Donald Sterling
Donald Sterling | |
---|---|
Born | Donald Samuel Tokowitz April 26, 1934 |
Other names | Donald T. Sterling |
Education | |
Occupation(s) | Attorney, businessman |
Known for | Former owner of the San Diego / Los Angeles Clippers |
Spouse |
Shelly Sterling (m. 1955) |
Children | 3 |
Donald T. Sterling (born Donald Samuel Tokowitz;[1] April 26, 1934) is an American attorney and businessman who was the owner of the San Diego/Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1981 to 2014.
In April 2014, Sterling was banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million by the league after private recordings of him making racist comments were made public.[2] NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who announced Sterling's suspension, said he would "immediately" recommend to the NBA board of governors that Sterling be forced to sell the team.[3] In May, Sterling's wife Shelly reached an agreement for the Sterling Family Trust to sell the Clippers for $2 billion to Steve Ballmer. Sterling contested the agreement in court, but the NBA Board of Governors approved the sale of the Clippers to Ballmer in August 2014.[4][5] Sterling settled his lawsuit against the NBA in November 2016 and remains active in Los Angeles real estate.[6][7]
Sterling’s ownership of the Clippers is often criticized, and many consider him one of the worst owners in American sports history.[8][9][10][11][12]
Early life
Donald Sterling was born Donald Tokowitz on April 26, 1934, in
When he was 25, he and his wife Shelly changed their surname to "Sterling", filing a formal petition to do so on December 9, 1959.[21] They cited the difficulty among his peers to pronounce "Tokowitz" and the belief that there would be financial benefits for the change.[21]
Legal and real estate career

In 1961, Sterling started his career as a divorce and
In the 1960s, Sterling also purchased
NBA ownership
Sterling and
At his introductory news conference in San Diego, Sterling vowed to "spend unlimited sums" to build the Clippers into a contender, and he embarked on a county-wide marketing campaign featuring his smiling face on billboards and the backs of buses.[13][25][26][27] The seminal ads read: "My Promise: I will make you proud of the Clippers".[26] Unlike Buss' instant success with the Lakers (including winning an NBA championship in his first season as owner, 1979–80), Sterling and his Clippers struggled through many lackluster seasons, and they did not have their first winning season until the 1991–92 season, 11 years into his ownership. In Sterling's 33 years of owning the Clippers through 2013–14, the Clippers lost 50 or more games 22 times, 60 or more on eight occasions, and 70 games once. Their 9–41 record in the lockout-shortened 1998–99 season projected to another 60-loss season.[28]
The NBA in 1982 fined Sterling $10,000, the largest sum ever levied against an owner at the time, after he commented that he would accept the Clippers finishing in last place in order to draft an impact player like Ralph Sampson.[13][26][29] In June 1982, Sterling attempted to move the team to Los Angeles. This prompted an investigation of the Clippers by an NBA committee of six owners. In September, the group recommended that Sterling's ownership be terminated, having found that he was late in paying creditors and players.[26] Days before a league scheduled vote in October to remove Sterling, he agreed to sell the team, and the league sought buyers who would keep the franchise in San Diego. At the suggestion of David Stern, then the league's vice president, Sterling was able to maintain his position as owner, instead handing over operations duties of the franchise to Alan Rothenberg, who became the team's president. By February 1983, Stern called the Clippers a "first-class" franchise, and the ouster of Sterling was no longer pursued.[26][30]
Encouraged by friend
Sterling rebuffed numerous offers from other cities to relocate the Clippers and was steadfast in his refusal to move the team out of Los Angeles, let alone sell the team. While the team played a few games in
Under Sterling's ownership, only Dunleavy and Bill Fitch (1994–1998) lasted four seasons or more as Clippers head coach; as of the 2009–10 NBA season, Dunleavy entered his seventh season as Clippers head coach, by far the longest tenure in franchise history, but was relieved of his coaching duties on February 4, 2010. Dunleavy was also the club's general manager, but was fired from that position a month later.[37] The Clippers accused Dunleavy of defrauding the team, and he sued the club for money owed on the remainder of his contract; an arbitrator ordered the Clippers to pay Dunleavy $13 million in 2011.[38] The Clippers also went to court with former head coaches Fitch and Bob Weiss.[39] Weiss, who signed a three-year contract but was fired in 1994 after one season, had to sue to receive money that was still owed him.[39][40][41] In 2001, the Clippers sued the 63-year-old Fitch, whom the team had fired in 1998, after they stopped paying him for failing to seek employment to reduce the team's obligation for payment.[39][41][42] The suit reached an undisclosed settlement before going to court.[41]
Sterling spent $50 million to build a state-of-the-art practice facility and team headquarters in Los Angeles'
Sterling's ownership was viewed critically.[13] ESPN The Magazine in 2009 named the Clippers the worst franchise in professional sports.[43][44] Uncharacteristic for an owner, Sterling in 2010 heckled players on his own team—with Baron Davis receiving the harshest treatment—while the owner sat courtside during home games.[45][46]
In late April 2014, following news of racial remarks,
Racist remarks and lifetime ban
On April 25, 2014, TMZ Sports released a recording of a conversation between Sterling and his mistress, V. Stiviano (born María Vanessa Perez, also known as Monica Gallegos, Vanessa Perez, and Maria Valdez).[50][51] In the recording from September 2013, a man confirmed to be Sterling was irritated over a photo Stiviano had posted on Instagram, in which she posed with Basketball Hall of Fame player and Laker great Magic Johnson.[52][53] Sterling told Stiviano, who herself is part African-American: "It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people," and, "You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want," but "the little I ask you is ... not to bring them to my games."[54][55]
The recording received national media coverage[56] and Sterling retained Newport Beach-based attorney Bobby Samini as his lead counsel in litigation with the NBA, TMZ, and Stiviano.[57]
Clippers president Andy Roeser issued a statement the following day,[58] indicating that Stiviano was being sued by the Sterling family and had told Mr. Sterling that she would "get even" with him.[59] A month earlier, Sterling's wife had sued Stiviano for the return of items she said her husband had given Stiviano, including a $1.8 million Los Angeles duplex, a Ferrari, two Bentleys, a Range Rover, and $200,000 cash.[60][61]
Sterling's comments affected the NBA, a league with
On April 29, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that Sterling had been banned from the league for life and fined $2.5 million, the maximum fine allowed by the NBA constitution.[52][72] Silver stripped Sterling of virtually all of his authority over the Clippers, and banned him from entering any Clippers facility. He was also banned from attending any NBA games.[52][73] The punishment was one of the most severe ever imposed on a professional sports team owner.[53] Moreover, Silver stated that he would move to force Sterling to sell the team, based on a willful violation of the rules, which would require the consent of three-quarters, or 22, of the other 29 NBA team owners.[74]
In his first public comments in nearly two weeks after his ban from the NBA, Sterling appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper on May 11 to apologize, saying he was "not a racist", and ask for forgiveness.[75] He said he was "baited" by Stiviano into making the offensive comments.[75] In the interview, Sterling criticized Magic Johnson's character and his battle with HIV.[76] In response to Sterling, Silver apologized for the NBA to Johnson "that he continues to be dragged into this situation and be degraded by such a malicious and personal attack".[77]
Sterling's wife, Shelly, had co-owned the team with him since 1983, and she had served as one of the team's two alternate governors.[78] While she was not included in the NBA's ban on Sterling,[79] the league stated that "if a controlling owner's interest is terminated by a 3⁄4 vote, all other team owners' interests are automatically terminated as well".[80] In response to the NBA's decision, Sterling's attorney Bobby Samini called the NBA a "band of hypocrites," citing previous discriminatory conduct by the NBA, and suggested the organization "take a close reflection at their own conduct."[81] The NBA formally charged Sterling with damaging the league with his comments from both the TMZ recording and the CNN interview, and scheduled a hearing to begin on June 3, after which the league could vote to terminate the Sterlings' ownership.[82][83]
On May 23, Shelly Sterling said her husband had authorized her to negotiate the sale of the team.[84] On May 29, she reached a deal, pending NBA approval, to sell 100% of the Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.[85] Shelly also agreed not to sue the NBA and to indemnify the league against other suits related to the case, including any initiated by her husband. The NBA responded by cancelling its hearing to consider stripping the Clippers from the Sterlings.
Sterling disavowed having given his wife authorization to sell the team, denied all charges, and refused to sell the Clippers. He called the penalties "draconian" and referred to the process as a "sham".[86] He then sued the NBA for $1 billion, alleging it had violated both antitrust laws and his constitutional rights.[87] On June 4, 2014, attorney Maxwell Blecher announced that Sterling had decided to drop the lawsuit against the NBA, and had agreed to allow the proposed $2 billion sale of the Clippers to Ballmer. The sale would be approved pending a majority vote of league owners.[88]
On June 9, Blecher said Sterling had withdrawn support for the sale, and would resume the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin dismissed Sterling's 2014 lawsuit over the sale of the team in March 2016. The judge assailed it as "plainly insufficient" and "clearly implausible." Sterling appealed the decision, but his attorneys did not file an opening brief by the deadline. The matter concluded with a three-page motion to voluntarily dismiss the case.[96]
In 2017, a judge ruled that two law firms could move forward[needs update] with their lawsuit to collect more than $270,000 in legal fees allegedly owed by Donald and Shelly Sterling, stemming from the 2014 probate action that cleared the way for the sale of the Clippers.[97]
Discrimination lawsuits
In February 2003, the Housing Rights Center of Los Angeles (HRC) filed a housing discrimination case against Sterling on behalf of 18 tenants. The lawsuit featured several racist statements allegedly made by Sterling to employees, such as that "black people smell and attract vermin" and "Mexicans just sit around and smoke and drink all day",[98][99] as well as Sterling's alleged intent to rent only to Korean tenants because "they will pay the rent and live in whatever conditions I give them".[99]
In 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Sterling for housing discrimination for using race as a factor in filling some of his apartment buildings. The suit charged that Sterling refused to rent to non-Koreans in the Koreatown neighborhood and to African Americans in Beverly Hills. In November 2009, ESPN reported that Sterling agreed to pay a fine of $2.7 million to settle the lawsuit.[100]
In February 2009, the Clippers were sued in L.A. Superior Court by former longtime Clippers executive
Sexual harassment lawsuits
In 1996, Christine Jasky, a property management consultant for Sterling who also did work for the Clippers, sued Sterling for sexual harassment, claiming she quit her job after he repeatedly offered her money for sex, and asked her to recruit sexual partners for him.[105][106] Sterling countersued, and the two eventually reached a confidential settlement in 1998.[106][107]
Sumner Davenport, a property supervisor for Sterling who was fired in 2002, sued him in 2003 for sexual harassment for "unwanted and offensive physical conduct".[108] She lost the case at a jury trial two years later.[106][109] Court documents indicate that Davenport was a property supervisor based in Sterling's Beverly Hills office, with the responsibilities of overseeing several of his apartment buildings. In her case, she asserted she was fired for her complaints against and refusing to comply with his racially discriminating and abusive behavior against tenants, his illegal eviction process, as well as his offensive physical conduct against her. Court records indicate Sterling's organization denies firing her.
Personal life
In 1955, Sterling married Rochelle ("Shelly") Stein, with whom he had three children: Scott, Chris, and Joanna. Joanna's husband, Eric Miller, served as the Clippers' director of basketball administration, voluntarily leaving after Sterling sold the team.[110]
Donald Sterling had an extra-marital relationship with a woman named Alexandra Castro. Seeking the return of a house she was living in, Sterling sued her in 2003 after their relationship ended.
Sterling and Shelly became estranged at the end of 2012, when he moved to a mansion in Beverly Hills, California, after she kicked him out of their beach house in Malibu, California, following a family dispute during which he was arguing with a mistress on the phone.[31] A week later, Sterling's son Scott was found dead on New Year's Eve, having died of an accidental narcotic drug overdose at the age of 32.[31][114]
On August 5, 2015, Sterling's attorney Bobby Samini confirmed to KABC-TV that Sterling filed for divorce from Shelly.[115][116] In March 2016, Samini informed the Los Angeles Times that "notwithstanding all the difficult events of the last two years, the Sterlings have resolved their differences" and decided not to proceed with their divorce.[117]
Health
In 2012, Sterling began treatment for prostate cancer.[31][118] By May 2014, according to multiple doctors Sterling was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.[119] He was deemed mentally unfit to continue to lead the financial affairs of the Sterling Family Trust, clearing the way for his wife Shelly to sell the Los Angeles Clippers on his behalf despite his protests.[85]
Miniseries
Sterling is portrayed by Ed O'Neill in the 2024 FX miniseries Clipped.[120][121]
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And that he had also told his employees that 'black people smell and attract vermin' ...
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