The NBA is hoping the second time works out better than the first.
Thirty-two years ago, the league was fed up with Donald Sterling. The Clippers owner had made late payments to players, hotels and program printers and had attempted to relocate the team from San Diego to Los Angeles, according to the L.A. Times. The smoking gun then, as it is now, was an audio tape. The committee focused on comments Sterling made at a luncheon early in 1982 stating the Clippers should finish last in order to draft college star Ralph Sampson. The special committee of six NBA owners recommended his removal in September 1982.
Sterling said the remarks were misunderstood. The NBA fined him $10,000 and a source told the Times: “He’s as good as gone.”
On Tuesday — over three decades later — Sterling was banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million by commissioner Adam Silver after recordings of him making racist comments on a private recording were made public by his girlfriend.
So, how did he survive the inquiry?
Eight days after the committee’s vote, Sterling said he wanted to sell the team. Time went on and Sterling never sold. NBA commissioner David Stern said in February 1983 the Clippers were being run in “first-class” fashion and said no further investigation was needed.
Decades of incompetence — if not outright indecency — has proven that not to be the case, and now the NBA is hoping to boot Sterling again.