A couple weeks after being exposed as a huge racist, Donald Sterling sat for an interview with Anderson Cooper last night.
And he somehow managed to make himself sound like an even worse human being.
After saying he’s not a racist and expressing a little remorse (“I made a terrible mistake.”), Sterling grew defensive and irritated, ignoring his long history of racial discrimination lawsuits and asking whether one is permitted to mess up just once in 35 years of ownership.
He then went off on Magic Johnson.
“What kind of a guy goes to every city, has sex with every girl, then he catches HIV? Is that someone we want to respect and tell our kids about?” Sterling asked. “I think he should be ashamed of himself. I think he should go into the background. But what does he do for the black people? He doesn’t do anything.”
Johnson is a topic because it was an Instagram photo (below) of the NBA legend with Sterling’s girlfriend/assistant V. Stiviano that caused Sterling to berate Stiviano in the first audio recording that hit the Internet.
“Big Magic Johnson … what has he done?” Sterling said to Cooper. “He’s got A.I.D.S.”
It should be noted that Johnson does not have AIDS.
He was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 – and he has boosted the economy of many inner cities by bringing movie theaters and other franchises there.
Sterling, who is Jewish, said his people spend a lot of money assisting other Jews who are poor… while wealthy black people turn their backs on folks in need.
“That’s one problem I have. Jews, when they get successful, they will help their people, and some of the African-Americans — maybe I’ll get in trouble again — they don’t want to help anybody,” he said.
Cooper started to ask a follow-up about the African-American community when Sterling cut him off.
“There’s no African-American… Never mind, I don’t know, I’m sorry. You know, they all want to play golf with me. Everybody wants to be with me. I’m easy. I’m fun.”
He sure sounds like a blast, doesn’t he?
At one point, Sterling also said the following to Cooper, without adding an explanation:
“I think you have more of a plantation mentality than I do … and I think you’re more of a racist than I am.”
Magic took the high road in a Twitter poster after the interview aired last night (“I’d rather be talking about these great NBA Playoffs than Donald Sterling’s interview,” he wrote), but NBA Commissioner Adam Silver chimed in with a statement that reads:
“While Magic Johnson doesn’t need me to, I feel compelled on behalf of the NBA family to apologize to him that he continues to be dragged into this situation and be degraded by such a malicious and personal attack. The NBA Board of Governors is continuing with its process to remove Mr. Sterling as expeditiously as possible.”