Donald Sterling
Donald T. Sterling (born Donald Tokowitz, April 26, 1934) is an American businessman and attorney. He was the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers professional basketball franchise of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1981 to 2014. At 33 seasons of ownership, Sterling was the longest-tenured owner in the NBA since the death of Los Angeles Lakers majority owner Jerry Buss in 2013. 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. When asked about the recordings in an interview with Anderson Cooper, Sterling stated "I'm not a racist," and also told Cooper that he had made a "terrible mistake" and was "here to apologize." In May, Sterling's wife, Shelly, reached an agreement to sell the Clippers for $2 billion to Steve Ballmer, which Sterling has contested in court. The NBA Board of Governors approved the sale of the Clippers to Ballmer on August 12, 2014.