NBA, Donald Sterling press conference: Commissioner Adam Silver addresses racist remarks by Clippers owner

Right in the middle of the 2014 NBA Playoffs, the focus of the league unfortunately is not on the tremendous action taking place on the court, rather it’s mainly on the controversy surrounding Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling in the last 24 hours.

Late Friday evening, news leaked of a tape recording that landed in the possession of TMZ Sports in which Sterling was caught making some racist remarks to his girlfriend, including stating that he was not in favor of her being seen on social media with them as well as reiterating that he did not want Los Angles Lakers legend Magic Johnson attending his team’s games.

Saturday morning, the NBA issued a brief statement saying that they were going to begin an investigation, however with the outcry over this despicable incident ringing out loudly, league commissioner Adam Silver called for a press conference to be held Saturday night in which he would address the issue as well as what the league plans to do going forward.

Sterling started out by saying that he had hoped to have a happier press conference, discussing the growth of the Memphis franchise, where the press conference is taking place before the game this evening.

He then began his statement on the Sterling incident:

Following those pre-written remarks, Commissioner Silver then stated that Sterling will not be attending the Clippers playoff game on Sunday against the Warriors.

Then, Silver reiterated one more time that Sterling will be afforded due process just as anyone else would be before taking questions from reporters.