As the basketball world continues to come to grips with the alleged racist comments made by Clippers owner Donald Sterling, Michael Jordan became the latest NBA figure to condemn them.
“I look at this from two perspectives – as a current owner and a former player,” Jordan, now the owner of the Bobcats, said in a statement released early Sunday afternoon. “As an owner, I’m obviously disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views. I’m confident that Adam Silver will make a full investigation and take appropriate action quickly.
“As a former player, I’m completely outraged. There is no room in the NBA – or anywhere else – for the kind of racism and hatred that Mr. Sterling allegedly expressed. I am appalled that this type of ignorance still exists within our country and at the highest levels of our sport. In a league where the majority of players are African-American, we cannot and must not tolerate discrimination at any level.”
Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, who was directly mentioned in the audio recording first obtained by TMZ, went on ABC’s pregame show before the first game of the day between the Wizards and Bulls and said, assuming the comments are proved to have been made by Sterling, he should no longer be an NBA owner.
“I believe once Commissioner Silver does his due diligence and he gets all of the information, he’s got to come down hard,” Johnson said. “[Sterling] shouldn’t own a team anymore. And, he should stand up and say ‘I don’t want to own a team anymore,’ especially when you have African-Americans renting his apartments, coming to his games, playing for him and coaching for him.
“This is bad for everybody. This is bad for America. I’m really upset about it.”
Before the Nets faced the Raptors in Game 4 of their first round series Sunday night, Paul Pierce became the latest star player to call for Sterling’s ouster.
“Man, I was real shocked just to hear, you know, I had a chance to listen to all the comments he had and I was very shocked to hear that come from an owner,” Pierce said. “Especially from an owner who has hired a black coach, gave him a lot of power to what’s going on in the organization, just to kind of hear how he really feels.
“But the NBA is definitely going to take action. I know commissioner Adam Silver is going to have a hand in it. I don’t think there’s any place in the game for things like this, for owners like this.”
Deadspin released a longer version of the initial audio recording Sunday morning that TMZ published on its website late Friday night, in which Sterling allegedly can be heard scolding his girlfriend, V. Stiviano — who identifies herself as “black and Mexican” — for bringing African-Americans to Clipper games and for posting pictures of herself with African-Americans on her Instagram account.
TMZ printed excerpts of Sterling’s alleged discussion with her on its website, including, “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?”
I’m obviously disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views.
- Michael Jordan
He also allegedly criticized her taking a picture with Johnson, saying, “Don’t put him [Johnson] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.”
Sterling has been accused of racial discrimination before, including a housing discrimination lawsuit in 2009 in which he was alleged to have attempted to evict African-Americans and Hispanics from his properties. Sterling settled the lawsuit for $2.725 million.
Silver said in a press conference in Memphis Saturday night that Sterling had agreed not to attend Sunday’s game between the Clippers and Warriors in Oakland. He added that the investigation – which Silver said would be conducted “extraordinarily quickly” – would be wrapped up before the series returns to Los Angeles for Game 5 Tuesday. A league source confirmed that Kevin Johnson – the Sacramento mayor and former NBA star who is working with the NBA’s Players Association on both this issue and its search for an executive director – is scheduled to meet with Silver before Sunday’s game, which Silver was already planning on attending.
Former Clipper Shaun Livingston said he would be waiting to see what action Silver and the league office takes after it gathers all the facts.
“Well, I’m kind of waiting to see how everything unfolds,” Livingston said. “But, you know, as far as the media coverage and as far as everybody’s opinions, you see how strongly everybody feels, and I’m kind of the same way. It’s an unfortunate situation.”
Deron Williams, who is the Nets’ union representative, said that there was a conference call to discuss the situation late Saturday night, but that he was already asleep ahead of team’s game Sunday. And while there was reportedly some brief consideration by the Clippers players of potentially boycotting Sunday’s game, Williams said he could completely understand why they are still playing.
“The comments were unfortunate,” Williams said. “They’re in bad taste. But as a player, your job is to get on the floor and play, and I don’t see that affecting any of the guys on that team. It’s definitely unfortunate that they have to deal with during the playoffs, at such a crucial time, but it is what it is and you can’t really control it.”