The estranged wife of disgraced LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling — who’s fighting for the right to keep her husband’s team — says there’s a double-standard when it comes to women being involved with the NBA.
“To be honest with you, I’m wondering if a wife of one of the owners — and there’s 30 owners — did something like that, said those racial slurs, would they oust the husband? Or would they leave the husband in?” Shelly Sterling said during an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters.
Shelly, who already owns half the team, has vowed to try to buy her husband’s half now that he has been banned by the NBA for life for spewing racist slurs.
“She wants to remain a passive owner,” her lawyer, Pierce O’Donnell, told CNN.
“She’s not going to want to manage the team. She’s going to want a very skilled, professional, well-heeled new owner to come in and replace Donald.
“She only wants to own the team in her lifetime. She’s 79 years old. At this point, she’s earned it. She’s been an owner for 33 years, and she’s an avid fan.”
But the NBA says Shelly wouldn’t be allowed to keep her interest if three-fourths of the league’s owners vote to force her husband to sell his share.
Newly appointed interim Clippers CEO Dick Parsons said Monday he is confident enough owners will vote to boot Donald Sterling.
Asked about the 80-year-old billionaire’s mea culpa a day earlier, Parsons simply said, “He’s a little late, to be sure.’’
Sterling himself has said he would fight to retain ownership — although he may have trouble finding legal representation.
At least eight top California law firms have refused to work with him, it was reported Monday.
The big-name legal eagles are afraid they’ll alienate their black clients and corporate customers sensitive to the public-relations nightmare of being associated with the radioactive Sterling, sources told the Web site TMZ.
A source close to Sterling snipped that these are the same top-notch lawyers who have routinely asked the loud-mouthed owner for tickets to Clips games.
Sterling on Sunday told CNN he had made “a terrible mistake’’ and was “sorry’’ for making his taped racist comments.
“If I said anything wrong, I’m sorry,’’ Sterling told Anderson Cooper. “Am I entitled to one mistake, am I, after 35 years?”
He then tried to claim he was “baited’’ into making the remarks by former gal pal V. Stiviano.
“I thought she liked me and really cared for me,’’ he said of Stiviano, 31. “I guess being 51 years older than her, I was deluding myself.’’