This Donald Sterling Anecdote Was So Disturbing, SI Refused To Publish It 14 Years Ago

 

Sports Illustrated did a feature on Donald Sterling back in 2000, appropriately putting 'THE WORST FRANCHISE IN SPORTS HISTORY (and the man responsible)' on their cover.

Apparently, one anecdote that writer Franz Lidz found for his story was just too much to print, but now that it's open season on Sterling, SI has taken the gloves off:

Shortly after the Clippers made Danny Manning the top pick of the 1988 NBA draft, team owner Donald Sterling invited the player and his agent, Ron Grinker, to talk contract in Beverly Hills. It was recounted to me how Sterling lounged around his mansion in a bathrobe open to his navel, wearing nothing underneath.

At one point Sterling's preteen son wandered in and was chastised for skipping Hebrew school. The owner commanded the boy, "Go to your room and get undressed." The child slouched upstairs. Sterling followed. The next thing Manning heard was a belt thrashing and the boy wailing, as Grinker bounded up the stairs yelling, "Stop! Stop! We'll sign."

Check the full article (with more tales of Sterling debauchery) here.

 

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