First, Magic Johnson opened the door for a wide variety of celebrities to start openly expressing interest in buying the Los Angeles Clippers, whenever the NBA finally pries it from Donald Sterling’s cold, racist hands. Then, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. really punched the door off the hinges when he said that he’s “very, very interested” in getting a group of billionaires together to buy the Clippers, even though it just so happened to conveniently come when his fight on Saturday could use some extra PR. Even Frankie Muniz got in on the action yesterday, when he Tweeted that he wanted to buy the Clippers and wrote a long, heartfelt note on Facebook about what the team means to him as a fan.
But now it seems that Magic has a serious opponent in the more realistic race to eventually purchase the team that Sterling swears isn’t for sale. According to ESPN, an ownership group that would include Oprah Winfrey, David Geffen and Larry Ellison has been named as a possible candidate to bring new life to this embattled franchise.
According to ABC News, though, Oprah wouldn’t actually be in charge of the team, which would suck because the Staples Center would have the BEST fan prize giveaways in all of professional sports. Instead, Geffen and Ellison would run the team, while Oprah would serve as more of an inspirational figurehead.
“Oprah is not interested in running the team,” Geffen told Schaap. “She thinks it would be a great thing for an important black American to own [another] franchise.
“The team deserves a better group of owners who want to win. Larry would sooner die than fail. I would sooner die than fail. Larry’s a sportsman. We’ve talked about this for a long time. Between the three of us, we have a good shot.”
Winfrey’s spokesperson, Nicole Nichols, issued a statement later Wednesday, confirming Geffen’s claim.
“Oprah Winfrey is in discussions with David Geffen and Larry Ellison to make a bid for the Los Angeles Clippers should the team become available,” Nichols said in the statement. (Via ABC News)
Let’s face it, if this team costs a billion dollars when judges and lawyers are done explaining to Sterling why it’s time to give up, this is a group that could pull that money out from behind Adam Silver’s ear. But then maybe Oprah could lure Sterling into a room and tell him that his money is inside of a box, and then…
