Clipped: What Happened to Donald Sterling in Real Life After the V. Stiviano Scandal

The remarkable decline in popularity of former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is chronicled in the new Hulu/FX series Clipped. The first two episodes of the new series, which is now available only on Hulu for streaming, tell the story of how Sterling and his wife Rochelle, also known as “Shelly,” built up a successful real estate company in Los Angeles, which enabled them to buy the NBA team in 1981. Although Donald and Shelly Sterling wed in 1955, their union was far from ideal, as the television show depicts. Even before V. Stiviano entered the picture, Sterling had extramarital encounters with a woman named Alexandra Castro.

The renowned and legendary “Showtime” Lakers owner Jerry Buss was good friends with Sterling. In fact, Sterling was featured in the most recent HBO original series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. On June 4, 2024, the first two episodes of Clipped will debut exclusively on Hulu. The next four episodes will be broadcast every Tuesday until the July 2, 2024, series finale. Ed O’Neill as Sterling, Jacki Weaver as Shelly, and Cleopatra Coleman as V. Stiviano lead the Clipped cast. The NBA season 2013–14, in which recently hired head coach Doc Rivers turned around Sterling’s floundering team, is the subject of Clipped.

SUMMARY

After making racist comments that were caught on camera, Sterling was subject to a sensational $2.5 million fine and a lifetime ban from the NBA.
After Donald refused to work with the NBA, Shelly Sterling took over and sold the Clippers to Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.

As his turbulent past is detailed in “Clipped,” Sterling’s net worth is still $4 billion despite litigation and issues.

Clipped (2024)

In one of its most contentious eras, “Clipped” brings viewers inside the Los Angeles Clippers organization. The show centers on Laurence Fishburne’s character, Coach Doc Rivers, as he deals with the ramifications of owner Donald Sterling’s racist comments. The controversy, which was caught on camera and made public around the world, leads to a bitter power struggle between Sterling, his ambitious aide V. Stiviano, and his wife Shelly. The show investigates the larger ramifications of Sterling’s behavior and the pursuit of accountability and change within the sports industry while Rivers tries to keep his squad cohesive and winning-focused.

CAST
Kelly AuCoin, Ed O’Neill, Jacki Weaver, Michael Heidemann, Jock McKissic, Laurence Fishburne, and Petri Hawkins Byrd
PUBLISH DATE
Seasons 1 Streaming Service(s) June 4, 2024
Writers for Hulu Gina Welch Directors
Kevin Bray
Principal Genre: Drama Author(s)
Gina Welch

The Irony of Winning Time’s Final Episode After Cancellation

HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty ended abruptly, which is ironic given how the show ended. Winning Time was supposed to carry on with its dramatized retelling of the 1980s Showtime Lakers era after tracing the team’s early years from 1979 to 1984. However, after Jerry Buss took over the team in 1979, he was able to instill his trademark and creative brand and content strategies that essentially modernized the NBA as an entertainment platform. Buss prioritized the whole fan experience over just basketball, and his success depended on the caliber of his Lakers team. Buss chose to build his franchise around one player, Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

The conclusion of the Lakers dynasty was revealed in the closing credits of Winning Time season 2, which would have undoubtedly been covered in later seasons of the show that HBO will never release. Although the two seasons of Winning Time offer a realistic and detailed depiction of the Lakers’ turbulent start to their 1980s dynasty, the seventeen episodes of the show fell short of fully capturing the brilliance of the time. Winning Time, the full title of the now-canceled HBO series, was designed to tell the real tale of how the Lakers rose to become one of the biggest sports dynasties. Even though Winning Time documented the Lakers’ 1980 and 1982 NBA Titles, it ended before the dynasty was underway.

SUMMARY

Winning Time: The Lakers’ impressive run of victories in the NBA Finals came to an end before the true splendor of the 1980s period.
The Lakers’ revenge game against the Celtics in the 1985 NBA Finals was a pivotal and redeeming moment that the series failed to depict in season 3.

Winning Time need to have continued until and beyond the Lakers’ 1988 Finals victory to fully justify its moniker. Important occasions like the retirement of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the departure of Pat Riley, Magic Johnson’s health issue, and the ascent of Michael Jordan could have been included.

 

Sterling Received a Lifetime Ban & Was Fined $2.5 Million By The NBA

Sterling sparked outrage across the NBA

As seen in the movie Clipped, V. Stiviano began recording her conversations with Donald Sterling in secret and kept a few labeled voice memos on her own phone. She had received numerous “gifts” from Sterling, such as a brand-new red Ferrari and a $1.8 million Los Angeles duplex. Stiviano captured Sterling’s critical response when she shared a picture of herself with retired NBA player Magic Johnson on Instagram. Stiviano heard Sterling say, “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people,” on the recording. Naturally, this infuriated players and executives throughout the NBA.

The NBA swiftly punished Sterling with a lifetime ban following the revelation of the tape. In addition, they assessed him a pecuniary penalty of $2.5 million, the highest amount allowed by the NBA. The Clippers were scheduled to play the Golden State Warriors in the opening round of the playoffs on the day the recording was made public. The participants considered abstaining from the game entirely, but ultimately made the decision not to. They did, however, cancel the Clippers emblem by dressing in their warm-up clothes inside out. In a public statement, NBA icon LeBron James said, “There’s no room for Donald Sterling in the NBA.”

Shelly Sterling Sold the Clippers to Steve Ballmer for $2 Billion

Donald avoided having the issue go to a vote among other NBA owners

Even after the recording was made public and nearly the whole NBA demanded that Donald Sterling be fired, Sterling remained unwilling to sell the Clippers. As co-owner of the squad with Sterling, Shelly had to take matters into her own hands because not even the lifelong ban could persuade him to play ball. Sterling was barred from even entering the Clippers arena as part of the lifelong sentence. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver made it plain that a vote involving the other 29 NBA owners would be required if Sterling refused to sell the Clippers voluntarily. 22 owners would have had to vote for Silver to remove Sterling.

In an audacious interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, Sterling apologized and tried to prove he was not a racist. This infuriated Silver even more, so much so that he scheduled a June 3, 2014, hearing for the NBA owners to vote on Sterling’s removal. But before that could happen, Donald at last gave Shelly permission to begin selling the team, which she ultimately sold for $2 billion to Steve Ballmer, the current owner of the Clippers. The Clippers franchise is projected to be valued between $4.5 and $5 billion as of June 2024.

Sterling Unsuccessfully Sued Shelly, Adam Silver & The NBA For Damages

Sterling claimed he did not authorize Shelly to sell the team

Sterling’s career was far from over even after Ballmer purchased the Clippers. He claimed he had never granted Shelly permission to sell the franchise in the first place and sued Shelly, Adam Silver, and the NBA for damages. Former lawyer Sterling claimed that Shelly, Adam Silver, and the NBA conspired to deceive him so that Ballmer could finalize the purchase of the Clippers. Despite Sterling’s best efforts to stop the sale, Shelly was able to finalize the agreement with Ballmer on August 12, 2014, effectively eliminating Sterling from the NBA.

In 2016, the judge ultimately threw out Sterling’s lawsuit against Shelly, Adam Silver, and the NBA. Doc Rivers would remain head coach of the Clippers under Ballmer’s new ownership until 2020, having guided the team to the NBA playoffs six of his seven seasons in that role. Even though the V. Stiviano scandal was unquestionably the largest of Sterling’s career, there has already been foul play in his past. He received a hefty fine in 1982 for remarks he made that seemed to imply he would be prepared to purposefully ruin his squad to obtain a high draft pick. At ninety years old, Sterling’s current net worth is estimated to be $4 billion.

Sterling’s Son Scott Died of An Accidental Overdose In 2012

It is unclear in the series how that might have affected Sterling

Even before the V. Stiviano issue and the forced sale of the club, Donald and Shelly Sterling’s marriage came dangerously close to dissolution on multiple times. In 2015, Sterling filed for divorce from Shelly, but he later withdrew the suit after, according to sources, the two appeared to have worked things out. After the issue, Sterling severed all ties with V. Stiviano, who has supposedly been leading a private life away from the spotlight.

A significant aspect that was overlooked in the first two Clipped episodes concerned the untimely demise of Scott, the son of Donald and Shelly, who passed away on New Year’s Eve 2012 at the age of 32 due to an unintentional overdose.