--- title: Donald Sterling Remarks Should Have Caused Clippers to Boycott Game description: It was a "missed opportunity" when the Los Angeles Clippers didn't boycott Sunday's game in the wake of Donald Sterling's racist remarks canonical: https://time.com/78721/donald-sterling-los-angeles-clippers/ author: Sean Gregory article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-28T03:47:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:31:33.891Z article:section: World og:title: Donald Sterling Remarks Should Have Caused Clippers to Boycott Game og:description: It was a "missed opportunity" when the Los Angeles Clippers didn't boycott Sunday's game in the wake of Donald Sterling's racist remarks og:url: https://time.com/78721/donald-sterling-los-angeles-clippers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4a4a45ebe7504a9/69868ccccd684883770945e9/clippers-donald-sterling.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: From left: Los Angeles Clippers' Glen Davis, Jared Dudley and Danny Granger watch from the bench during the second half in Game 4 of an opening-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Golden State Warriors on April 27, 2014, in Oakland, Calif. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Sterling Remarks Should Have Caused Clippers to Boycott Game twitter:description: It was a "missed opportunity" when the Los Angeles Clippers didn't boycott Sunday's game in the wake of Donald Sterling's racist remarks twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4a4a45ebe7504a9/69868ccccd684883770945e9/clippers-donald-sterling.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Clippers Should Have Boycotted Game After Owner's Racist Remarks  by [Sean Gregory](/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory Senior Correspondent Apr 28, 2014 3:47 AM CUT  From left: Los Angeles Clippers' Glen Davis, Jared Dudley and Danny Granger watch from the bench during the second half in Game 4 of an opening-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Golden State Warriors on April 27, 2014, in Oakland, Calif. Clippers players wore their warmups inside out in protest of team owner Donald Sterling's alleged racial remarks. From left: Los Angeles Clippers' Glen Davis, Jared Dudley and Danny Granger watch from the bench during the second half in Game 4 of an opening-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Golden State Warriors on April 27, 2014, in Oakland, Calif. Clippers players wore their warmups inside out in protest of team owner Donald Sterling's alleged racial remarks.Marcio Jose Sanchez—AP  by [Sean Gregory](/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory Senior Correspondent Apr 28, 2014 3:47 AM CUT After TMZ released [audio](http://www.tmz.com/2014/04/27/donald-sterling-new-audio-released-clippers-black-people/ "undefined") of what was purportedly Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling [making racist comments to his girlfriend](http://time.com/78349/donald-sterling-clippers-obama-lebron/ "undefined"), his team was scheduled to play a basketball game on Sunday. The circumstances — following wide attention to the audio in which Sterling is depicted admonishing her for associating with African Americans in public, including Magic Johnson — were unprecedented. The players, most of whom are black, had to represent an owner whose allegedly racist views — the team [kinda, sorta](http://www.nba.com/clippers/news/statement-clippers-president-andy-roeser "undefined") questioned the authenticity of the audio — were now broadcast to the world. Even President Barack Obama, on the other side of the globe in Malaysia, [admonished](//nba.si.com/2014/04/27/barack-obama-admomishes-donald-sterling-for-offensive-racist-staments/ "undefined") Sterling for his “incredibly offensive racist statements.” The Golden State Warriors, to no one’s surprise, crushed the distracted Clippers, 118-97, to tie their best-of-seven playoff series at 2-2\. “Watching that game, you just saw the lack of effort,” says former Clipper Marques Johnson, who played for Sterling’s team for three seasons in the mid-1980s, and is now a basketball analyst for Fox Sports Net. “Guys were slow on the defensive rotations. To the trained eye, there was a stuff out there you could see. Trust me, they played, but they really didn’t.” The Clippers could have done themselves, and the country, a huge favor on Sunday afternoon, and boycotted the game altogether. They were in no mental position to win anyway. They wore their warmup shirts [inside out](http://mashable.com/2014/04/27/clippers-players-shirts-inside-out-racist-remarks-sterling/ "undefined"), an admirable gesture of unity. But it didn’t go far enough. “Sometimes the severity of the situation supersedes the notion of ‘the show must go on,'” Johnson says. “Forget about all the sanitized statements. Show the ultimate balls. Don’t play the game. No one would have ever blamed them.” A one-game forfeit would have sent a historic social message: we won’t stand for the racism that even Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan, who has famously dodged political discourse his entire career, [called](http://time.com/78349/donald-sterling-clippers-obama-lebron/ "undefined") “sickening.” And the Clippers would have returned to Los Angeles for Game 5 riding a wave of emotion and nationwide admiration for their principled stance. “It was a missed opportunity,” Johnson says. “The timing was just perfect” At least, Johnson says, the players should have demanded that Sterling meet with them face to face before the game and explain himself. If his apology seemed sincere, they could take to the court with more comfort. If they sensed insincerity, they’d have even more reason to back out. “The players had all the leverage here,” Johnson says. A five-time NBA All-Star who went to UCLA and spent most of his career playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, Johnson says he did not experience any racism from Sterling directly. Johnson remembers the owner’s notorious frugality: during one training camp, Sterling put the team up in a tacky motel. “There was just this pervasive attitude about how he viewed his players,” Johnson says. “He thought of us as property.” So the racist comments didn’t surprise Johnson, especially since he’s familiar with Sterling’s sordid past. The federal government sued Sterling for refusing to rent apartments to blacks and Latinos; he [settled](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117540/los-angeles-clippers-owner-donald-sterling-and-racism "undefined") for $2.7 million. Former Clippers executive Elgin Baylor also [sued](http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-elgin-baylor-donald-sterling-20140426,0,877251.story#axzz307LrP44v "undefined") Sterling for racial discrimination, though that claim was eventually dropped. Now, in his first major test since taking over for David Stern in February, it’s up to new NBA commissioner Adam Silver to come down hard on Sterling. Expect a swift decision, and Silver won’t wilt: unless that tape was somehow doctored — an unlikely story — Sterling will be fined and suspended. Maybe Silver sets Sterling’s banishment from the league in motion. Such a decision won’t set off much protest. But a Clippers walkout — that would have been remembered forever. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/78721/donald-sterling-los-angeles-clippers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/78721/donald-sterling-los-angeles-clippers/"},"headline":"The Clippers Should Have Boycotted Game After Owner's Racist Remarks","datePublished":"2014-04-28T03:47:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:31:33.891Z","description":"The distracted NBA team was steamrolled in its Sunday playoff game amid a national uproar over racist comments attributed to owner Donald Sterling","url":"https://time.com/78721/donald-sterling-los-angeles-clippers/","keywords":["NBA","Barack Obama","donald sterling","Adam Silver"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4a4a45ebe7504a9/69868ccccd684883770945e9/clippers-donald-sterling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sean Gregory","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4a4a45ebe7504a9/69868ccccd684883770945e9/clippers-donald-sterling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"From left: Los Angeles Clippers' Glen Davis, Jared Dudley and Danny Granger watch from the bench during the second half in Game 4 of an opening-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Golden State Warriors on April 27, 2014, in Oakland, Calif.","caption":"From left: Los Angeles Clippers' Glen Davis, Jared Dudley and Danny Granger watch from the bench during the second half in Game 4 of an opening-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Golden State Warriors on April 27, 2014, in Oakland, Calif.","creditText":"Marcio Jose Sanchez—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/nba/","name":"NBA"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/78721/donald-sterling-los-angeles-clippers/","name":"The Clippers Should Have Boycotted Game After Owner's Racist Remarks"}}]}] ```