Donald Sterling

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Donald T. Sterling is a real estate mogul and the current owner of the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Clippers. Sterling acquired the Clippers in 1981 for $12.5 million, and today the team is valued at more than $240 million by Forbes magazine.

Until 2003, Sterling has been widely criticized for his unwillingness to invest in the team, due in part to the losing seasons. In 2003, Sterling signed Elton Brand to the biggest contract in franchise history; a six-year, $82 million deal. He matched the Corey Maggette contract from what the Utah Jazz offered; a deal worth $45 million over six years.

Donald Tokowitz (legally changed his last name to Sterling as an adult) was born in 1936 in Chicago, but he and his family moved to the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, when he was two years old. As an adult, he began to make his career as an attorney, but he made his biggest ventures in real estate, where he purchased a 26-unit apartment building in Beverly Hills.

Sterling and Lakers majority owner Dr. Jerry Buss were indirectly responsible in each owning their respective NBA franchises. The first instance came in 1979, in which Buss used the money he made from selling his apartment buildings to Sterling, and that covered the remaining balance in purchasing the Lakers, the Kings hockey team, and the Los Angeles Forum from Jack Kent Cooke for $67 million. Two years later, Buss suggested to Sterling that he can purchase his own NBA franchise, and Sterling purchased the struggling San Diego Clippers franchise for $12.5 million. Unlike Buss' instant success with the Lakers (including winning a NBA championship in his first season as owner, 1979-80), Sterling and his Clippers struggled through many lackluster seasons, and did not have his first winning season until the 1991-92 season, eleven years into his ownership. However, with the Clippers' move into Staples Center in the 1999-2000 NBA season, the team seriously began to build a good, strong contending team, and finally met that goal in 2005-2006, where the Clippers won a California-franchise record of 47 games (the overall franchise record is 49 wins, accomplished by the 1974-75 Buffalo Braves).

Despite his poor reputation as a sports team owner, Sterling has remained committed to the Los Angeles community, as he and his Donald T. Sterling Charitable Foundation (which would also include the Los Angeles Clippers Foundation) have donated to various causes, including supporting the homeless population. In fact, in a June 26, 2006 Los Angeles Times article^[1], sources have said that Sterling pledges to spend $50 million on a site on the eastern end of Downtown Los Angeles to provide homeless housing, rehabilitation and medical services.

[edit] Controversy

On November 15, 2005, the Associated Press reported that Sterling had been ordered by U.S. District Judge Dale Fisher to pay $5 million in fees to plaintiff's attorneys in a case accusing him of trying to drive out non-Korean tenants, particularly blacks and Latinos, at apartments he owned in Los Angeles' Koreatown neighborhood^[2].

August 8, 2006- The U.S. Department of Justice sued Donald Steling for housing discrimination, claiming he refused to rent apartments to blacks and families with children.

Sterling also made headlines during a trial in which he admitted to paying a Beverly Hills woman named Alexandra Castro for sexual favors, these favors included oral sex, in many building, offices and even limos that Sterling owned.^[3].

On September 20, 2006, Donald Sterling lost a multimillion dollar lawsuit over his claims of ownership in a real estate deal in Century City, California.

Sterling is currently embroiled in a mock controversy over the ugliness of his ubiquitous full-page ads in the Los Angeles Times. ^[4]