Last month, published audio tapes revealed Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling as chiding his girlfriend V. Stiviano for “associating” with minorities, publishing pictures taken with African-Americans on her Instagram account and potentially bringing them to games at the Staples Center. Days later, Sterling was banned for life by the NBA, which utilized a clause in its constitution that allows the league to force an owner to sell -- a clause Sterling had no problem approving several times over until he was caught on tape saying what he now says are “foolish” things for which he is now asking forgiveness for.

We think. Monday’s interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper did little to dismiss the image of Donald Sterling as someone the NBA needs to force out, sooner rather than later. In particular, his thoughts on former Lakers All-Star, coach, owner and current Los Angeles Dodgers owner Magic Johnson will reverberate the most. Johnson was the subject of Sterling’s initial frustrations at his girlfriend’s Instagram account: She was photographed posing with the Hall of Famer and dared documenting as such on social media. On Monday, Sterling seemed to have no problem ranting against Magic Johnson for his supposed lack of contributions to charities designed to aid minorities, even though Johnson has decades’ worth of highly regarded work in that realm.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver released a statement after the interview denouncing Sterling's latest comments about Johnson.

"I just read a transcript of Donald Sterling's interview with Anderson Cooper and while Magic Johnson doesn't need me to, I feel compelled on behalf of the NBA family to apologize to him that he continues to be dragged into this situation and be degraded by such a malicious and personal attack. The NBA Board of Governors is continuing with its process to remove Mr. Sterling as expeditiously as possible."

Clearly deluded, for whatever reason, Sterling at one point called out Cooper as “having more of a plantation mentality than I do” while calling the respected CNN reporter “more of a racist than” Sterling is. Seconds later, Sterling went on to point out he doesn’t “know what that means, ‘a plantation mentality,’” which is a weird thing to say about a phrase he just accused a man sitting feet away from him from having.

This is the sort of person we’re dealing with, here. And who the NBA is going to have its work cut out for as it attempts to remove him from its league.

The NBA has a right, inside a collectively bargained private constitution Sterling and his wife Shelly Sterling signed off on over and over again, to force the removal of an owner if the league feels the owner in question is hurting the league’s brand and ability to make money. NBA owners, to a man, are expected to vote unanimously to oust Sterling as is their right – this has nothing to do with tired “freedom of speech” arguments – never hesitating in dismissing Sterling’s recorded comments about excluding an entire race of people from his basketball arena.

This is what makes it odd when, in talking with Cooper, Sterling claimed “several” NBA owners have his back, and that “of course they support me.” Which either hints at a typical showing of Sterling-esque delusion, or some deep seated and unspoken racism within the NBA’s ownership ranks. In decades past, perhaps it would have been a mixture of both. In 2014? It’s hard to single out a current NBA owner and determine that, “of course,” they would support Donald Sterling in a fight that is distracting from one of the more enjoyable playoff seasons in NBA history.

Soon after projecting ownership support, Sterling claimed “the fans don’t hate me,” and that it was the media that was attempting to pushing him out, typically ignoring the Clippers fan base (as he has for decades) and the thousands upon thousands of NBA fans that took to the Internet, the airwaves and literally to the streets around the Staples Center begging for Sterling’s removal.

Sterling then went on to blame peer pressure for the Clippers deciding to, en masse, reverse their Clipper jerseys in the game directly following his leaked comments, claiming that “if one does it they all have to do it.” The Clippers owner then decided to say “I contend that they love me,” referring to his players that have disavowed him repeatedly in the days since,

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