The latest brouhaha involving their controversial owner, Donald Sterling, comes at an inopportune time for the Los Angeles Clippers who are in the midst of a competitive first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors. Despite some calls to boycott the playoffs, coach Doc River said he is against it and called the Sterling audio recording a 'distraction.'
Via Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, Rivers said that the team will continue to play the Warriors, with game 4 coming up on Sunday at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. He added that the issue of boycotting the play-offs was brought up during a pre-practice meeting, with Rivers expressing his opposition to it. Reports also have it that everyone on the Clippers roster were pissed with the comments of their owner, even the team's lone white guy JJ Reddick.
Center DeAndre Jordan, who has stepped up his game in the playoffs, posted a square black image on his Instagram account with no comments whatsoever.
Meanwhile, Clippers superstar Chris Paul declined to comment about Sterling's words. But he issued a statement on behalf of the National Basketball Players Association, where he serves as president. Per LA Times:
"On behalf of the National Players Association, this is a very serious issue which we will address aggressively. We have asked [Sacramento] Mayor Kevin Johnson to extend his responsibilities with the NBPA to determine our response and our next steps."
He added: "As players, we owe it to our teams and our fans to keep our focus on our game, the playoffs and the drive to the Finals."
The Clippers organization also released their statement on the issue with president Andy Roeser speaking on behalf of the franchise. The statement alleged that the woman on the audio recording, V. Stiviano, is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by the Sterling family. It also said that Sterling is apologetic for the hurt caused by the sentiments attributed to him.
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