Donald Sterling, the disgraced former Clippers owner who was ousted this week after a tape of his racist rant leaked, is battling cancer, sources have confirmed.
The 80-year-old is reportedly
suffering from prostate cancer, according to the New York Post.
"They thought he would die two years ago," a source told the newspaper Thursday. "People have been predicting his imminent demise. I’m sure he has the best . . . drugs money can buy. He can do anything to keep himself alive."
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver hit Sterling with a lifetime ban and a $2.5 million fine Tuesday, a day after tapes leaked of him criticizing his girlfriend for posting photos of herself with black people on social media.
"It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people," a voice reportedly identified as Sterling says to her. "I'm just saying, in your . . . Instagrams, you don't have to have yourself with, walking with black people."
Despite the fact that
Sterling insisted Wednesday that the NBA team "is not for sale," Silver said in his remarks that he would "urge the Board of Governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the team and will do everything in my power to ensure that that happens."
The Post report also noted that Sterling once denied to pay for one of his employee's prostate-cancer surgery back in 2011.
"I contacted the Clippers about medical coverage and they said the surgery wouldn’t be covered," f
ormer assistant coach Kim Hughes told The Journal Times of Racine, Wisconsin, at the time.
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