That at least shares or respects your sal ares. They dont have to actually share them, but they have to respect them. When youre working and you do your job you have it on your chest. I got to wear a suit and tie the other night. But i had a sense that it was hard for the players. They add to wear that. I think that was hard for them. I do. Doc, you said you were in film, you told them the decision and said what you needed to say. What did you say . That would be private, that part. A lot of it was to let them know this is some closure. There is still work to do. You know, i just thought they set a good example around the league on how they conducted themselves. Doc, you said you expected a good crowd tonight. Maybe im hoping. Too. I think the mayor has been great, by the way. What he said today kevin johnson, i like him again. Its amazing. Hes been great. He was great what he said today. I didnt know he could speak so eloquently. My goodness. Just that this is not the lakers or l. A. , just to support the team. I go back to the 14 guys we dress or that are, you know, players. They did nothing wrong. They need support. I think that will happen. Doc, would you like to see the clippers name changed . You know, jim. Thats been asked. Someone asked me today. Its the first time i heard or thought of it. I have no idea. I think whatever happens, if there is a new owner or change of ownership i think all those things would be answered by somebody much smarter than me. Im not smart enough to give that answer. I just need clarification on something you said. I thought the union said if they didnt like the resolution by silver the players would consider not playing. Mmhmm. Did your players consider not playing . They hadnt discussed it. I think they had the trust that there would be. Im glad we dont have to find out. Doc, you said the players made the riegs decision by not doing anything. Waiting. Why was that the right decision to not make a major statement or sit out a game . I dont know, mark. Like i said. I know what i think is right. Thats all i can go by. There are people who think we didnt do the right thing and people who think we did. All you can go by is what you think you should do. I lean on a lot of things trying to get guys get to the right decision. They did talk about it when it not playing. I thought the black socks and the shirts and all that was fine. At the end of the day, for me at least i always try to lean back on people i have learned from. Lt are from wayne emb are ries to i talked to a lot of people. And my father who is no longer here would have told me to go do my job and dont let anyone stop you from doing your job because of what they think about you. You can make a bigger statement by doing your job well. I know my father would have said that. I dont know if he was right. I dont know if im right. But the decision i made is what i thought was right for the team. Thats all you can do. Thats all they can do. Again, the burden shouldnt be on them to have a right or wrong response. They didnt do anything wrong. No one should villify my players for making the choice of playing. No matter the choice they made it was the right one. They shouldnt have the burden of making a response. Last question. Coach . Im not drained enough to go out and not coach this game. I can tell you that. Well be ready. There will be time to get rest. But this is not the time. This isnt a pit question party for us. I did tell my players that. Coach, when was the last time you had a conversation with mr. Sterling . I dont know the answer to that. Ballpark it . A week . Yeah, i dont know. A month . Im not sure. Okay. You said earlier thank you, guys. You said i dont know who to call if i need something is. Yeah. How does it play out on the day to day . How do you operate this way . Im going to do my job. Whatever it takes with the team. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Mutt jackson is on his way in. Thanks for joining us. We have just seen a remarkable press Conference Held before the l. A. Clippers basketball game tonight to address the lifetime ban and 2. 5 million fine dropped today on the team owner, Donald Sterling. You just saw clippers coach doc rivers speak hg in an off the cuff way. He didnt have a prepared statement. Then taking questions for a long time. This is only an hour and a half before his teams big playoff game at their home stadium in los angeles. When president reagan was first elected in 1980, re elected in 1984, george bush chosen in the the elections in the fall of 1988, so it was january of 1989 when the new president was getting ready to be sworn in and Ronald Reagan was getting ready to leave office. On his last day in office, it is what he did. This wases his last day as president of the United States. White house officials said president reagan has given a full pardon to yankees baseball owner George Steinbrenner accused of making an Illegal Campaign contribution to richard nixon. It does not appear the president will are pardon patty hurst or oliver north and John Poindexter before leaving office. Sorry, patty and irancontra guys. After eight years in office, reagans parting shot was to give this guy a hand. Give this guy a pardon. Around the time George Steinbrenner was aaenging to buy the yankeess from cbs which owned the team in the 7s around the same time he was buying the yankees, George Steinbrenner was making Illegal Campaign contributions to the president ial re will lex campaign of nixon. He got caught for it. George steinbrenner who was chairman of the American Shipbuilding company and majority stockholder of the new york yankees was accused by the s. E. C. Today of not reporting Illegal Campaign continue bugss. That brings to 11 the number of corporations formally accused of illegal political gifts in 1972. Steinbrenner, the yankees owner was charged with 14 felony counts in connection with the part of the water gate scandal involving Richard NixonsCampaign Fund raising. He was indicted on 14 counts 40 years ago this month. In april 1974. That story simmered all through the hot summer of 1974. By august of that year George Steinbrenner had pled guilty. George steinbrenner who was coowner of the new york yankees pleaded guilty toy take a to conspiring to funnel illegal corporate Campaign Contributions to republicans and democrats. Steinbrenner pleaded guilty to telling employees at his shipbuilding firm to lie to the grand jury and the fbi. The owner of the yankeess pled guilty to two of 14 felony charges. He was charged a minor fine by the government for things pled guilty to. Beyond criminal punishment Major League Baseball as a Business Association had to decide what to do with this guy as a team owner. The commissioner of baseball at the time was buey cune and he suspended steinbrenner for two years after he pled guilty to watergaterelated crimes. Twoyear suspension. It was supposed to be two years. A year and change into the supposed punishment and baseball decided, oh, forget it. They didnt keep him suspended for two years though that was supposedly the sentence. They waited a year and change and brought him back. November 1974, George Steinbrenner, owner of the thork yankees, was suspended from baseball for two years. The reason was illegal political contributions by steinbrenner and another of his businesses. Today the suspension was lifted. The commissioner said the yankees need him. Forget the punishment. Yeah, 14 felony charges and pleading guilty to two and the watergate mess is a pain for the country, but you know the yankees need him. Lets are bring him back. So much for the punishment in the business world. Ten in 1989 Ronald Reagan took care of his punishment if in the criminal world as well when he pardoned mr. Steinbrenner for his watergate crimes. By that time baseball had a new commissioner. Fresh off George Steinbrenners pardon as Ronald Reagans last act as p president of the United States, fresh off the pardon mr. Steinbrenner got in trouble again right after the pardon with the new baseball commissioner. I will show you one more clip from are the old news reels. This one i could not resist. They do not write news like this anymore. Its probably a good thing. This is amazing. Watch right to the end of this. I cant believe this exists. New york yankeess owner George Steinbrenner, born on the fourth of july. But this birthday may not be a happy one. Tomorrow he appear ss before the baseball commissioner to explain some of his activities off the field. Activities that could lead to his suspension. Steinbrenner dictated everything tr how long players can wear their hair to how long managers will survive. Not long in either case. The only thing that counts to me is giving the yankees a winner. We have done it 14 of 17 years. Baseball commissioner fay vincent suspects something other than the urge to win motivated steinbrenners treatment of star outfielder dave winfield. The investigator questioned yankee players and employees about steinbrenners allegedlied hounding of winfield, harassment that included steinbrenners payment of 40,000 to this man, howie spira for information harmful to winfield who was taded by the yankees this year. You are always concerned going before the commissioner. So, yes, im concerned. I have hopes that i will get a fair hearing. Reporter even if steinbrenner can convince the commissioner his actions were proper he has to do more to satisfy fans that hes restoring the team to former luster. Only 1 in 10 approves of steinbrenners ownership. A dandy of a birthday present for this Yankee Doodle who turned 60 today. Steven frasier, nbc news, new york. A dandy of a birthday president for this Yankee Doodle. Sticking a feather in my cap and calling it macaroni, im steven frasier. Nbc news. Why dont we write news like this anymore . A dandy of a birthday present for this Yankee Doodle . Seriously . Why wasnt i on the news then . Its so great. That meeting between fay vincent, the commissioner and steinbrenner didnt go well that day. The commissioner found not only had the yankees owner paid this outside guy to go dig up dirt to hurt one with of his own players but the guy he paid was a known big time sports gambler. Being a professional Sports Team Owner associated with professional gambling on sports is a problem for a lot of obvious reasons. On july 30, 1990 George Steinbrenner was banned from Major League Baseball for life. Or for three years, whichever came first. They banned him for life in 1990 and brought him back in 1993. What is a life ban that ends after three years . They reconsidered after three years, caved and brought him back just like his previous two theyear suspension just had fallen apart after a few months. They brought him back because the yankees needed him. If you want to get banned for life for real in American Sports the only sure way to do it is to be an actual athlete who plays sports, not a rich guy on the business side of things. Tanya harding, the american figure skater was stripped of her 1994 National Championship title. She was banned from skating for life for her involvement in the lurid plot to hurt her rival skater nancy kerrigan. Lance armstrong, the legendary american cyclist was not only banned from cycling for life, he had his cycling titles retroactively disqualified. Basically his career annulled when he admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. Pete rose, one of the greatest hitters in the history of oh baseball, then a manager when he was found to not only be involved in gambling on baseball but betting on his own teams. Pete rose was banned from baseball for life if 1989. The commissioner said if there had nt been such Grave Allegations about gambling corrupting baseball since the 1919 world series when the white sox had eight players not just suspend bud banned for life for their involvement in a plot to throw the world series. If you are a player, an athlete are, involved in the physical performance of the game there are a million ways to get kicked out, disgraced, punished, humiliated, suspended, banned for life. But if youre the boss, one of the pun guys, the same standards do not apply to you. If nothing else the president of the United States may step in and save you on his last day in office. The owner of the lakers gets a dui conviction, suspended for two games t. Owner of the Washington Capitals gets into a fistfight with a fan in the stands at one of his games, suspended for a week. The owner of the 49ers neglects to mention his felony conviction in a gambling, fraud and extortion case. He took a season off and came back. The owner of the st. Louis cardinals had to go to federal prison for a 15month sentence for federal tax evasion. Baseball didnt see fit to punish him but they found it embarrassing to have the owner of a team in prison. They found that embarrassing enough that they pressured him to sell the team. Same deal with marge schott of the reds, the nazi memorabilia collection and calling her star players her Million Dollar nwords. She had suspensions but they gently persuaded her to sell the team to somebody else. Players get burned for life, right . They are thrown out, disgraced, barred from are the sport until they are dead. Owners get quietly pressured to please cash in. Before today the only time any owner in professional sports was banned for life was the joke about George Steinbrenner. It was a joke. It was a life ban. He was back in less than three years. Today that history apparently changed for the first time with a remarkable, terse and ultimately genuinely shocking press conference by the brand new commissioner of the National Basketball association. I am personally distraught that the views expressed by mr. Sterling came from within an institution that has historically taken such a leadership role in matters of race relations. And caused could you repeat and former players, coaches, fans and partners of the nba to question their association with the league. To them and pioneers of the game like early lloyd, chuck cooper sweet water clifton, bill russell and particularly magic johnson, i apologize. Accordingly, effective immediately, i am banning mr. Sterling for life for any association with the Clippers Organization or the nba. As for mr. Sterlings ownership interest in the clippers, i will urge the board of governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the team and will do anything in my power to ensure that happens. Unless that turns out to be a fake lifetime ban like baseball handed out to George Steinbrenner in the 90s and it only lasted three years. Unless this is another fakeout what was announced today is an unprecedented moment in the history of big time sports in the United States. Not a player, not a Front Office Employee or a manager, but an owner. One of the bosses. One of the money guys actually being thrown out in shame. The shortterm question obviously is what happens next . Will the nba owners who have the power to do it, will the other nba owners vote to strip Donald Sterling of ownership of his team, force him to sell the team . Thats the other shoe that may or may not drop. Lotses of the owners today put out statements today suggesting that will be an easy vote. The bigger question here for people who dont care about sports but recognize sports are an important part of oh American Culture and it may be a landmark thing that happened here whether or not you know how many basketball teams represent los angeles, the bigger question in terms of American Culture, american politics and accountability in our country and our time is why did this just happen . This is an historically significant moment given what else happened if professional sportses before this. Why did this just happen now . Is it something specific to whats going on in sports now or is it a reflection of changing expectations for whats acceptable behavior in american big business . Donald sterling said offensively racist things about black people in what he thought was a private context. Then through some machinations with his private life and his mistress that became public. The owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers said he didnt want too many black people because if a team looked too black it would be bad for business. He said it openly. He wasnt banned for life. They encouraged him to sell the team eventually but he wasnt banned. Neither did marge with her swats ka arm band and hitler wasnt that bad. The knee jerk analysis is that we are all offended by statements that didnt useded to offend us. Thats why the team owner was banned for life when nobody before him did. You know what . The cavaliers guy in the 70s offended people by trying to titrate the racial makeup of his teams to be business efficient. Marge shot offended people for real. And George Steinbrenner was convicted in watergate. Its not like these things were laughed off. We didnt sud lynn get sensitive to things that didnt used to bother us. Whats different is not that we take offense at things that didnt used to offend