NBA probes claim of racist remarks by Clippers boss Donald Sterling

[eppur_se_muova]

Source: BBC

In a recording posted on celebrity news website TMZ, a man it says is Donald Sterling is heard asking a woman not to broadcast her association with black people nor bring them to games.

The NBA described the remarks as "disturbing and offensive".

Mr Sterling later told TMZ the recording "does not reflect his views".

TMZ published the 10-minute audio recording on its website on Friday.



Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27176604

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Sterling is trying to deny responsibility for the recording.

[Botany]

1. Sterling later told TMZ the recording (of me speaking and my voice) "does not reflect his views".

Mr. Sterling please say hi to Donny Rumsfeld, "We know where the weapons are north, south, and east
of Tikrit."

[christx30]

2. That's big person speak for "I didn't mean it."

[MyNameGoesHere]

3. More like I didn't mean to get caught. eom

[LeftyMom]

4. I think this is what he meant:

[pinboy3niner]

9. "Pay no attention to the words that came out of my mouth"

[DeSwiss]

5. Okay......

...so those words you were recorded saying don't reflect your views.

Now.

- Before, not so much. Wanker.

K&R

[RandySF]

6. What does he mean "does not reflect his views"?

Is he saying that's not him making that remark, or that he made a racist remark while not really being a racist?

[KinMd]

7. In a related development, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy announced

he and his family would buy Clipper season tickets.

[itsrobert]

8. And he will put a Double Wide on the shoulder of the I-10 near Staples

may block a couple lanes. But what the hay, its the InterSTATE, not the InterFED.

[alp227]

10. Now Sterling is attacking his girlfriend's credibility

since gf who released the tape is being sued for embezzlement.

[AngryAmish]

16. oh, the girlfriend is a piece of work

That don't change what he said.

[condoleeza]

11. Oh, puleeze people

I was just as outraged as most of us were when I saw the headlines, but this whole thing is just pathetic.

How many of you even listened to the full recording? This whole Donald Sterling racism hype on the Internet today is pretty pathetic, IMO. Listen carefully to the conversation that his half black, half Latina, way too much younger, girlfriend made public for some reason. I'm hearing a man who knows he's been stupid to have been in a relationship with her and she is intentionally trying to make him out to be the bad guy here. We don't know the grizzlies, this was a private conversation he was having with a woman he seemed to be quickly realizing was a bad mistake and was ending it in this conversation and I didn't "hear" racism in anything he said. I'm a white woman of the 60's who marched and fought for racial equality.

This was a set up, IMO, you don't just record a phone conversation for no reason with someone you're in a relationship with. Admittedly don't know if he has a history of racist comments, but I heard none of that in this conversation. Just heard an old rich guy who took that into a relationship with a young attractive woman who had an agenda.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Ptah]

12. Really?

“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that
you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?”

“You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever
you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games.”

Don’t put him [Magic 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.”

[BumRushDaShow]

14. "Correct me if I'm wrong."

Done. And hope the players and fans bankrupt his ass.

It's irrelevant that she is "half black, half Latina". Some of the most virulent racists use a relationship with the object of their hatred as a cover to continue to spout their hateful views.... Just like teabaggers shove an Alan West or a Ben Carson or a Clarence Thomas out there to superficially claim they mean or cause no harm because they associate with these men.

Yet they live lives of twisted hypocrisy as they continue to do everything in their power to dismiss, demean, degrade, and destroy people not like them while secretly coveting those they hate (see Strom Thurmond and a "relationship" with a black woman that resulted in an "illegitimate" daughter (finally revealed when he was on his death bed), as an example)).

[maryellen99]

18. You do know that when he was a real estate developer

He was sued by the Justice Dept for housing discrimination against African Americans and Hispanics.

[Paladin]

19. So it's all the woman's fault, is it?

Yeah, you're wrong, all right. And I think your User Name is well-chosen.

[yuiyoshida]

13. the recording "does not reflect his views".

WHOSE VIEWS does it reflect????

[kelliekat44]

15. What does that mean? All the owners feel the same way. Sterling was afraid of their ridicule.

That's what he was trying to get his GF to understand. She set him up beautifully.

[philosslayer]

17. Just another republican opening his mouth and saying what he really thinks

Why should anyone be surprised?

[Algernon Moncrieff]

20. ESPN: Silver: Sterling won't attend Game 4

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Facing his first major issue as NBA commissioner, Adam Silver said he plans to show restraint and allow an investigation to play out before imposing any sanctions on Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling after an audio tape surfaced of Sterling purportedly making racist remarks.

Silver said Sterling was owed due process but that the league would move "extraordinarily quickly" in gathering and verifying facts surrounding the recording released by TMZ. In the interim, Sterling told the league he would not attend his team's playoff game Sunday at Golden State.

"All members of the NBA family should be afforded due process and a fair opportunity to present their side of any controversy," Silver said. "The core of the investigation is understanding whether the tape is authentic, interviewing Mr. Sterling and interviewing the woman as well and understanding the context in which it was recorded."

Silver spent the day Saturday communicating with Sterling's fellow owners, Clippers coach Doc Rivers, point guard and players' union president Chris Paul, and league attorneys while flying into Memphis on a previously scheduled visit.

Compete article at link

President Obama on Sterling (video)