Shouldn’t we feel sorry for the man?
Apr 29, 2014, 7:58 AM | Updated: 8:29 am
In this file photo taken on Friday, Oct. 25, 2013, Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, right, and V. Stiviano, left, watch the Clippers play the Sacramento Kings during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
What have we learned about LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling from that now-famous recording?
We’ve learned that he has nosy friends who judge him based on the pictures his girlfriend posts online.
“I’m just telling you, you told me you were going to remove it. So Dennis (dentist,) the second Dennis (dentist) who looked at me and made that comment,” Sterling allegedly says in the recording.
It’s unclear in the sound bite, I realize. Either he’s getting grief from two people named Dennis, or he was having some dental work done by a dentist who spends too much time on Instagram.
Either way, what you notice in the recording is not just the racism, but how profoundly unhappy this man is.
“I really don’t feel like going anywhere. I really don’t feel like going to Europe,” he says.
He doesn’t even feel like going to Europe now!
“We made a giant mistake, both of us. Everything you say to me is painful,” Sterling says.
This immensely wealthy man is reduced to begging, “Please leave me alone. Please? Please?”
His needs are so simple. All he wants is to run an NBA franchise without having his girlfriend publicly associate with black people, so that either a friend named Dennis or some unnamed dentist won’t keep scolding him.
“Who would want to live with a woman like you? All you ever wanted to do was fight,” Sterling says. “You’re a born fighter.”
We should all remember this story the next time we’re tempted to think the 1 percent have it easy.
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