Everyone has a Donald Sterling story. He’s such an awful human being on so many levels that there’s lot of Donald Sterling stories floating out around there. And of course, they’re all coming out now. You’re probably getting sick of Donald Sterling, but you should hear this specific Donald Sterling story from Marques Johnson, former five time NBA All-Star and member of the L.A. Clippers. Johnson was “America’s Pregame” on Fox Sports 1.
So while everyone was focused on Magic Johnson and what he had to say about Donald Sterling while appearing on Anderson Cooper, and they should be, Marques Johnson and his Donald Sterling story on FS1 was overlooked.
Here it is:
“It’s to the point now that if you’re Adam Silver, you’ve got to get this thing away from this guy by any means necessary. I don’t care how much it costs, you’ve got to get him to sell this basketball team.”
“A quick story – in 1986, I had what was really a career-ending neck injury and in 1987, I lost a son in a drowning accident. An intermediary told me to call Donald because he wanted to reach out and talk to me about a contract dispute [after the season]. I called Donald up and he told me he was going to ruin me, that he was going to crush me financially, and that I needed to go ahead and settle on his terms if I wanted to have any money left. He talked to me to me like I was a piece of just bat guano.”
“Donald Sterling, Shelly Sterling, they’ve got to be relieved of their duties as owners of this basketball team. You’ve got to have a complete break in order for this thing to go away.”
I couldn’t agree more. The NBA got themselves into this mess, they need to get themselves out. They knew a long time ago what Donald Sterling was and did nothing about it. They ignored all the Donald Sterling warning signs.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks is a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, who’s been featured both in Forbes and on the History Channel. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)