The fallout from the Donald Sterling tape continues, as Clippers’ President Andy Roeser will be taking an indefinite leave of absence, the NBA league office announced on Tuesday.
The NBA offered the following statement:
The NBA announced today that Los Angeles Clippers President Andy Roeser will be taking an indefinite leave of absence, effective immediately.
Mike Bass, Executive Vice President, Communications, said, “This will provide an opportunity for a new CEO to begin on a clean slate and for the team to stabilize under difficult circumstances.”
This announcement comes only three days after the league sent out word that the league, in consultation with Clippers’ management, would be appointing a Chief Executive Officer to oversee the team’s operations.
Not long after NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that he was banning Donald Sterling “forever”, NBA Executive Vice President of Communications made the following statement:
“The best way to ensure the stability of the team during this difficult situation is to move quickly and install a CEO to oversee the Clippers organization. The process of identifying that individual is underway.”
NBA owners are expected to unanimously vote that Donald Sterling should be forced to sell his franchise, possibly even calling an emergency meeting solely for this purpose.
A line of celebrities and former athletes- including Magic Johnson- who would like to buy the Clippers has already began to form, and the league’s owners will obviously not have even one tiny bit of trouble finding a new owner.
Donald Sterling is expected to fight any action in court, and while he most likely will still be forced to sell the Clippers, at least a court battle will allow him to publicize to the world what is assumed to be an entire graveyard’s worth of skeletons that the other 29 NBA owners keep stored in their respective closets.
TMZ and other “media” outlets of their type will surely owe Donald Sterling a huge debt of gratitude before all is said and done.
Don Ellis started covering sports professionally when he was 15. He attended Ball State University, and some of his past credits include InsideHoops (columnist) and ESPN Florida (The Florida Sports Reporters, SportsCenter anchor) . In addition to running Bullsville.net and writing for The Sports Bank and ChicagoNow (Bullsville), he is also a KHSAA baseball umpire. He’s a 3rd-generation Cubs fan, a Bulls fan since the days of Van Lier and Sloan, and a life-long New England Patriots fan. Follow Don on Twitter @Bullsville.