On the 22nd anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, hundreds of city residents demonstrated outside the Staples Center on Tuesday to celebrate the Los Angeles Clippers before their fifth playoff game — and to protest the team’s owner, Donald Sterling.
Earlier that day, Sterling had been banned for life from the NBA by the league’s commissioner, Adam Silver, for racist comments he made that have been aired publicly. Silver called for Sterling to lose ownership of the Clippers.
The pre-game demonstration was organized by local activists Najee Ali, Jasmyne Cannick, Nation of Islam minster Tony Muhammad, and the Rev. K.W. Tulloss, pastor of Weller Street Missionary Baptist Church, as well as several community groups.
Carrying signs calling for Sterling’s ouster, the demonstrators expressed support for Silver’s ban as they called for the NBA’s other owners to strip Sterling of his ownership of the Clippers.
“We want the owners to now take ownership and, as the commissioner said, vote Sterling out,” said the Rev. Jonathan Moseley, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church.
“I’ve been a Clippers fan forever, and no real Clippers fan has ever liked Donald Sterling — never in the history of the team,” said demonstrator Mike Nolan. “We love our team, we love our city. On the front of the jerseys, it says ‘Los Angeles’ — not ‘Donald Sterling’s’ — Clippers, right?”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.