Now Oprah Winfrey has thrown her hat in the ring regarding Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
“We are off the plantation! The plantation days are over!” she told TMZ Sports as she was leaving CBS studios in New York City on Tuesday.
Asked if she would buy the Clippers, Ms. Winfrey said, “No, but I heard Magic Johnson [say] that would be really cool.”
The real question is, now that Mr. Sterling has been banned for life from the NBA, will he be forced to sell the team?
Before NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the ban and other sanctions Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Sterling told Fox News that the Clippers are not for sale.
But the league’s constitution gives the commissioner broad powers to force an owner to sell, if three-quarters of the other owners concur in a vote.
If Mr. Sterling eventually does decide to sell, he will make a huge return on his investment: He bought the team for $12.5 million in the 1981-82 season, and today it is worth $575 million, according to Forbes magazine.
Mr. Sterling was recorded making derogatory statements about blacks, and TMZ aired some of those recordings over the weekend.
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