LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Clippers President Andy Roeser is taking an indefinite leave of absence while the NBA restructures the franchise in the wake of owner Donald Sterling’s lifetime ban.
Roeser’s immediate departure was announced Tuesday by the NBA. The league announced plans last week to appoint a CEO to oversee the franchise in Sterling’s absence.
“This will provide an opportunity for a new CEO to begin on a clean slate and for the team to stabilize under difficult circumstances,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling for life, fined him $2.5 million and urged owners to force him to sell the Clippers a week ago, responding to league-wide outrage over racist comments made by the 80-year-old real-estate mogul.
Sterling is the NBA’s longest-tenured owner after buying the Clippers in 1981. Roeser, one of the Clippers’ alternate governors, is one of the league’s longest-tenured executives, having just completed his 30th season with the team.
Roeser has been a loyal frontman for Sterling since the franchise’s days in San Diego, and he stood by Sterling during every controversial stretch of the owner’s career. Only radio play-by-play announcer Ralph Lawler has worked for the Clippers longer than Roeser, who became team president in 1986.
But Roeser infuriated many longtime Clippers employees last week after Sterling’s private conversation was made public by TMZ.
While nearly everyone else was reacting with outrage, Roeser released a statement questioning whether the recordings of Sterling were legitimate, while simultaneously apologizing on Sterling’s behalf for sentiments about Magic Johnson on the recordings. Roeser’s statement was sympathetic to Sterling and criticized V. Stiviano, Sterling’s longtime associate and the other voice on the recordings.
Clippers coach Doc Rivers said Roeser’s statement upset many loyal Clippers employees who had been horrified by Sterling’s comments. Rivers held meetings with much of the Clippers’ front-office staff last week while Sterling was ousted, encouraging them to keep working for the franchise.
Rivers is the Clippers’ senior vice president of basketball operations, working alongside executive vice president of player personnel Gary Sacks on the basketball side of the team’s operations.
The Clippers overcame the enormous distraction of Sterling’s banishment to outlast Golden State in a seven-game first-round series on Saturday night.
After just one day off, they returned to the court and trounced Oklahoma City 122-105 on the road Monday night in the opener of their Western Conference semifinal series.
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