Donald Sterling’s Bizarre Locker Room Incidents Revealed as Ex-Clippers Star Spills Lesser-Known Details

“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with Black people. Do you have to?” That was Clippers owner Donald Sterling, caught on tape in 2014 speaking to his mistress, V. Stiviano—and just like that, the NBA was thrown into a full-blown media firestorm. But let’s be honest—the league hasn’t exactly been immune to this kind of ugliness. That same year, Atlanta Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson stepped down after admitting in an internal email that “the black crowd scared away the whites.” And for the players, it wasn’t just headlines. It was personal. One Clippers legend from that Sterling-era roster has now opened up about exactly what it felt like to live through it.

Cuttino Mobley might’ve averaged a solid 16.0 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.7 assists over his 11-year career—playing for four teams, including the Rockets and a three-season stint with the Clippers from 2005 to 2008. But it wasn’t the constant trades or shifting rosters that stuck with him most. During his time in L.A., Mobley felt the sharpest objectification right there in the locker room—none other than from team owner Donald Sterling. It’s a stark reminder that sometimes the toughest battles happen off the court.

While chatting with Paul George on his Podcast P, Mobley was asked if he remembered the vibes during Sterling’s tenure. And let’s just say “weird” doesn’t even begin to cover it. He recalled the surreal, uncomfortable moments after games when Sterling would stroll in with guests while players were still undressed. “What was weird to me, right—and I just let it go—is that as soon as we finished playing and we go to the locker room, he was coming in there with people,” Mobley said. “Like, you know, you take your clothes off and you b– naked.”

He described the scene as if they’d become exhibits in a human zoo: “Like we was like—like we were like—it was like art or like the zoo. It’s like, ‘Look, look at this specimen. You see this one? Look how tall that is. He’s got dreads. Oh, this one weighs—’ You felt like that, you know? Like hearing your body be like, ‘Strong, that one is—that one’s pretty good.’” Mobley added that Sterling never laid a hand on him, but the whole experience left him uneasy enough to adapt: “That was the only weird thing. Other than that, he never did anything to me, you know what I’m saying? I started catching on, like, I’m headed to the shower quick.”

The controversy resurfaced last year with Hulu’s series “Clipped.” If you thought NBA drama was all about pick-and-rolls, this FX show brings a whole new kind of triangle—Sterling, his wife Shelly, and V. Stiviano, the “right-hand arm man” slash mistress—center stage. It dives into the April 2014 scandal when the leaked tape revealed Sterling’s racist tirade, even dragging Magic Johnson into it. Ed O’Neill flexes his dramatic chops as Sterling, Jacki Weaver is Shelly, Cleopatra Coleman plays Stiviano, and Laurence Fishburne appears as the beleaguered Doc Rivers. It’s less X’s and O’s and more scandal, secrets, and power plays in L.A.’s other basketball squad.

What was the Donald Sterling controversy?

In April 2014, a secret recording of Donald Sterling set off one of the biggest scandals in NBA history. On the tape, Sterling told his mistress, V. Stiviano, “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with Black people. Do you have to? … The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games.” The tipping point? A photo Stiviano had posted with Magic Johnson. Sterling went on to say, “Admire him, bring him here, feed him, f–k him, I don’t care. You can do anything. But don’t put him on Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.” The backlash was instant and massive, revealing not just a single incident but a long, ugly pattern of racism—from DOJ housing discrimination suits to Elgin Baylor’s lawsuit accusing Sterling of wanting a team full of “poor black boys from the South.”

Players and coaches were stunned and outraged. The Clippers, in the middle of a playoff run, staged a silent protest by turning their warm-up shirts inside-out. Doc Rivers, who was just beginning to build something special with the team, was left to guide players through an emotional firestorm. Across the league, stars like LeBron James responded forcefully: “There’s no room for that in our game… we can’t have that from an owner.”  Just days after the leak, new NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling for life, fined him $2.5 million, and pushed for a sale of the franchise—marking the first time an NBA owner was forcibly removed. “I believed that he had crossed a line that broke the essence of the contract of the moral fiber of this league,” Silver said.

Sterling fought the move, even filing a $1 billion lawsuit, but his wife, Shelley, ultimately closed the $2 billion sale to Steve Ballmer after having him declared mentally unfit. She walked away with honorary titles like “Clippers Number One Fan.” As for Stiviano, she faded from public life after being ordered to pay Shelley $2.6 million for gifts Sterling gave her. The scandal didn’t just topple one man—it reshaped the power dynamics of the NBA, launching a new era where players no longer hesitated to call out racism, even at the very top.