Guess what? Despite being caught on tape telling his girlfriend not to bring any black people to his games, disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling insists that he is not a racist. Instead, Sterling says he was “baited” into making the remarks.
“You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want,” Sterling said during his racist rant that was caught on tape last month. “The little I ask you is not to promote it on that…and not to bring them to my games.”
That might sound a tad racist to the average person, but during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Donald Sterling says those comments don’t reflect how he really feels about black people and offered up an apology.
“I’m not a racist,” Sterling said. “I made a terrible, terrible mistake. And I’m here with you today to apologize and to ask for forgiveness for all the people that I’ve hurt.”
Does #DonaldSterling deserve forgiveness? http://t.co/5AkwdmenLr @andersoncooper's exclusive intv on #AC360 8/11p pic.twitter.com/qCatYJS9f7
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) May 12, 2014
Even though Sterling apologized, he doesn’t accept full responsibility for his comments as he maintains that he was baited into making them. When Cooper asked Sterling if he was set up, the disgraced owner said, “Well yes, I was baited. I mean, that’s not the way I talk. I don’t talk about people for one thing, ever. I talk about ideas and other things. I don’t talk about people.”
By not talking about people, Sterling is referring to the part of the rant where he complained about Stiviano’s public relationship with Magic Johnson. “Admire him, bring him here, feed him, f**k him, but don’t put [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me,” Sterling said.
After making the apology–and saying that he doesn’t talk about people–Sterling launched into an attack on Johnson and questioned the former NBA star’s integrity. “What has he done? Can you tell me? Big Magic Johnson, what has he done?” Sterling asked. “He’s got AIDS. Did he do any business, did he help anybody in South LA?”
“What kind of a guy goes to every city, has sex with every girl, then he catches HIV?” Sterling continued. “Is that someone we want to respect and tell our kids about? I think he should be ashamed of himself. I think he should go into the background. But what does he do for the black people? He doesn’t do anything.”
Johnson, who previously tweeted that he was happy about Sterling being banned from the NBA, didn’t have much to say about being slammed in the Anderson Cooper interview.
I'd rather be talking about these great NBA Playoffs than Donald Sterling's interview.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) May 13, 2014
According to CNN, Sterling was wrong about Johnson not doing anything. In addition to raising HIV awareness, Magic Johnson started a foundation that has raised $20 million for charity.
Besides raising millions for charity, here’s a look at @MagicJohnson’s accomplishments: http://t.co/IB2PO3WTOb pic.twitter.com/C05zsJpRnj
— CNN (@CNN) May 13, 2014
In the meantime, while Donald Sterling is recovering from another embarrassing rant (and hopefully disappearing into the background as he says Johnson should do), his wife Shelly Sterling is fighting to keep her 50 percent stake in the Clippers. “I don’t know why I should be punished for what his actions were,” Shelly said. Check out more of what Shelly has to say about the situation below.
Image via YouTube