Donald Sterling did not like white players, nearly tanked JJ Redick deal: Doc Rivers

Former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling's racism towards African-American players is well documented in the NBA. The NBA banned Sterling for life and forced him to sell the Clippers to Steve Ballmer after a video surfaced of him telling then-girlfriend V. Stiviano of not liking her association with African-Americans after he took a photo with NBA legend Magic Johnson. While Donald Sterling's prejudices towards the people of colour are well known, his contempt against other players came out only in the context of the Clippers.

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Donald Sterling Clippers: Former General Manager Elgin Baylor filed a lawsuit after "southern plantation" vision 

Speaking to TNT's Ernie Johnson on NBA Together, Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers revealed that Donald Sterling "did not like white players", a claim backed by ex-General Manager Elgin Baylor's lawsuit which claimed the former owner had a vision of assembling a team "composed of poor black boys from the South and a white head coach". However, Donald Sterling's ideals were in conflict in 2013 and he signed Doc Rivers as Clippers coach. Doc Rivers then planned to send backup point guard Eric Bledsoe and veteran forward Caron Butler to the Phoenix Suns. Phoenix would then send multiple draft picks to the Milwaukee Bucks, who would send JJ Redick and Jared Dudley to Los Angeles.

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Donald Sterling Clippers: Doc Rivers reveals JJ Redick deal was almost called off because Sterling "did not like white players"

The former Clippers coach revealed that he had convinced JJ Redick to come to play with the Clippers and he had agreed. JJ Redick was set to join the Clippers through a sign-and-trade arrangement that would pay him $27 million over four years. However, Doc Rivers claimed he got a call from Andy Roeser informing him that the deal was off because Sterling "did not want white players on his roster". A furious Doc Rivers threatened to quit, debating that he wouldn't put his reputation on the line for his racist ideology. Donald Sterling wanted to keep Rivers around as coach and finally gave in to the deal. 

JJ Redick has spoken about the incident on several occasions since and recently revealed that he had no clue of what was happening and his agents did not pick his calls for 48 hours. Redick earlier told the Los Angeles Times that he had heard two versions of the story; one which said that Sterling simply didn't want a white player, while others indicated that price was the issue with Sterling not wanting to pay $27 million for a "white bench player". 

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Donald Sterling Clippers: Donald Sterling net worth

Donald Sterling is an American business magnate and former attorney. The Donald Sterling net worth figure stands at an astonishing $3.6 billion according to Forbes, and he owned the Los Angeles Clippers for 33 years. According to the magazine, Sterling purchased the Clippers in 1981 for $12.5 million and sold the NBA franchise for a whopping $2 billion in 2014. The former Clippers owner owns a swathe of apartments in LA's Westside and Koreatown and is also the proprietor of the Beverly Hills Plaza Hotel.

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