While Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling used his time with Anderson Cooper to sort of apologize, cry about the one mistake that he’s made, and hurl more insults at Magic Johnson, his wife and business partner, Shelly Sterling, was a lot more pointed and serious in her interview with Savannah Guthrie on Today this morning. With her lawyer at her side, Shelly accused the NBA of being sexist because she’s being booted from the league along with her husband, instead of being allowed to remain as the majority owner of the Clippers in his place. Additionally, her attorney claimed that he’s going to look into the practices of every owner and team in the NBA, and that sounds like a huge can of worms that commissioner Adam Silver probably expected.
What Silver might not have expected is a new deadline that NBA players are putting on his previous response to force Donald to sell the team. NBA Players Association Vice President Roger Mason, Jr. told Jim Rome that LeBron James will not play at the start of next season if Sterling is still an owner.
“If it’s not handled by… the start of next season, I don’t see how we’re playing basketball,” NBPA vice president Roger Mason Jr. said in an interview with Showtime’s Jim Rome. “We have player reps, we’ve got executive committee members… Leaders of the teams, they’re all saying the same thing, ‘If [Sterling] is still in place, we ain’t playing’. … I was just in the locker room three or four days ago. LeBron and I talked about it. He ain’t playing if Sterling is still an owner.” (Via Sports Illustrated)
Now hold on a sec, Mase. Does that mean just Donald Sterling? What about Shelly Sterling and her city slicker lawyer type with all of his fancy words and thick books on a shelf in his office?
“No Sterling deserves to be an owner of that franchise any longer,” Mason continued. “And I’ve gone down the line from LeBron to the other guys in the league that I’ve talked to and they all feel the same way. There’s no place for that family in the NBA.”
Well, there you have it. Adam Silver just went from being the guy with the massive testicles to the guy standing between a rock and all of his league’s players boycotting next season. Sit back and put your feet up, friends, because this story is only going to get more and more intense.
