On Monday May 12th, former owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling, had an interview with CNN's anchor Anderson Cooper. His remarks during the interview, did nothing else than reminding everyone what he did, and who he really is.
During first half of the interview, he was apologetic to his racist remarks that were released weeks earlier, but as the interview continued, when Donald Sterling mentioned that he spoke with Magic Johnson after the tape was released, Anderson Cooper asked, 'Did you apologize?' Donald Sterling's immediate response was hesitation, head tilt, hands raised in the air, shoulder shrug, and the utterance of 'eh...'
Psychological researches have shown that shoulder shrug is usually understood as a typical sign of deceit. It represents that a person is not sure what he was saying. In this case, I believe in the Donald Sterling in the released tape, but I would not believe a single word that came out of his mouth during the interview. This man is a lawyer, and yet he had various legal records of being a racist. Although there were nobody on scene during the interview to instruct Donald Sterling what to say, I still believe that he was saying those words to prevent further punishment.
Later on in the interview, Donald Sterling went on to attack Magic Johnson of not being 'a good example for the children of Los Angeles'. Apparently, Donald Sterling believes that Magic Johnson has 'done nothing for the kids in the LA area'.
In fact, Magic Johnson, the legendary NBA player and survivor of HIV, did not only succeeded on the basketball court, he also started the Magic Johnson Foundation, which donated millions of dollars over the years to raise people's awareness of HIV. Of course he did much more than the foundation, but it seems like Mr. Sterling was too ignorant to notice any of that.
Donald Sterling is a man of racial mindset, without doubt. Whatever he says is not going to change that. He claims that he is asking for forgiveness, yet he does not understand that forgiveness can be earned only when you are truly sorry and sincerely apologize to people you have harmed. I have not seen him sincerely apologizing to the players, the fans, the league, or to Magic Johnson. Furthermore he does not seem to be willing to give up the ownership of the Clippers team. He constantly contradicts with himself, and it only shows one thing -- he is still lying.
Excellent points! I could not agree with you more. I did not know about the shrug. But it was not difficult to see that he is not sorry. He is asking for forgiveness, but then he went on to say what he said about Magic. Repugnant! On the other hand, are we to believe that the NBA did not know about him? What is really sad is that instead of talking about the wonderful Clippers season, we are talking about this despicable man!
ReplyDeleteMr. Sterling's comments are shameful. I may be naive but it appears to me that he regrets what he said. Nonetheless, I think that he was frame. Even Mr. Cooper seemed to be after him. Mr. Cooper failed to acknowledge Mr. Sterling's contribution to organizations but took the time to acknowledge Magic's Johnson contributions. Once again, Mr. Sterling's remarks are reprehensible.
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