Rev. Al Sharpton, President of the National Action Network (NAN) appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press this morning and pushed for the NBA to come to a decision and discipline LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling for his alleged comments in an audio clip released to TMZ. A voice sounding like Sterling is heard scolding V. Stiviano, his girlfriend who is reportedly both of black and Mexican decent, for bringing blacks to Clippers games and posting photos of them to her Instagram account.
According to the Reverend Al Sharpton, if the NBA does not come forward with a decision, he will begin calling on advertisers to withdraw starting tomorrow. On Meet the Press today Rev. Sharpton shared:
“Well, I think that clearly the National Basketball Association must suspend him,” said Reverend Sharpton. “Or must say that, ‘We’re going to remove any kind of imprimatur we have on this team if he’s the owner.’ You cannot have someone own an NBA team in this country and have these kind of attitudes.”
Sharpton said this of Sterling: “You must remember, he settled multi-million dollar discrimination lawsuits in the past, so he has a background. So what we said in National Action Network is the NBA ought to move right away. Let’s not play games. They say they’re going to investigate.”
The Los Angeles Clippers currently hold a 2-1 lead over the Golden State Warriors in round 1 of their quarter finals matchup in the NBA Playoffs. The Clippers and Warriors are currently playing game four of their series at Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA.