Donald Sterling's History as a Terrible Person

Image via Complex Original

Year: 1981

It may seem like but a small thing compared with some of his other misdeeds, but this first incident was really a harbinger of all the absurd penny-pinching that was to come from the new Clippers owner. Sterling simply tried to renege on a prize he promised for the winner of the contest, assuming (we suppose) that the winner wouldn’t really care.

Unfortunately for the miserly Sterling, contest champion Michael Spilger did care, and demanded the prize he was promised. The Clippers tried to offer him a hotel stay in Puerto Rico, only they decided not to include any other amenities such as airfare or transportation; Spilger finally got his money after a year of wrangling with the front office and threatening them with a lawsuit. 

Year: 1983

While the title of Jeff Pearlman’s blog entry on Donald Sterling describes the Clippers owner as “eccentric,” we’re not sure that is the most appropriate word choice. Maybe “ignorant,” “racist,” or “asshole?” All would probably work.

In any event, the article recounts one fine evening in 1983, when Sterling was trying to recruit Villanova’s Rollie Massimino to replace fired coach Paul Silas. After a few too many adult beverages and with a busty blonde on his arm, Sterling asked his prospective candidate, “I wanna know why you think you can coach these n******.” The comment sent Massimino off the rails, making his decision to decline the job quite easy and allowing him to win a national title with Villanova two years later. 

Year: 1988

While there are conflicting reports as to whether David Stern was indeed the room, there’s little doubt that Sterling decided that a good negotiating tactic as he bargained with Danny Manning was to say that “I’m offering a lot of money for a poor black kid.”

The implications of a comment like this are insidious at best, as they reflect the idea that Sterling sees Manning as a commodity rather than a human being, and indeed one whose value is diminished due to his ethnicity and economic background. Not a good look. 

Year: 1996

Despite having been married since 1957, Sterling has been a widely-acknowledged (and very public) philanderer during his time owning the Clippers. In 1996, one of his former ladies brought a suit against him, and while under oath cited numerous examples of horrifying behavior from Sterling.

Among them: Sterling groped her on numerous occasions in a way that made her feel “uncomfortable,” he requested that she visit his friends and have sex with them, and he enlisted her to find massage therapists who might offer the happiest of endings, or as Sterling said, "I want someone who will, you know, let me put it in or who [will] suck on it."

Yikes.

Year: 2002

In 2002, Sterling had further increased the size of his real estate empire by acquiring the Ardmore Apartments, a building in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles. The new owner, however, objected to the background of his new building’s tenants; he wanted people who “fit his image” according to the testimony of a former employee who was one of Sterling’s top property supervisors.

Fitting his image meant not being black or Mexican-American, apparently. Sterling told this same employee that “all the blacks in this building, they smell, they're not clean,” and that “all of the Mexicans that just sit around and smoke and drink all day,” doing his best to offend nearly every tenant living in his building. Nineteen of them eventually brought a lawsuit against him in 2003, ultimately being settling out of court in 2005.

Year: 2006

What a magnanimous gesture! From seemingly out of nowhere, in June of 2006 Sterling promised $50 million to build the “Donald T. Sterling Homeless Center” in downtown Los Angeles, a state-of-the-art complex that, in Sterling’s words from his LA Times announcement/ad, was intended to “educate, rehabilitate, provide medical care and a courtroom for existing homeless” (the italics are Sterling’s addition, for some reason).

The only problem? It still hasn’t been built. The lot currently sits vacant, and it sure doesn’t seem like the PR-conscious Sterling ever really intended for the project to come to fruition. 

Year: 2006

Sterling’s poor practices in all of his housing ventures finally caught up with him in August 2006, when the United States Department of Justice sued him for housing discrimination. The DOJ said that Sterling, his wife, and their company discriminated against non-Koreans who were looking to rent apartments in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles, due (we would assume) to the fact that he had previously gone on record with the opinion that Koreans “will live in whatever conditions he gives them and still pay the rent without complaint.”

The suit was finally settled in November of 2009, with Sterling paying a fine of $2.725 million that was the largest settlement payment ever in a case involving discrimination in apartment rentals. So at least he’s got one world record to his name, right?

Year: 2009

Perhaps the most public of Sterling’s problems—until now—was the February 2009 suit brought by former General Manager and Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor, who worked for the Clippers under Sterling for 22 years. Baylor alleged all kinds of different discriminatory practices, chief among them that Sterling wanted the team run in the model of a Southern Plantation and comprised of “Poor black boys from the South and a white head coach.”

Baylor also claimed he was underpaid in comparison with all other GMs, although it’s hard to know whether that had to do with race or because Sterling is easily the cheapest of all the NBA owners. In any event, a jury unanimously voted in March of 2011 to reject the lawsuit, a rare win for Sterling and his questionable (at best) management ways.

Year: 2010

If you’re a fan with courtside seats who likes to yell at players and officials, you have to know they’re going to hear you, and so will the media members sitting close by. If you’re the owner of the team, it would probably behoove you to be particularly careful about what you say.

It's safe to assume that firmly on the “don’t” list would be heckling your own players, but in December 2010 that is precisely what Sterling did as he hurled insults at Clippers point guard Baron Davis. His taunts ranged from condescending questions like “Why are you in the game?” to plainly mean personal attacks like “You’re out of shape!” Does it come as any surprise, then, that Sterling apparently had plenty more to say to Baron? No, no it does not.

Year: 2011

For an award-winning humanitarian like Sterling, it’s no surprise that he wanted to celebrate Black History Month at a Clippers game. After all, his lifetime of achievement when it comes to honoring the heritage of African-Americans would seemingly make this an annual event, with every February offering 28 (or 29) days to celebrate.

There was one major problem with Sterling’s 2011 version, though; it was held in March, and not February.

There were definitely other problems with his promotional ad too, such as the fact that while 1,000 kids got to go for free, the mandatory parent/guardian accompanying them did not. There’s also the slightly troubling issue of defining “underprivileged” when a kid asks for a free ticket, although the ad certainly makes a pretty strong implication about how to make that distinction.

Year: 2014

The most recent Sterling scandal might finally be the one that sinks him, although the troubling part of all this is that he’s under no obligation to sell the team. As Bill Simmons wrote in a lengthy column last week, NBA franchises have never been worth more, and Simmons suggested that “it would take something in the $1.7 billion range” to even have a conversation about the Clippers.

A miser like Sterling would surely hold out for every last dollar, and knowing how badly everyone wants him gone would probably make him get an even better deal. Are we prepared to live in a world where Sterling sells the team for $2 billion, or close to it? That could be the reality we face, depending on how much pressure the NBA, its players, and Sterling’s fellow owners try to exude.