Donald Sterling is widely regarded as the worst owner that the NBA ever saw. The former Clippers boss has a net worth of $4,000,000,000(Celebrity Net Worth) and was known for a range of controversies. Accusations of being racist aside, Sterling was infamous as a miser and is criticized by virtually everyone in the NBA world. On VladTV, Dominique Wilkins recently followed suit by revealing that Sterling once ensured Shaquille O’Neal could not win the 1994 scoring title.
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The Clippers were against the San Antonio Spurs towards the end of the regular season. With Shaq and David Robinson fighting for the scoring title, Sterling instructed coach Bob Weiss to pull Wilkins off after four minutes in the first quarter. This was because Sterling wanted Robinson to get points and edge ahead of Shaq in the race for the title. Dominique claimed that he was stunned to hear Sterling’s decision to help Robinson, and argued by claiming that neither of the players played for their team.
Dominique Wilkins reveals how Donald Sterling ensured Shaquille O’Neal didn’t win scoring title in 1994
Wilkins was asked on the podcast whether there was anything that bothered him about playing under Sterling. He responded by claiming that there were lots of things.
Wilkins proceeded to tell the crazy story of how Sterling wanted the Spurs’ Robinson to win the scoring title over Shaquille O’Neal. To ensure this, the head coach was told to pull Wilkins after four minutes in the game:
“Playing for Sterling? Lot of things. “I remember the end of the year, playing against the San Antonio Spurs, and Bob Weiss came in the locker room and said, ‘Look, I want y’all to get along, but I’ve been told to take all you guys out after the first four minutes of the first quarter,’” Wilkins said. And I’m like, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Donald Sterling wanna see David Robinson keep the scoring title in the West, he didn’t want Shaquille to get it in the East.’ I said, ‘Last time I checked, neither guy played on our team. Who cares?’ And so he did, he took us out with four minutes to start in the game, and David Robinson had 71. Crazy.”
While Wilkins argued and claimed that their team should not care about the scoring title, it was of no use. Weiss ended up taking him off after just four minutes, which resulted in Robinson producing his famous 71-point game.
O’Neal did not want to hear Donald Sterling’s apology
Back in 2014, Sterling had come out with a long-winded apology for his racist comments during a CNN interview. Claiming that he was “baited” into making the comments, Sterling said he does not talk about people that way.
The former Clippers owner was heard ranting about her friend V. Stiviano. Stiviano had posted a bunch of pictures with a few of her African-American friends.
This includes Magic Johnson, who was also mentioned in Sterling’s rant. Shaq, in response, claimed that the world had already seen the real side of Donald Sterling. He also said that it was funny how he apologized before proceeding to go on another rant, according to CNBC. Of course, Sterling’s “apology” was in fact for allowing himself to be “baited into making the comments.”
