Donald Sterling, the embattled Los Angeles Clippers owner who’s making media waves because of racial comments about blacks, has put his foot in his mouth once again, dismissing basketball legend Magic Johnson’s contributions to the game and to society as little more than contracting AIDS.
“What has he done? Can you tell me? He’s got AIDS,” Mr. Sterling told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Mr. Johnson is one of a handful who has come forward to express interest in buying Mr. Sterling’s team. Mr. Sterling was fined $2.5 million and booted for life from the NBA over comments he made that included telling his female friend to not post pictures of herself with blacks on her Instagram account and not bring blacks to the games. The NBA commissioner is now pressing for Mr. Sterling to sell his interest in the Clippers.
Mr. Sterling suggested during his interview on CNN that Mr. Johnson may actually have played a behind-scenes role in orchestrating his fall from grace just so that he could grab his Clippers.
Mr. Sterling’s logic: He said Mr. Johnson told him to keep quiet about the audio tapes, which included his order to then-girlfriend V. Stiviano to avoid bringing the former basketball great to games, Breitbart reported. Mr. Sterling said it was just a short time later he learned Mr. Johnson wanted to buy the Clippers — and that something secretive was apparently going on, Breitbart said.
“I think he wanted me to just do nothing so that he could buy the team,” Mr. Sterling told CNN. “What has [Johnson] done for the black people? He does nothing. It’s all talk.”
Mr. Sterling then accused Mr. Johnson of being promiscuous and of getting AIDS on account of his promiscuity.
“I just don’t think he’s a good example for the children of Los Angeles,” Mr. Sterling told CNN. He later said of Mr. Johnson in the same interview: “I think he should be ashamed of himself. I think he should go into the background.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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