Clippers owners says 'I'm sorry' over racist remark - but will it be enough to let him keep the team?
Donald Sterling, embattled owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, has made a full apology in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper for making racist remarks.
Sterling with Mexican girl-friend at Clippers game
“I’m a good member who made a mistake, and I’m apologizing and I’m asking for forgiveness,” Sterling said during the interview, scheduled to air tonight. “Am I entitled to one mistake — am I, after 35 years? I mean, I love my league, I love my partners. Am I entitled to one mistake? It’s a terrible mistake, and I’ll never do it again.”
Last month, Commissioner Adam Silver barred Sterling from the N.B.A. for life and encouraged his fellow owners to vote to force him to sell the franchise.
Also Sunday, Rochelle Sterling, his estranged wife, said she would fight any attempt by the N.B.A. to take away her stake in the team. She also disclosed that she planned to divorce her husband, with whom she partly owns the Clippers through a family trust.
“I was shocked by what he said,” she said in an interview with ABC News. “And, well, I guess whatever their decision is, we have to live with it. But I don’t know why I should be punished for his actions .”
Mike Bass, an N.B.A. spokesman, said that if three-quarters of team owners terminate the interest of a controlling owner, the interests of all other partners are terminated as well.
“It doesn’t matter whether the owners are related,” Bass said, adding, “These are the rules to which all N.B.A. owners agreed to as a condition of owning their team.”