Donald Sterling’s lawyer: Hawks scandal ‘just the beginning’
By Wes Goldberg
By the start of the regular season, two NBA owners will have sold their teams due to making racist remarks. In an apparent attempt to blackmail the league, former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling reportedly hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on Adam Silver and the rest of the NBA owners. That’s exactly what happened in Atlanta.
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Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson is selling his stake in the team after sending a racist email, and general manager Danny Ferry may be on the way out too after his alleged racist comments.
The word from the league is that Levenson self reported the 2012 email, and willingly offered to sell his stake in the team. However in talking with the USA Today’s Brent Schrotenboer, Sterling’s lawyer Bobby Samini implied that the league is just getting started.
"“We engaged private investigators. It’s no secret to anybody,” Samini told USA TODAY Sports. “I would never discuss what their findings were or anything of that nature. It wouldn’t be appropriate, but what I can tell you is that my sense is that this is just the beginning. There’s not a single owner in the league who doesn’t have an e-mail, a conversation, a conference call comment, that by this standard that’s been established by (NBA Commissioner) Adam Silver, that wouldn’t completely taint them.”"
By hiring a private investigator, Schrotenboer reports, Sterling was hoping to uncover similar actions by other NBA owners in order to prove that the punishment against him was unreasonable. According to Samini, the league is still “very active” in it’s investigations.
There is surely much more to come regarding this story. Keep it with FanSided for the latest.