The True Donald Sterling Story Behind Hulu’s Clipped

Summary

• Clipped on Hulu recounts the downfall of Donald Sterling and the Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers during a tumultuous period in NBA history.
• The miniseries exposes Sterling’s immoral behavior, racist remarks, and eventual ouster from the league due to his offensive conduct.
• Through Rivers’ courageous stand against Sterling’s toxic racism, the NBA underwent a positive transformation, with a new team owner and improved team performance.

Based on the ESPN podcast The Sterling Affairs, Clipped is a biographical sports miniseries hitting Hulu on June 25, 2024. The 6-part drama tracks the personal, professional, and public disgrace of Donald Sterling (Ed O’Neill), the wealthy real estate tycoon and meddlesome owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. In addition to engaging in multiple extramarital affairs, Sterling received a lifetime ban from the NBA following an explosive TMZ audio recording in 2014.

While Sterling deals with his humiliating downfall, Clipped also chronicles NBA coach Doc Rivers (played by Laurence Fishburne) as he leads the Clippers into the playoffs and remains focused amid the PR circus surrounding the Sterling controversy. With the dust settled a decade later, a look back at Donald Sterling’s real-life ruination is on deck to help viewers make sense of one of the biggest sporting controversies on record.

Who Is Donald Sterling?

Born in Chicago in 1934, Donald Sterling is a former lawyer turned business entrepreneur who has lived in Los Angeles since he was two. In 1955, Sterling married his only wife, Rochelle “Shelly” Stein (Jackie Weaver). Following a successful divorce and personal injury attorney career, Sterling transitioned to the real estate sector and acquired more wealth. In 1981, Sterling purchased the National Basketball Association team, the Los Angeles Clippers, for $12.5 million.

More hands-on than most professional sports owners, Sterling made big promises to the fan base to outshine the league’s premiere franchise, The Los Angeles Lakers. Yet, the opposite occurred, with Sterling proving to be one of the worst owners of one of the league’s most inferior teams, a distinction covered in the new Hulu limited series.

In 1982, Sterling received the largest penalty of its kind — $10,000 — for suggesting that his team would happily lose games on purpose if it meant they would draft upcoming star Ralph Sampson. Although this is not detailed in Clipped, Sterling’s history of bending the law, breaking the rules, and paying the price for it is important to contextualize his disgraceful undoing over 30 years later.

Who Is Doc Rivers?

Doc Rivers is a well-respected former NBA player and current NBA coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Rivers played for the Los Angeles Clippers from 1991-1992. In 2013, Rivers was hired by Sterling to coach the Clippers, building on the personal and professional rapport they had for over 20 years. Yet, as shown in Clipped, as soon as Rivers took the job, he was undercut, interfered with, and blindsided by Sterling’s gross lack of professionalism.

Sterling would harass players at practice, favor certain stars, and force his team to do things they had no interest in, such as attend an involuntary all-white Labor Day party, despite the overwhelming majority of the players being Black. Clipped jumps between Rivers’ dealing with Sterling’s immoral behavior as he tries to coach the team to success, and Sterling’s catastrophic demise as a racist, womanizing NBA owner. Without Rivers’ standing up for what is right, supporting his players, and giving the NBA an ultimatum, Sterling’s downfall would not have been as swift or definitive.

The Incriminating TMZ Tape

Clipped picks up during the 2013-2014 NBA season, in which Rivers led his team against the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. Around Sterling’s 80th birthday, TMZ released an audio recording during the playoffs that began Sterling’s disgrace. As seen in the sports biopic, the audio was recorded by V. Stiviano (Cleopatra Coleman), a woman with whom Sterling was having an extramarital affair at the time (one of many in his life).

Due to Sterling’s increased Alzheimer’s symptoms, Stiviano claimed she began recording his conversations to help him with his memory loss. After seeing Stiviano posing on Instagram with NBA legend Magic Johnson, Sterling tells Stiviano in the recording:

“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want, but the little I ask you is … not to bring them to my games.”

The deeply offensive remark sent shockwaves throughout the NBA, which is predominantly comprised of Black players. Rivers considered boycotting the playoff series due to the controversy, but the team continued to play and lost to the Warriors in the 2014 playoffs.

Following the team’s first-round exit, Rivers told NBA commissioner Adam Silver that he would not return as the Clippers coach if Sterling remained the owner. Soon after, Silver imposed a lifetime NBA ban on Sterling and mandated that he sell the team to a new owner.

The Fallout From the TMZ Recording

In August 2014, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer purchased the team for $2 billion and the Clippers have enjoyed much more success on the court than under Sterling’s toxic ownership. From 1981 to 2014, the Clippers only had six winning seasons under Sterling’s ownership. In comparison, Ballmer’s Clippers had seven consecutive winning seasons beginning in 2014-2015. Following the sale, Sterling unsuccessfully contested the decision in court. In 2016, Sterling settled the suit with the NBA. Despite receiving a lifetime ban from the league, Sterling still works as a real estate agent in 2024.

Following the TMZ tape that led to Sterling’s deserving ouster, the 2024 miniseries Clipped chronicles Stiviano’s PR maneuvering, the sale of the Clippers to Ballmer, and Sterling’s stalling legal battle to retain ownership. The miniseries condenses the drama to a year or two in Sterling’s 80s rather than telling his full life story.

Apart from the racially insensitive TMZ controversy, Sterling’s affair with Stiviano and several other women dating back to 1996 led to Shelly Sterling filing for divorce in August 2015. However, in 2016, Shelly changed her mind and the two remained married in 2024.

Meanwhile, Doc Rivers stayed with the Clippers until he was relieved of his duties in 2020. Although he won an NBA title as the coach of the Boston Celtics in 2008, Rivers’ most significant play came off the court. By sticking up for his players, voicing intolerance for Sterling’s toxic racism, and making the NBA choose between the values of its constituents over Sterling’s ugly, hate-filled views, Rivers helped to eliminate Sterling as a team owner and make the NBA a much better, more inclusive league.

Clipped is available to stream on Hulu on June 25, 2024.