Donald Sterling Seems to Be Doing Just Fine After His Clippers Racism Scandal
In 2014, Donald Sterling was ousted as the owner of the LA Clippers for a racism scandal that sent shockwaves through the National Basketball League. While he was fined a measly $2.5 million and suffered mild embarrassment, Sterling now (unfortunately) seems to be doing just fine.
The scandal in question serves as the inspiration for FX/Hulu‘s Clipped series, which is based on the podcast The Sterling Affairs by ESPN. In the TV show, the character of Donald Sterling is played by Ed O’Neill of Married With Children and Modern Family fame.
Related: The Clipped Real People Are Spitting Images of the Actors Who Play Them
“He was fine as long as you went along with him, but if you crossed him, watch out,” O’Neill told UPI. “It’s almost like playing a Mafia boss without the violence, but it’s psychic violence. He was a people manipulator.” 20 years after the scandal, here’s where Donald Sterling is now.
Where’s Donald Sterling now?
Donald Sterling is doing just fine these days. In 2022, The Daily Mail spotted him out to dinner at Lucky’s, a Malibu steakhouse, with his estranged wife, Shelly, among other friends in a rare public appearance. Shelly, to whom Sterling had been married for 60 years, arrived in a separate car, the tabloid reported.
Despite a very public fall from grace, Sterling’s financials are also doing just fine. Better than they ever have, in fact. In 2024, Forbes reported his net worth was around $4 billion, making him the 785th most wealthy person in the world. His fortune, according to the site, has actually grow considerably since the scandal. The Chicago-born billionaire bought the Clippers in 1981 for $12.5 million when the team was based in San Diego.
In case you need a refresher on the whole scandal, here’s how it went down. In April 2014, TMZ Sports released a recording of a conversation between Sterling and his mistress, V. Stiviano. He tells her: “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with Black people,” and, “You can sleep with [Black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want,” but “the little I ask you is … not to bring them to my games.”
As a consequence, Sterling was banned from the league for life and fined $2.5 million, the maximum fine allowed by the NBA constitution. He also faced pressure to sell the Clippers and in August 2014, the team was sold to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.
In Sterling’s first after the controversy, he claimed to Anderson Cooper that he was “baited” into making those remarks. “When I listen to that tape, I don’t even know how I can say words like that. … I don’t know why the girl had me say those things,” he said. When Cooper asked if he was set up, Sterling 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.”
Clipped is available to stream on Hulu.
