LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has battled prostate cancer for about two years, an NBA executive confirmed to the Los Angeles Times.
“I honestly didn’t know that,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said Thursday. “But if that is true, my thoughts and prayers are with him. Nobody deserves to go through something like that.”
Said point guard Chris Paul: “Yeah, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of that. That’s truly unfortunate.”
Sterling, who turned 80 last week, was banned for life Tuesday from all NBA activities. A committee of 10 NBA owners began the process of forcing him to sell the team with a hastily scheduled conference call Thursday that lasted about an hour.
The committee planned to talk again next week and hoped to resolve things “expeditiously,” according to a statement released by the NBA. The next big-picture step would be a vote by all 30 owners, with 23 votes needed to force a sale. A timetable for such a vote has not been established.
Sterling could sue the league if owners wanted him to sell, potentially causing a slowdown in the process.
Reports of Sterling’s cancer first appeared in the New York Post.