Donald Sterling

• 1. From Tokowitz To Sterling

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  Donald T. Sterling was born Donald Samuel Tokowitz on the 26th of April 1934, in Chicago. His family moved to the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles when he was two years old. He attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles and graduated in 1952. Later that year, he enrolled at California State University, Los Angeles, graduating in 1956. He then attended Southwestern University School of Law, completing his degree in 1960.

  When he was 25, he and his wife Shelly changed their surname to "Sterling". They filed a formal petition to do so on the 9th of December 1959. The couple cited the difficulty among his peers to pronounce "Tokowitz" as one reason for the change. They also believed there would be financial benefits for adopting the new name. This legal maneuver marked the beginning of a public identity that would eventually define decades of controversy.

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• 2. The Empire Of Apartments

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  In 1961, Sterling started his career as a divorce and personal injury attorney. He built an independent practice before turning his attention to real estate. His biggest ventures began when he purchased a 26-unit apartment building in Beverly Hills. In the 1960s, he acquired Lesser Towers, a pair of large apartment buildings in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. He renamed them the Sterling Towers, now known as the Sterling International Towers.

  In 1976, he leased the California Bank Building on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. He renamed it Sterling Plaza. The Art Deco landmark was originally built in 1930 by MGM cofounder Louis B. Mayer. By April 2014, he owned 162 properties in Los Angeles. One deal involved a 99-year lease with the Mayer estate requiring him to pay a relatively small annual fee plus 15% of any rental income. As of 2014, Sports Illustrated senior writer Franz Lidz reported that Sterling had remained the sole tenant of the property.

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• 3. Buying And Losing A Franchise

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  Sterling bought the San Diego Clippers for $12.5 million two years after Jerry Buss suggested he purchase his own NBA franchise. At his introductory news conference in San Diego, Sterling vowed to "spend unlimited sums" to build the Clippers into a contender. He embarked on a county-wide marketing campaign featuring his smiling face on billboards and the backs of buses. The seminal ads read: "My Promise: I will make you proud of the Clippers".

  Unlike Buss' instant success with the Lakers, Sterling and his Clippers struggled through many lackluster seasons. They did not have their first winning season until the 1991, 92 season, which was 11 years into his ownership. In Sterling's 33 years of owning the Clippers through 2013, 14, the team lost 50 or more games 22 times. They lost 60 or more games on eight occasions and lost 70 games once. Their 9, 41 record in the lockout-shortened 1998, 99 season projected to another 60-loss season.

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• 4. The Recording That Changed Everything

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  On the 25th of April 2014, TMZ Sports released a recording of a conversation between Sterling and his mistress, V. Stiviano. The recording from September 2013 showed a man confirmed to be Sterling irritated over a photo Stiviano had posted on Instagram. She posed with Basketball Hall of Fame player Magic Johnson. Sterling told Stiviano that it bothered him that she wanted to broadcast associating with black people. He stated he asked her only "not to bring them to my games".

  NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that Sterling had been banned from the league for life and fined $2.5 million. This fine represented the maximum amount allowed by the NBA constitution. Silver stripped Sterling of virtually all authority over the Clippers and banned him from entering any Clippers facility. He was also banned from attending any NBA games. On May 29, Shelly reached a deal to sell 100% of the Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.

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• 5. Litigation Over A Two Billion Dollar Sale

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  Sterling disavowed having given his wife authorization to sell the team and refused to sell the Clippers. He called the penalties "draconian" and referred to the process as a "sham". He then sued the NBA for $1 billion, alleging violations of antitrust laws and constitutional rights. On the 4th of June 2014, attorney Maxwell Blecher announced that Sterling had decided to drop the lawsuit against the NBA. However, on June 9, Blecher said Sterling had withdrawn support for the sale and would resume the lawsuit.

  On July 7, a trial in probate court began to allow Shelly to proceed with the sale as sole trustee. She contended that three doctors reported that Sterling was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and lacked mental capacity. The probate court ruled in Shelly's favor on July 28. Ballmer's $2 billion purchase of the team closed on August 12. U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin dismissed Sterling's 2014 lawsuit over the sale of the team in March 2016.

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• 6. Decades Of Housing Discrimination Claims

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  In February 2003, the Housing Rights Center of Los Angeles filed a housing discrimination case against Sterling on behalf of 18 tenants. The lawsuit featured several racist statements allegedly made by Sterling to employees. One statement claimed black people smell and attract vermin. Another alleged he intended to rent only to Korean tenants because they would pay the rent and live in whatever conditions he gave them.

  In 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Sterling for housing discrimination. The suit charged that Sterling refused to rent to non-Koreans in the Koreatown neighborhood and to African Americans in Beverly Hills. In November 2009, ESPN reported that Sterling agreed to pay a fine of $2.7 million to settle the lawsuit. These legal battles highlighted a pattern of behavior regarding his apartment complexes that preceded the NBA controversy.

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