Elgin Baylor says Clippers owner Donald Sterling made racist statements
A. Isaac 
Donald Sterling has always been known as a poor NBA owner. After buying the L.A. Clippers in 1981, Sterling’s team had 11 consecutive losing seasons. Despite their improvements in the last decade or so, it wasn’t until 2006 when they finally won a playoff game.
Needless to say, the Clippers franchise was synonymous with mediocrity and Donald Sterling was their ringleader.
In February of 2006, NBA legend and Clippers GM Elgin Baylor sued the organization for wrongful termination on the basis of age and race. There were rumors of Donald Sterling making racist remarks towards Baylor and other staff over the years, but none were concrete.
Last night, the L.A. times released some of the information contained in court documents. And yea, color me shocked, but according to Baylor, Sterling has said some unsavory things over the years.
“And when he finished, Donald said something that was very shocking to me. He said, ‘Personally, I would like to have a white Southern coach coaching poor black players. And I was shocked. And he looked at me and said, ‘Do you think that’s a racist statement?’ I said, ‘Absolutely. That’s plantation mentality.”
And if you thought that was bad, here’s what he had to say when Danny Manning was trying to negotiate a contract in 1988.
When Manning’s agent told Sterling that the offer was unacceptable, Sterling responded by saying it was a lot of money.
Said Baylor, in the deposition: “Donald T. said, ‘Well that’s a lot of money for a poor black … ‘ — I think he said kid. For a poor black kid I think. For a poor black something, kid or boy or something. Poor black. Poor black.
“Danny was upset. So Danny just stormed out. He just stormed out of the place. Where he went, I don’t know. He never came back to the house.”
If that was the first time someone had accused Sterling of racism, you’d probably be a bit more skeptical about this new information. However, this is the same man who was sued by the Justice Department in 2009 for using race as a reason to not sell houses to African-Americans in Beverly Hills.
So yea, after reading all this, I think it’s safe to say Donald Sterling won’t be making generous donations to the L.A. chapter of the NAACP.
Clippers legal update: Elgin Baylor on Donald Sterling [L.A. Times]
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