Credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images Sport
After what could only be described as “repugnant,” “shameful” and a “black eye for the NBA,” a wave of public figures are responding to the racist comments spewed out by a man identified as L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
Over the weekend, Sterling was caught on tape telling his biracial girlfriend not to bring any Blacks to his games.
It all started when his girlfriend, V. Stiviano, posted a picture of herself with basketball icon Magic Johnson on Instagram.
After Sterling saw the photo, he unleashed his disgusting, racist rant.
Some of the highlights from the audio tape that was obtained by TMZ include the following quotes:
“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with Black people. Do you have to?”
“You can sleep with [Black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games.”
“I’m just saying, in your lousy f*****g Instagrams, you don’t have to have yourself with, walking with Black people.”
“…Don’t put [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me and don’t bring him to my games.”
At one point in the tape, she even reminds Sterling that she is mixed, and he responds by telling her, “You told me you were going to remove those.”
Well now everyone from Miami Heat star LeBron James to former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann want Sterling out of the NBA.
“It’s unacceptable as a commissioner in our league, they have to make a stand and they have to be very aggressive with it,” James told the Miami Herald. “I don’t know what it’s going to be, but you just can’t have that in our league.”
Magic Johnson made it clear that he won’t be showing up to anymore Clippers games from now on and he encourages others to do the same.
“@cjbycookie and I will never go to a Clipper game again as long as Donald Sterling is the owner,” Johnson tweeted after TMZ released the audio clip. “I feel sorry for my friends Coach Doc Rivers and Chris Paul that they have to work for a man that feels that way about African Americans.”
He then went on to say that Sterling’s comments were a “black eye for the NBA.”
Olbermann took to Twitter to say that it was time for the Clippers to “step up” and “refuse to play” until the NBA addresses “this racist jackass #Sterling.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton also spoke out about the comments and said Sterling needs to have his team taken away from him.
“No one should be allowed to own a team if they have in fact engaged in this kind of racial language,” Sharpton said. “We are prepared at National Action Network to rally in front of NBA headquarters if this matter is not immediately dealt with.”
Rapper Meek Mill spoke to TMZ cameras and referred to Sterling as the “definition of racism.”
Hear the full audio tape of the nearly 10-minute racist rant below:
