While the NBA is confident that it can remove Donald Sterling as owner of the Clippers, his wife Shelly Sterling believes she has the right to maintain ownership of the team. Magic Johnson who’s name was mentioned during Donald’s racist audio says no Clipper will play for the team if Shelly remains the owner. Magic is also one of the potential buyers of the team.
via USA Today:
Magic Johnson said Friday that none of the current Los Angeles Clippers players would play for the team if Shelly Sterling, the estranged wife of team owner Donald Sterling, retains her 50% ownership stake in the team.
“Those guys are not going to play for anybody (named) Sterling,” Johnson told USA TODAY Sports and two other reporters at the Omni Dallas Hotel. “It’s just how it is. It’s hard to separate the two. … It’s going to be hard for them to sell that to the fans and definitely to the players.”
But Johnson said it is impossible to separate Shelly Sterling from her husband, even though her voice was absent from the audio recording. He noted past allegations about deplorable living conditions by tenants who lived in properties owned by the Sterlings.
“When they accused them of (being) slumlords, that was both, it wasn’t one person,” Johnson said. “It was both of them. … They will never recover from this. All the sponsors pulling out, they will pull out for good if she is owning it. It’s not going to be the same.”
