Posted on 05/11/2014 6:23:30 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling says he's sorry but feels he was "baited" to make racists comments, nearly two weeks after the NBA fined him and banned him for life for his remarks in a recorded conversation.
"When I listen to that tape, I don't even know how I can say words like that. ... I don't know why the girl had me say those things," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview set to air on Monday.
"You're saying you were set up?" Cooper asked. "Well yes, I was baited," Sterling said. "I mean, that's not the way I talk. I don't talk about people for one thing, ever. I talk about ideas and other things. I don't talk about people."
Sterling, an 80-year-old married lawyer and billionaire real-estate investor, hasn't spoken publicly about the accusations since celebrity gossip website TMZ posted a 10-minute audio recording of him that drew widespread condemnation from fans, players and the league.
In that audio clip, Sterling chastised friend V. Stiviano for posting pictures online of her posing with African-Americans, including basketball Hall of Famer Earvin "Magic" Johnson.
The recording triggered a firestorm that led to Sterling's lifetime ban from the NBA and a $2.5 million fine. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has asked the other 29 owners to force Sterling, the longest-tenured owner in the league, to sell the Clippers.
"I'm not a racist," Sterling told Cooper. "I made a terrible, terrible mistake. And I'm here with you today to apologize and to ask for forgiveness for all the people that I've hurt."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
He’ll lose if he sues. He bought a FRANCHISE and the franchise governors are free to revoke that license. That’s how franchise work. They’re doing him a favor letting him sell, when I was working for McDonalds corporate decided they didn’t like how one of the franchise holders in Tucson was running his stores, they took them from him, no money, no compensation, 6 stores instantly belonged to McDonalds and the old owner was SOL. That’s how franchises work, tow the line, don’t damage the brand, or else. Sterling damaged the brand, now he gets a big fat wad of or else.
I’ll be surprised if the other owners vote for him to sell.
If Sterling sues under anti-trust laws...he can call each and every one to the stand. I doubt any one of them have not done something at sometime to embarrass the league. It’s all a matter of degree.
I’ll also be surprised is Sterling sells...no matter what the vote is. The capital gains tax is staggering at this point.
Go back and review what Silver has said publicly since taking over as commissioner. At the same time parse Cuban’s statement. The NBA is about to go over the cliff.
RE: He’ll lose if he sues. He bought a FRANCHISE and the franchise governors are free to revoke that license. That’s how franchise work.
You cannot revoke a franchise wily nily and force someone to sell his shares at a loss. I think he CAN win if they do that.
By all means, pressure him to sell, but if they FORCE him to do it at a loss, that would be equivalent to property confiscation.
If Magic Johnson wants the team, let him make an offer, but if he offers him $12 Million or less and they coerce him to sell at that price, THAT would be grounds for a lawsuit and Sterling will be well within his constitutional rights to fight it.
A fair judge SHOULD rule for him. Otherwise, property rights and hard work mean nothing in this country and we will be living in what amounts to a 3rd world socialist country.
It’s “toe the line” as in military formation, meaning to conform precisely to some standard.
I doubt Silver even mentions it if he hasn’t made sure he’s got the votes.
He won’t have anything to bring them on the stand on. The question isn’t whether or not they’ve done something, the question is whether or not the generated headlines, he did, that’s why he’s out.
He’s owned the team for 30 years, the tax will be long term capital gains which are pretty low.
I heard Justin Boober got boo’d by the entire cried at the Clippers game
You can revoke a franchise for violating the by-laws, most sets of by-laws (including the NBA’s) have “conduct unbecoming” clauses. He embarrassing the league, he broke the rules.
He’s NOT going to sell for a loss. The league doesn’t want any team selling for less than half a billion, it would be embarrassing. Now he probably WILL sell for less than he could get if he wasn’t being punished, but that’s the nature of punishment.
Everybody is obsessing on Johnson, who was a Laker, if he’s going to buy an LA NBA it’ll be the one he paid for.
It’s a franchise, property rights already don’t mean anything when it’s a franchise. That’s the nature of the business.
Hmmmm. Well, I’m glad I asked the question, anyway!
He’s a “good Liberal” he’ll be forgiven by the PC crowd in about 6 months.
A man of his age should know this by now.
I guess we could debate the size of capital gains tax...but ...
Whether or not the other owners made headlines or not won’t be an issue. They won’t want their dirty laundry aired in what will be a very public trial. After all, I might think Sterling is a snake belly, but what he said was said in private. Talk about the possibility of blowing the league to smithereens.
It’s pretty telling that no charges have been brought since there is a pretty tight timeline. They all just want to get thru the play-offs. And wait for things to go away.
Like I said earlier...worst case scenario, the wife files for divorce and stops the sale of any assets...for a really long time, if you catch my drift. Then the whole thing will go to her.
The headlines are the whole issue. That’s why they want to get rid of him. They’ve known about his racial problems for a long time, it’s been one of the NBA’s open secrets. But it never made headlines, so it wasn’t a problem. Doesn’t matter if he said it in private, it became public, worse it became FRONT PAGE. Damaged the league.
Sterling would be the one to press charges, and with all his excuse mongering he doesn’t seem to be doing a good job of waiting for things to go away. At this point he’s the only one still talking, if he’d shutup it would have gone away already... at least until the next owner’s meeting.
Remember they’re already estranged, technically he owns half and she owns half. Which makes things complicated. But the MLB already navigated similar waters with the Dodgers, I’m sure the NBA can borrow some lawyers. Also remember a lot of the race problems Sterling has had were actually the wife’s activities, many of which started making headlines when all this was roiling. So it’s not outside the realm to think if the owners vote one Sterling out they’ll vote them both out, they’ve both now generated headlines embarrassing to the league.
Well, maybe we’ll find out after the play-offs. Nothing is going to happen until then. ;) If at all.
If he says something about sodomites, I doubt he’ll be talking to the Anderson (buttbandit) Cooper . . .
If you listen to the tape I think the guy has a point.
If he doesn't pay what the lawful owner requests for the Clippers, that would be “stealing”.
Really? No Capital gains even? That would be hundreds of millions.
The only mistake made was by the media, the Commissioner and all the PC knee jerks.
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