According to court documents cited by Sports By Brooks, Clippers owner Donald Sterling sought advice on the team's basketball operations from a woman that he referred to as a prostitute. In a 2009 discrimination case against Sterling, The U.S. Department of Justice filed documents from an unrelated case that contained testimony from one of Sterling's acquaintances, Alexandra Castro.

The case involving Sterling and Castro went to trial in 2003. Sterling sued Castro in order to get a house back that he gave to her before their relationship ended. Ultimately, Castro won the case and was able to keep the house.  

During the trial, Castro delivered this statement in order to help explain her relationship with the Clippers owner:

"During our relationship, Mr. Sterling consulted me on issues he was considering almost every day, including, among other, whether he should hire Alvin Gentry to coach the Los Angeles Clippers (although I had no experience in such matters), how he should respond to requests by players for the Los Angeles Clippers for increases in their compensation (Mr. Sterling and I often had dinner at the Arena Club with agents for a number of players)..."

In his own sworn testimony, Sterling goes on to drop even more surprising details about their relationship.  When describing Castro to the jury he called her "a prostitute...a total freak and piece of trash..."  

He then went on to say that their relationship was, "purely sex for money, money for sex, sex for money, money for sex.  The girl was providing sex for money." To make matters worse, Sterling has a wife whom he has been married to for over 50 years.  

This incident certainly does not help improve Sterling's less than "sterling" reputation. He has consistently been called the worst owner in all of sports, and the real estate mogul has been involved in scandal after scandal. in 2004, he refused to pay for prostate cancer surgery for then-head coach Kim Hughes. Players responded by coming to Hughes' aid and paying for the procedure. In 2010, Baron Davis revealed that Sterling heckled his own players from his courtside seats.

Certainly, this new scandal in the Donald Sterling saga is bad, but its timing is even more unfortunate for a Clippers organization that is just starting to shed its loser image. Last week, Clipper Darrell, arguably the biggest super-fan in the NBA, was asked by his beloved organization to drop the word "Clipper" from his name. Clipper Darrell posted on his website that he was "devastated" by the news and that he "felt he was stripped of [his] identity." 

Clippers players Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin took to twitter to show their support, but so far the organization has not changed its stance. Meanwhile, the team is mired in a slump, in which it has dropped six of its last nine games and no longer appears assured of a playoff spot.  

Both events have created a public relations disaster for the Clippers, who certainly do not need any outside distractions from their fans or their owner at this crucial turning point in the season.  Blake Griffin and company return home from a six-game road trip Sunday to a game against the Golden State Warriors and potentially more questions about their biggest fan and the man who writes their paychecks.

 

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