Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling broke his silence two weeks after he was banned by the NBA over racist comments with a televised apology for his "terrible mistake," but insisted he was "baited" into making the provocative remarks, according to the Associated Press.
In excerpts of an interview aired on Monday by CNN, Sterling, 80, also seemed to express resignation about moves by the National Basketball Association to force a sale of the team he has owned for more than three decades, the AP reported.
"What's at the end of the road? What's the benefit, especially at my age?" Sterling told CNN when asked if he intended to fight the NBA to keep his franchise, capping its best season ever, tied 2-2 in a best-of-seven series against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Round 2 of the NBA playoffs, according to the AP.
Sterling came under fire on April 25 when the website TMZ.com posted an audio recording of him chastising a female friend for publicly associating with black people, including retired NBA great Earvin "Magic" Johnson, the AP reported.
The recording sparked a torrent of outrage from fans, NBA players and commercial sponsors, several of which have severed ties with the Clippers, according to the AP.
Four days later, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver fined Sterling $2.5 million and banned him from pro basketball for life in an unprecedented rebuke that bars Sterling from any further association with the NBA or his team, the AP reported.
Silver also called on the league's 29 other owners who make up the NBA's governing board to strip Sterling of team ownership, a first-time use of such a sanction that would require a three-quarters vote by the board, according to the AP.
The woman on the tape, a 31-year-old model who goes by the name V. Stiviano and has been frequently photographed with Sterling, has said through her attorney that the conversation was recorded with Sterling's knowledge and consent last fall, the AP reported.
Stiviano has denied having a sexual relationship with Sterling, though her lawyer, Mac Nehoray, has acknowledged that the Clippers owner lavished his client with expensive gifts, including cars and an upscale duplex home in Los Angeles, according to the AP.
Nehoray has said the recording that sparked the uproar was leaked to the media by one of Stiviano's friends with whom she entrusted a copy of the tape for "safekeeping," the AP reported.
