The Laker great and LA icon didn’t mince words when asked about Donald Sterling’s alleged racist comments on ABC:
There’s no place in our society for it, and there’s no place in our league. We all get along. We all play with different races of people when you’re in sports. That’s what makes sports so beautiful. He’s put his own team in a tough situation. So I believe that once Commissioner Silver…does all his due diligence, gets all the information gathered, he’s got to come down hard. He shouldn’t own a team anymore. And he should stand up and say, ‘I don’t want to own a team anymore.’ Especially when you have African Americans renting his apartments, coming to the games, playing for him, coaching for him. This is bad for everybody. This is bad for America.
(…)
He’s got to give up the team. If he doesn’t like African Americans and you’re in a league that is over 75% African Americans…When you’ve got the president of the United States saying that this is bad. You’ve got fans around the country—different races of people—saying it’s bad, it is time for him to exit.
