NBA players & fans have reacted fairly strongly to a tape of LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling allegedly being a horrible racist.
The tape was leaked to TMZ and, amongst other miscellaneous hatefulness, features lines like “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people”, and “But why publicize it on the Instagram and why bring it to my games?” Listen to the full thing below:
Since the audio became public, there’s been a range of response. The NBA’s biggest star, Miami Heat’s LeBron James, called out NBA management, saying “If the reports are true, it’s unacceptable… there is no room for Donald Sterling in our league. I believe in Adam [Silver, NBA commissioner], I believe in the NBA and they have to do something and do something very fast and quickly before this really gets out of hand.”
Clippers centre DeAndre Jordan posted a simple black square to his Instagram account shortly after the news broke, which seems to be a reference to the blacked-out profile pictures that people used in support of Trayvon Martin after his shooting by George Zimmerman in 2012.
NBA Hall Of Famer Magic Johnson – with whom Sterling’s girlfriend V. Stiviano posted a picture to Instagram, sparking the conversation caught on tape – reacted strongly on Twitter:
LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s comments about African Americans are a black eye for the NBA.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) April 26, 2014
.@cjbycookie and I will never go to a Clippers game again as long as Donald Sterling is the owner.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) April 26, 2014
But it was, unsurprisingly, Snoop Dogg who had the strongest reaction, posting this expletive-laden message to Instagram (NSFW, obvs):
Meanwhile, Donald Sterling has released a statement to TMZ, claiming that racism is the “antithesis” of who he is and suggesting that the tape is fake. He’s yet to comment on the fact that his own name sounds like the name of an evil cartoon millionaire.
Image via Stephen Dunn for Getty Images Sport
