The world may be tired of listening to Donald Sterling, but he has not finished talking. On Wednesday night, Anderson Cooper aired the second half of his interview with the Los Angeles Clippers owner, which featured more of his uniformed thoughts on race. When asked if he thinks racism is still a problem in America, Sterling answered, “I don’t think so, I think it’s better than any place in the world,” adding, “I don’t see it. I’m not African-American.” Once again Sterling, who is Jewish, brought up anti-Semitism, saying he doesn’t think Jews “have any problem” in America – though he noted that people were killed outside Missouri Jewish centers just last month. “I think it’s better than it’s ever been,” he said. “Doesn’t mean there isn’t anti-Semitism, there is … a lot of it, especially in the South. But it doesn’t matter.”
Sterling said his estranged wife Shelly has filed for divorce, but he had nothing but praise for her (and weirdly, her lawyers). While he said in the first half of the interview that Magic Johnson should be ashamed of himself for being promiscuous and contracting HIV, he suggested their marriage fell apart due to his cheating. “I guess I was bad committing all of those terrible … I don’t even want to say it,” Sterling said. “But you know, people say, ‘How do you commit adultery?’ You justify things … You say, well, every man in Paris or France has a mistress. I mean, it may make you smile, but when you’re so old, you don’t think it’s wrong anymore if you have a little bit of fun.” He explained that “everybody wants to be cared for,” and added, with tears in his eyes, “I made such a mistake. I thought that woman (Stiviano) really cared for me.”
Though previously, Sterling insisted that players and fans still love him, in Wednesday’s installment he lamented that people turned on him so quickly. “What am I, a Frankenstein? What am I, some kind of an ogre?” he asked. “I’m a good person, I’m a warm person. I say hello to everybody who comes to the team.” He also claimed that he wouldn’t be so quick to judge if the situation were reversed. “What if a player said, ‘I don’t like working for that Jew.’ What would we do?” he said. They’d almost certainly be fired, but Sterling said, “I wouldn’t do anything. I would ask him, ‘Why? Why?’ I want to make you happy. If you want more money, more attention, more love?”
