14 DAY TRIAL // After days of controversy and the most conflicting reports, disgraced LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who was exposed as racist in a couple of audio recordings believed to have been leaked by girlfriend / personal archivist V. Stiviano, is finally speaking out.
Sterling landed himself in very hot waters last weekend, when said recordings emerged online. They were of a conversation between himself and Stiviano, in which he was admonishing her for “broadcasting” her association with minorities, especially African-Americans, on social media. Sterling’s “only” request was that she stopped this.
After the racist scandal, the NBA has banned him for life, fined him $2.5 million (€1.8 million) and decided he would be forced to sell the Clippers. So far, Sterling has been keeping mum on the scandal and NBA’s decision.
Speaking with DuJour Media Group founder Jason Binn, he’s not exactly addressing the scandal either. “I wish I had just paid her off,” he says, referring to Stiviano. He’s probably not unaware of the fact that, in going on record on this, he’s confirming the rumor that Stiviano had been blackmailing him with the recordings, which she then made public when he refused to play the game.
Sterling also says that he’ll be addressing the scandal in interviews with Barbara Walters and CNN’s Anderson Cooper. TMZ informs that neither will actually happen, Sterling backing out of both at the last minute.
He actually arrived with Stiviano for the Barbara Walters interview but left saying he’d had a change of heart. Stiviano, however, recorded her part, as the preview video below can confirm.
In it, she speaks of Sterling in very loving terms, saying he’s like a “father figure” to her and lamenting how lonely he must feel right now, even though she’s there for him at this difficult time. The aforementioned media outlet reports that, in the same interview, Stiviano insists Sterling is not racist and that the 15 minutes of audio that leaked were “taken out of context.”
While the entire world is convinced that there was no way Sterling’s inflammatory statements could have been misinterpreted, he is said to have decided not to sell the Clippers, despite the NBA ruling. In other words, chances are he’ll also run with this story, that his words were “taken out of context” so that he could be vilified in the press.
Then again, if he does that, he must know that previous incidents that painted him as a racist are bound to get media attention once more. That means he must gear up for one huge fight.