at his beck and call, and turned him inside out whenever she needed cash.

Nonetheless, near the end, when apparently the subject of a possible pregnancy comes up, Sterling all of a sudden becomes quasi-evangelical:

---

[Sterling:] ...I wouldn't have a child and certainly not with that piece of trash. Come on. This girl is the lowest form. Wait until the men testify as to -- she is a freak. A total freak.

[Attorney:] Now, when was it that you became of the opinion that she is a woman of the lowest form? When was that?

[Sterling:] Well, I will tell you. When a woman excites you, sometimes that part of your body controls your mind. I knew from the day she came in that she was a total freak and a piece of trash...

---

Apparently, because 'that part' of Sterling's body controlled his mind, he forgot that whether or not he would "have a child" with such "a piece of trash" was not up to him -- it was up to the "piece of trash." (Roe vs. Wade, SCOTUS, 1973)

I don't know what has become of Sterling's wife, whether she remained with him after Castro called her and spilled the beans about her trysts with the vise-grip-fisted owner, but if she is sticking around after she has read this deposition, I have less respect for her than I do Mrs. McGreevey. At least Gay-vernor Jim has the lame excuse about being conflicted about his sexuality; Sterling is a hetero whoremonger and, judging from these excerpts, seems durn proud of it.

Next thing you know, he'll run for President on the Democratic ticket.

[zarf]

Well, I will tell you. When a woman excites you, sometimes that part of your body controls your mind. I knew from the day she came in that she was a total freak and a piece of trash...

Good God Amos! This cat sounds like my college dorm room mate.

[dfwgator]

Next thing you know, he'll run for President on the Democratic ticket.

Nah, he's not gay enough.

[ken5050]

But can she dunk?

[NYCVirago]

Sterling is not just a pervert and a cheapskate, he's a poor businessman. Big deal that his franchise is worth $200 million -- it's in the second-biggest media market in the country and should be worth twice that. Heck, just the franchise cost for starting the Charlotte Bobcats was $300 million.

Do you know what this lawsuit is about? Did the hooker sue him, so he sued her, or what? That's what it sounded like. He was too cheap to even buy discretion with a hooker!

[finnigan2]

Listen, you're a 70+ year old billionaire whose found a $500. a trick hooker that can do things his wife has never thought about for the past 30 years. He's in seventh heaven. Let him enjoy his sunset years - the old coot can afford it and I suspect all the men on this site in a similar situation would carry on the same way.

[KC_Conspirator]

I believe that Sterling is the only owner in the NBA to run a franchise that has posted a profit for 14 straight years. Odd.

[RichInOC]

[snickering]

Well, I guess I'm going to have to revise my earlier opinion of The Other Donald. He is willing to spend money. Just not on basketball.

[sharktrager]

I don't know, but it sounds like the owner sure can take it to the hole.

[L.N. Smithee]

Do you know what this lawsuit is about? Did the hooker sue him, so he sued her, or what? That's what it sounded like. He was too cheap to even buy discretion with a hooker!

I don't know what the root of it is because the folks at TSG didn't seem to want to explain it. The title of the suit, as listed on the cover of the massive Sterling deposition, is "California Savings vs. Alexandra Castro."

I am not a lawyer, but it appears to me that California Savings is suing her for non-payment on items that were allegedly illegally charged on Sterling's credit card. On this page, a lawyer asks Sterling if he ever authorized Castro to make a purchase on his credit card. Maybe some with a background in law could clear that up.

Additionally, perhaps a legal eagle could confirm or deny another possibility; that Sterling is trying to avoid being charged with perjury after saying in January 2003 that he had no intimate relationship with Castro. He insists his affectionate letters to Castro ("I adore you more than words can express") really meant that she was the best roll-in-the-hay he ever had, and that if their relationship was purely sex-for-cash/gifts, that means they weren't ever really "intimate."

Once again, the range of strained reasoning is reminiscent of Bill Clinton ('I never thought we were really alone').

[ken5050]

LOL!!!!!!!!LMAO!!!That's a hard one to top..especially on a Monday morning..first thing..but I'll try...Gov McGreevey is appealing to the Jewish vote...after all he only eats kosher meat...

[L.N. Smithee]

Let him enjoy his sunset years - the old coot can afford it and I suspect all the men on this site in a similar situation would carry on the same way.

Don't project on me, pal. Some of us don't have a price (1 Corinthians 10:13).

And while "the old coot can afford it," this certainly is not a considerate thing to do to his wife and children. For instance, most of us were in blissful ignorance of Mrs. McGreevey. Now, many of us who know who she is now think of her as a fool, either for standing by his side, or by not realizing what was up with her HINO (Husband-in-name-only) long ago.

[L.N. Smithee]

Ewwwwwww.

[AngryJawa]

Gee, I can spend $500 on a freaky hooker or millions on a collection of thug roundball players.

Let me think about that. I'll get back to you.

[Moonman62]

Let him enjoy his sunset years - the old coot can afford it and I suspect all the men on this site in a similar situation would carry on the same way.

Speak for yourself.

[DouglasKC]

Listen, you're a 70+ year old billionaire whose found a $500. a trick hooker that can do things his wife has never thought about for the past 30 years. He's in seventh heaven. Let him enjoy his sunset years - the old coot can afford it and I suspect all the men on this site in a similar situation would carry on the same way.

Thanks be to God not all of us...

[finnigan2]

".... this certainly is not a considerate thing to do to his wife and children."

- I wouldn't have thought so either, but the trial transcript, posted on the Smoking Gun web site, reveals that the old coot in fact introduced the hooker to his wife who was apparently well aware of their activities. Chacun a son gout, as Chirac might say. Look, I really can't get too exercised about the whole thing. I find it more amusing than perverted or disgusting. As a famous person once said about 100 years ago: " You can pretty much do anything you want, as long as you don't do it in the street and scare the horses."
Still true today, I'm afraid.

[L.N. Smithee]

Gee, I can spend $500 on a freaky hooker or millions on a collection of thug roundball players. Let me think about that. I'll get back to you.

You don't seem to get it. It is presumed by sports fans that the owners of their teams are in the business because they want someday to be handed a world championship trophy. That seems to be the goal for owners like George Steinbrenner (natch), Jerry Buss of the Lakers, Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, the Maloof brothers of the Sacramento Kings, and Bill Davidson, who pulled off a feat never before heard of in professional sports -- three professional championship trophies for one owner in one calendar year (WNBA Detroit Shock, NHL Tampa Bay Lightning, NBA Detroit Pistons).

If you, as an owner, actually think of your players as "thugs," you shouldn't be an owner. You should quit cheating the fans, and do them the favor of getting your raspberries out of the sports biz.

Sterling is one of those sports owners who enforces his own version of the Peter Principle (once a player begins to rise to the highest level of his competence, he has priced himself out of the team's budget). I titled the thread like I did because it shows the circumstances under which he is willing to be a spendthrift.

[L.N. Smithee]

I wouldn't have thought so either, but the trial transcript, posted on the Smoking Gun web site, reveals that the old coot in fact introduced the hooker to his wife who was apparently well aware of their activities.

If you are referring to the same document that this thread links to, you are mistaken. Click here.

[goldstategop]

How much would you spend on a woman you're not even living with together? Stirling has got his marbles loose in his dotage.