NBA Picks Interim CEO for LA Clippers

The NBA has chosen Dick Parsons, a former Citigroup chairman and former Time Warner chairman and CEO, as interim CEO of the Los Angeles Clippers. Parsons will oversee the franchise while the league tries to force owner Donald Sterling to sell it following his lifetime ban for making racist remarks. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said today in a statement that Parsons "will bring extraordinary leadership and immediate stability to the Clippers organization." With Sterling banned from anything to do with the team or league, and team President Andy Roeser on an indefinite leave of absence, the league and Clippers worked together to find someone to lead the organization along with coach Doc Rivers.

Parsons said he has "been deeply troubled by the pain the Clippers' team, fans and partners have endured," and was "firmly committed" to the NBA's "values and principles." Meanwhile, a voice purported to be Sterling's says on a new tape that he only made racist remarks out of jealousy—because the woman he was talking to liked dating black men, Radar reports. "I'm jealous that she's with other black guys," he says. "...So what the hell, can I in private tell her, you know, 'I don't want you to be with anybody'?" He adds, "Then if the girl tapes it and releases it, my God, it's awful." (More Los Angeles Clippers stories.)