Los Angeles Dodgers owner Magic Johnson spoke to ABC/ESPN before the NBA playoff games Sunday and said that Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling “shouldn’t own a team anymore” following his alleged racist comments revealed Saturday, comments that specifically and personally invoked Johnson.
Johnson recalled that he’d met Sterling early in his career and had a friendship with him, and so was particularly taken aback by being the subject of the rant. “You can’t understand how hurt I was,” Johnson said. “And I was hurt for all African Americans, and all minorities.”
RELATED: Al Sharpton: NBA Must Move Quickly to Suspend Sterling
“There’s no place in our society for it, and there’s no place in our league,” Johnson said. “He’s put his own team in a tough situation. So I believe that once Commissioner Silver does all his due diligence, gets all the information gathered, he’s gotta come down hard. [Sterling] shouldn’t own a team anymore. And he should stand up and say, ‘I don’t want to own a team anymore.’ Especially when you have African Americans renting his apartments, coming to the games, playing for him, coaching for him. This is bad for everybody.”
“Nobody’s going to want to play for the Clippers ever again,” Johnson added. “They’ll want to play for Doc Rivers. They’ll want to play with Chris Paul. But nobody will want to play for the organization.”
Watch the clip below, via ABC:
[Image via screengrab]
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