The Los Angeles Clippers basketball team lost to the Golden State Warriors, 188-97, although you couldn’t blame the players if they were a bit distracted in Sunday’s game.  A recording surfaced a day earlier, purported featuring the voice of Clippers owner Donald Sterling saying some really nasty, racist things.

The Clippers conducted their pregame drills with their t-shirts worn inside out in order to hide the team logo.  Later during the game, each player wore black socks and black armbands or wristbands.  The coach says the players considered boycotting the hardwood, but decided to play on.

This comes after the gossip website TMZ featured an audio recording of an argument between 80-year old tycoon Sterling and his 38-year old girlfriend Vanessa Stiviano.  On it, the male voice is heard ordering the woman not to bring African Americans to his basketball games, nor to pose for photos with them.  Although, and hilariously, at one point he said that Stiviano could “sleep with” black people.  And Stiviano is Black and Latina.  So, WTH was that about?  Anyway, the Clippers office denied that the comments accurately reflected Sterling's attitudes.  But they didn't deny that it was his voice, either.  

Sterling’s racial reputation is rather tarnished.  He’s been twice sued for refusing to rent his residential real estate properties to Black and Latino tenants.  And a former Clippers executive unsuccessfully sued him for racial discrimination.

Reaction has been swift and brutal.  Sports figures such as the legendary Ervin “Magic” Johnson vowed to never attend a Clippers game as long as Sterling owns the team, an says Sterling should be forced from ownership.  Rapper and actor Snoop Dogg laid down a wonderfully profanity-laced smackdown (Warning:  Motherf___ing language may not be suitable for younger or more sensitive motherf___ers). 

And even the President of the United States of America stepped in.  Barack Obama, America’s first black president, called Sterling “ignorant”, while Malaysia’s prime minister snickered.

The NBA opened an investigation and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said it would not give Sterling a lifetime achievement award, which he had been scheduled to receive next month.