Sterling's CNN Interview; Shelly Sterling vs. Donald vs. the NBA
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Anyway, a lot of news to get you this morning, so we get you to the "NEWSROOM" with Ms. Carol Costello.</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Carol.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I hear you, Chris, because I was on the free lunch program when I was in grade school and just being on the free lunch program was so embarrassing to me for a time. So, kudos to them for fixing the problem.</s>MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: And you're right, the school system is like, what were you thinking? Thanks so much. NEWSROOM starts now. Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Disgraced NBA owner Donald Sterling breaks his silence and pleads for forgiveness, yet he also found a way to insult a beloved icon of the NBA and even shift some of the blame for his racist rants that may cost him his team. Here's some of the exclusive interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper.</s>DONALD STERLING, OWNER, L.A. CLIPPERS: I'm a good member who made a mistake and I'm apologizing and I'm asking for forgiveness. Am I entitled to one mistake in my -- after 35 years? You know, I love my league. I love my partners. Am I entitled to one mistake? It's a terrible mistake and I'll never do it again.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR, "AC 360": The vice president of the NBA Players Association, Roger Mason, he said that the players won't accept anyone in the Sterling family owning the Clippers, not you, not your wife, not your son-in-law, not your daughter. Do you believe it?</s>STERLING: I really don't know. The people that are going to decide my fate I think are not the media and not the players union, but the</s>NBA.  COOPER: The owners?</s>STERLING: Pardon me?</s>COOPER: The owners?</s>STERLING: The owners. If the owners feel I deserve another chance, then they'll give it to me.</s>COOPER: But there is a path for you to fight their decision, isn't there?</s>STERLING: Of course. But if you fight with my partners, what at the end of the road - what do I benefit, especially at my age. If they fight with me and they spend millions and I spend millions, let's say I win or they win, I just don't know if that's important.</s>COOPER: Why wait so long to apologize? It's been a couple of weeks. You could have come out --</s>STERLING: That's a very good question. I just -- I'm so emotionally distraught. And the reason it's hard for me, very hard for me is that I'm wrong. I caused the problem. I don't know how to correct it.</s>COOPER: Do you trust people? I mean there -</s>STERLING: I do.</s>COOPER: There have been a couple of phone recordings just in the last week or two that have come out of people you've talked to on the phone, or seems to be your voice, who have then sold it to, you know, Radar Online or TMZ. And I hear that and I think, do you have anyone you trust around you?</s>STERLING: I don't give interviews. The only one that I know that I talked to is Magic Johnson.</s>COOPER: You have talked to him?</s>STERLING: Twice. And then - yes, he's --</s>COOPER: Did you apologize?</s>STERLING: He knew the girl. He said -- he knew the girl well. He --</s>COOPER: Did you apologize to him or -</s>STERLING: Well, if I said anything wrong, I'm sorry. He's a good person, and he -- what am I going to say? Has he done everything he can do to help minorities? I don't think so. But I'll say it. I'll say it, you know, he's great. But I just don't think he is a good example for the children of Los Angeles.</s>COSTELLO: Anderson Cooper is here with more on his exclusive interview. Anderson, he seems to have some sort of fixation with Magic Johnson?</s>COOPER: Well, there's clearly some issues he has. He actually goes into a lot more -- he says a lot more about Magic Johnson and I think it's going to really probably anger a lot of people. That will obviously be on tonight. And he claims that he's had two conversations with Magic Johnson. I haven't been able to confirm that with Magic yet. But, you know, it's a wide-ranging interview. I mean we spoke for well over an hour and really covered everything there is to talk to him about. He answered all the questions. He was very - you know, his main point was he wanted to apologize and he did so in a lot of different ways and he's clearly -</s>COSTELLO: But not to Magic Johnson clearly.</s>COOPER: Well, clearly not to Magic Johnson. That is correct. And I think after what he'll say tonight, there's, you know, even a lot more that people will be kind of shocked by.</s>COSTELLO: All right, so Shelly Sterling says that he's suffering from early onset dementia. In your mind, was he completely present during that interview?</s>COOPER: You know, look, I clearly don't know him in the way that she does or a close friend of his would. You know, I certainly, in my talks with him, I met with him about a week - a week or so ago and obviously met with him on Sunday when we did this interview yesterday. There wasn't anything that gave me pause in terms of, you know, actually sitting down and doing an interview with him. I didn't feel he wasn't in control of himself. He certainly, you know, is a very capable and smart guy. He's a smart attorney. He clearly has - you know, he's in a situation. He isn't trying to figure his way out of at this point. But during the conversation, for instance, you know, if I would ask something and then I'd ask something on another topic based on where the conversation went, he would often bring the conversation back to the previous question. So, I mean, he clearly remembered things and, you know, was certainly competent to do an interview.</s>COSTELLO: To have his talking points, right. Why did he agree to talk to you?</s>COOPER: You know, I -- my - I don't know -- you know, when I met with him a week -- more than a week ago, you know I simply said, look, I think you need to get your voice out there, you know, rather than being defined in the public sphere by V. Stiviano, by people who are selling tapes of phone conversations you had, people should hear from you and you can say whatever you want to say and, you know, we'll have a conversation and I'm a fair guy to talk to. So, you know, he was willing to sit down and talk and that's what we did.</s>COSTELLO: All right. So the full interview, an hour long, will air 8:00 p.m. Eastern tonight, right?</s>COOPER: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: All right, Anderson Cooper, thank you. Be sure to watch Anderson's full interview with Donald Sterling, as I said, tonight at 8:00 p.m. on CNN. For her part, Donald Sterling's wife Shelly says she isn't giving up on giving up her half of the team without a fight. And in an interview with Barbara Walters, as I just said, Shelly suspects her husband has early dementia. She also talked about their relationship and what the team means to her.</s>BARBARA WALTERS, ABC NEWS: Mrs. Sterling, you own 50 percent of the L.A. Clippers. There are reports that the NBA wants to oust you completely as a team owner. You will fight that decision?</s>SHELLY STERLING, WIFE OF CLIPPERS OWNER DONALD STERLING: I will fight that decision.</s>WALTERS: What does the team mean to you?</s>STERLING: It means a lot. And it's my passion. And I love it. And it's my legacy to my family. It was horrible when I heard it. I mean it was just degrading and it made me sick to hear it. But as far as a racist, I don't really think he is a racist.</s>WALTERS: Have you discussed these remarks at all with your husband?</s>STERLING: He saw the tape and he said, I don't remember saying that. I don't remember ever saying those things.</s>WALTERS: What did you think then?</s>STERLING: That's when I thought, he has dementia.</s>WALTERS: Really?</s>STERLING: Yes. I don't love him. I pity him and I feel sorry for him.</s>WALTERS: What is your relationship today with your husband?</s>STERLING: We're estranged. We've been estranged for about a year.</s>WALTERS: Why not divorce your husband?</s>STERLING: I've been thinking about it. I filed these divorce papers. I signed them. I was all ready to file. My attorney and my financial adviser said now is not the time.</s>COSTELLO: But the NBA says if Donald Sterling is voted out, Shelly's interest in the Clippers would automatically end as well. And that has her attorney gearing up for a fight. In a statement he writes, quote, "we do not agree with the league's self-serving interpretation of the constitution, its application to Shelly Sterling, or its validity under these unique circumstances. We live in a nation of laws. California law and the United States Constitution trump any such interpretation." With me now, CNN's Stephanie Elam, who talked with Sterling's attorney, and Clippers' season ticket holder and criminal defense attorney Brian Claypool. Welcome to you both.</s>BRIAN CLAYPOOL, CLIPPERS' SEASON-TICKET HOLDER: Hi, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Actually, I want to talk first about Donald Sterling's interview with Anderson Cooper. Brian, why do you think he agreed to do that?</s>CLAYPOOL: Well, Carol, first of all, I want to tell both Donald Sterling and Shelly Sterling they need to get a better acting coach because that was a pathetic attempt at trying to win over the public. First of all, Donald Sterling, and this alleged dementia, he's losing his memory? You have to be kidding me. He has visited nearly eight law firms in California, Carol, over the last week or two. That's why he hasn't given an interview. He's been out lobbying, trying to find lawyers to sue the NBA. And you have to look back at who he's apologizing to. He's not apologizing to Doc Rivers. He's not apologizing to the Clipper players. He's not apologizing to the black and Hispanic tenants that he was prejudiced against. He's not apologizing to the season ticket holders. He's apologizing to one set of people, that's the board of governors. That's the 29 owners who are going to vote. It's absolutely disgraceful and pathetic.</s>COSTELLO: And, Stephanie, it's interesting that Shelly Sterling also agreed to an interview on national television, this with Barbara Walters, and she talked about how she wanted to hold ownership of the team and she went into the dementia thing, right? But she also went into, like, yes, I'm going to divorce him and I've been thinking about it for 20 years but I haven't done it. What do you make of that?</s>STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it all comes down to finances and whether or not this was going to be a beneficial decision financially is what was the most important thing. Now, how perception plays into this is probably a huge part of that. What's also interesting in that Barbara Walters interview is that, when she was asked whether or not she thought that the - that the NBA did the right thing by banning her husband, she said no comment. But after this first happened, she put out a statement through her lawyers saying that she had talked to Commissioner Silver and that she fully supported what he had done. So there's a bit of a mixed message here on what is happening. And I - you have to keep in mind, even if they are estranged, she says she doesn't love him, they still have a family together and you have to care about that you would imagine in her position. So it's hard to extricate the two, whether or not she's seriously talking about this because of how she feels personally as a woman or whether or not she's looking at this as a bigger financial issue.</s>COSTELLO: Brian, is there anything the Sterlings can do at this point to repair their reputation, to make people think they really, truly are sorry that all of this has transpired?</s>CLAYPOOL: Are you absolutely kidding me? There's zero that they could ever do. Did you hear the comment that Donald Sterling made to Anderson Cooper? He said - he said, Carol, if I said something wrong to Magic Johnson. Are you - are you serious, Donald? Do you really mean that? He said, also, it's a mistake. It's not a mistake, Donald. Mr. Sterling, hear me, it's a mentality. It's a 30-year mentality of being a racist. And you can't claim that's a mistake. That's engrained in your brain. You need help. You need to move on because there is nobody in the city of Los Angeles, including the mayor, who I saw at the game yesterday, Carol, who I happen to be personal friends with, Eric Garcetti, and he reiterated that we will do everything in our power to make sure that no Sterling family member has ownership in that team.</s>ELAM: Well, and I think another thing --</s>COSTELLO: And, Stephanie, I want to get into this Magic Johnson for just a second, because he seems to have this fixation on Magic Johnson. And we haven't heard the full extent of his remarks about Magic Johnson yet. That will air at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on Anderson Cooper's show. But what does he have against Magic Johnson?</s>ELAM: What boggles the mind is now we've heard three different recordings, one that we know about with Anderson, right, and the other two that were surreptitiously done, or so we've been lead to believe. All three of them, he has mentioned Magic Johnson. That is really bizarre. He seems to be obsessed with Magic Johnson. Now, Magic is a larger than life personality. When you're in a room with him, you know he's there. It's not like you can - and it's not just because of his height. He's also known because of his basketball skills, of the businesses that he's opened outside of basketball, outside of sports. Let's remember that he opened up a bunch of Starbucks all throughout southern California as well. He's a businessman. He's opened up theaters in Harlem as well. So he does have some sort of issue with him. And I think the fact that he keeps bringing up - bringing up Magic Johnson does not help his case at all. And also this idea that if he has dementia, that that could somehow help his case, I actually think it hurts him more because it would show that he is not in the right sound mind to be owning an operation and running it. And the other thing that I've learned since I've been covering this story from the beginning is that when you spend time at the Staples Center around people who cover the Clippers all the time, how Donald Sterling has conducted himself, how he has spoken about people of different races, this is not new. Maybe this is a bigger extent of it. Maybe this is the first time he was caught on a recording. But apparently, to a lot of people down there, this is not new that he has said things that are inappropriate racially.</s>COSTELLO: All right, Stephanie Elam, Brian Claypool, thanks for your insight. I appreciate it. I'm back in a minute.</s>CLAYPOOL: Thanks.