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Shelly Sterling—estranged wife of embattled Clippers owner Donald Sterling—told Barbara Walters that, "Eventually, I'm going to" divorce her husband of 60 years, and that she thinks her husband's racist remarks caught on tape stem from "the onset of dementia."She also reiterated her desire to keep her stake of the team, saying that "I've been with the team for 33 years, through the good times and the bad times" and that it is her "passion" and "legacy to my family." She said to Walters: "To be honest with you, I'm wondering if a wife of one of the owners, and there's 30 owners, did something like that, said those racial slurs, would they oust the husband? Or would they leave the husband in?" Shelly Sterling claims to be "shocked by what he said."
Let's be fair, Shelly, you've also been accused of saying some racist things yourself.
With NBA Commissioner Adam Silver bringing the hammer down on her husband, Sterling said that if her husband is forced to sell the team, she "would love him to" consider transferring full ownership to under her name. According to the L.A. Times, the team is in a family trust and that Shelly Sterling has equal ownership as her husband.
The ban from the NBA prevents Donald Sterling from being involved with running the Clippers, and in the interim the league appointed former Time Warner CEO and Citigroup Chairman Richard Parsons to run the team.
Shelly Sterling also told Walters that for the last two decades she had been planning on divorcing her husband, but "financial arrangements" have made her financial advisor and attorney to recommend she delay the process. Sterling has also been legally entangled with her husband's alleged mistresses, having sued both visor-adorned V. Stiviano (who was on the other side of the conversation in the leaked audiotapes that started this whole mess) and Alexandra Castro for extortion.
The Clippers are currently in a second-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Oklahoma City leads the series 2-1.
