Candace Buckner

candace.buckner@indystar.com

ATLANTA – On Saturday before the Indiana Pacers' Game 4 first-round playoff game, David West reacted to the news that Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling was purportedly caught in an audio recording making racist comments.

On the recording obtained by TMZ, Sterling allegedly tells his girlfriend that "it bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people…" and, "You can sleep with (black people). You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on (social media) … and not bring them to my games."

Rasual Butler, who played with the Clippers during the 2009-10 and '10-11 seasons, called the comments "shocking," while West shared a stronger sentiment.

"He has a history of being a bigot and a racist," West said about Sterling.

West heard the recording after the team breakfast on Saturday morning. After listening, West said the alleged comments brought to mind an earlier lawsuit filed against Sterling for housing discrimination against African-American and Hispanic families. In 2009, Sterling settled the case for $2.725 million.

In a conversation with The Star that lasted more than six minutes before the playoff game, West expressed more of his views on today's society and why he feels America has not progressed as much as some may believe.

"You can't be naïve about the thoughts and mindsets of (some) people in this country," West said. "We live in this sort of reality anyway where we understand that people … have all types of perceptions towards us, whether good or bad. I guess being an athlete or entertainer, people can come cheer for you but as soon as the game is over, they are who they are and they think how they think, they feel how they feel.

"I'm not naïve to that. I don't think our society has all of a sudden changed and people who are in power all of a sudden think different about us, just because you dribble a basketball or catch a (darn) football, it's just not the reality of it."

The NBA released a statement about the situation: "We are in the process of conducting a full investigation into the audio recording obtained by TMZ. The remarks heard on the recording are disturbing and offensive, but at this time we have no further information."

Clippers President Andy Roeser released a statement acknowledging that the organization had heard the recording, however, "(The Clippers) do not know if it is legitimate or if it has been altered."

The statement said that Sterling "feels terrible that such sentiments are being attributed to him and apologizes to anyone who might have been hurt by them."

In West's opinion, the NBA cannot do much to punish Sterling.

"He is who he is. They ain't going to change the man," West said. "The man's going to go to his grave being who he is. … This is not going to change him.

"Because he has black athletes or whatever. He is who he is. There have been folks before him and there have been a ton of them after him."

Call Star reporter Candace Buckner at (317) 444-6121. Follow her on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.