NBA

Outraged Doc Rivers stiffs Donald Sterling

Clippers coach Doc Rivers is convinced his team owner, Donald Sterling, made the racist remarks heard on an audiotape that has resulted in international condemnation. And he’s so bothered by it, Rivers admitted he declined to speak with Sterling.

Rivers, during a lengthy national conference call with the media Monday, was asked if Sterling had tried to contact him since the story broke over the weekend.

“He has,” said Rivers. “I was asked, ‘Do I need to talk with Donald?’ and I passed. Quite honestly, I don’t think right now is the time or the place, for me at least. So I just took a pass.”

TMZ first put an audio recording on its website, allegedly of Sterling berating his girlfriend, identified as V. Stiviano, for posting a picture of herself with Magic Johnson on social media. The man purported to be Sterling urges her not to bring African-Americans to “my games.”

Additional tapes, equally or more disturbing, have since been released. Stiviano, accused of leaking the tapes, is embroiled in an intense legal battle with Sterling’s wife.

In Rivers’ mind, there is no “alleged” or “purported” involved. He said he believes Sterling made the comments.

“I don’t know one way or the other, but yeah, I do believe he said those things. But I still want to make sure it hasn’t been doctored, but ‘yes’ is the answer,” said Rivers, in his first season coaching the Clippers, for whom he also serves as player personnel executive vice president.

“And as far as believing those things, I heard what he said,” Rivers said. “So until someone tells me differently, you usually listen to what people say. I haven’t given him his due process. I haven’t given him an opportunity to explain himself and quite honestly, right now I don’t want him to [do that] to me.”

The NBA is scheduled to hold a 2 p.m. press conference Tuesday to announce commissioner Adam Silver’s decision on what action to take regarding Sterling.

“I’ll wait for that further judgment,” said Rivers, who said he was unsure if he could continue working for Sterling in any capacity if the 80-year-old remained the Clippers owner.

“I don’t have an answer one way or the other on that,” said Rivers, who repeatedly acknowledged the difficulty of trying to prepare his team for Game 5 of its first-round series, tied 2-2, with the Warriors in Los Angeles Tuesday.