“… In conduct designed to target, befriend, seduce, and then entice, cajole, borrow from, cheat, and/or receive as gifts transfers of wealth from wealthy older men whom she targets for such purpose.”
-description of “V. Stiviano” from the lawsuit filed by Rochelle Sterling.
In a large city like Los Angeles is that a scandal is hot news only for a brief period, before some other disgraceful tidbit of slander unhinges it from the psyche of the gossip hungry populace. A week and a half ago, the town was abuzz with allegations of sex abuse by against X-Men movie director Bryan Singer and three other Hollywood bigwigs, in part of a twisted version of the casting couch syndrome wherein they targeted under aged boys eager for entry into show business.
Shortly afterwards, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy laced his frustration with a grazing rights dispute with the federal government with inflammatory suggestions that Blacks fared better under slavery then in their present state as recipients of government aide.
Both stories are now supplanted by a bombshell leaked to one of the major rumormongers, TMZ, by a supposed mistress to real estate magnate and L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling. This juicy morsel is a recording, covertly or overtly taped by his former inamorata, one V. (for Vivian) Stiviano, herself of mixed parentage, in which he admonishes her for keeping company with and being photographed with high-profile Black men, including Magic Johnson and Matt Kemp. In a nutshell, Sterling expressed his displeasure in having her socialize with Black folks or bringing them to Clipper games, the audio went publicly, and the sports world got to see a billionaire publically disciplined.
The woman who brought him down is presently the subject of a law suit filed by Sterling’s wife, Rochelle, seeking the return of items Stiviano is said to have embezzled from her 80-year-old benefactor.
These include two Bentleys, a Ferrari, a Range Rover, a $1.8 million duplex, and nearly a quarter million dollars in living expenses. She and the Ferrari made an appearance in the media when they were cited for a DUI in 2012. In the car with her was actor Brandon Mychal Smith, 23, who has appeared in Disney TV sitcoms and the upcoming James Brown biopic Get on Up, as Rock n’ Roll icon Little Richard.
Stiviano, born Maria Vanessa Perez, is alternately known as Monica Gallegos, Maria Valdez, and has at least two other AKAs.
A hot, coquettish femme fatale, possibly two-timing her octogenarian sugar daddy with a series of young, virile Black men, while gouging him for expensive cars, jewelry, and real estate, while his wife waits steaming mad off in the background—the story has all the makings of a potboiler fit for a town known for its high drama involving the rich and (in)famous. For good or ill, the Chicago-born Sterling’s fortunes run parallel with his adopted city of the angels and its sepia shaded citizenry.
Humble Beginnings
Growing up in Boyle Heights, Donald Tokowitz endured a hardscrabble upbringing by becoming senior class president at Roosevelt High, moving on to Cal State LA and Southwestern Law School, and changing his last name to Sterling.
Even with this name change, mid-century law firms were not hospitable to young Jewish lawyers, and so Sterling set out to make his mark in divorce and personal injury in his old neighborhood of Boyle Heights, before moving on to the fertile enclave of Beverly Hills. Like others in the late 20th century, he invested into real estate and cunningly expanded his portfolio, while earning the ire of his tenants using the tactics he later displayed as a sports owner.
In 1979, Sterling used his profits to buy a huge swath of Santa Monica housing complexes from Dr. Jerry Buss, who in turn used the cash to purchase the Los Angeles Kings, The Forum, and the Lakers. Buss and Sterling enjoyed a complementary relationship for the rest of the century as owners of the principle basketball franchises of southern California, albeit with differing management styles.
Interestingly, in spite of his considerable success in the expanding housing market, Sterling continued his law practice, finding a particularly lucrative niche for personal injury lawyers: the staged auto accident.
Sterling’s entry into this lucrative sideline was a network of chiropractors operating from enclaves at 42nd Street and Crenshaw Boulevard., 64th Street and Vermont Avenue, and elsewhere throughout South L.A.. A casual glance into any of these establishments would reveal a foyer filled with South Brothers (and Sisters) sporting neck braces.
One eye witness to these proceedings was insurance biller Olivia Wilson, who frequented the Sterling office in the Bank of America building on Wilshire Boulevard. There she regularly engaged with one of Sterling’s most prolific referrals, a well-muscled, gang-affiliated gent named “Dino,” who typically appeared with four or five “clients” in tow, several times a month, business spiking especially during rainy weather.
Wilson never saw any overt racism displayed by the Sterlings, a hospitable couple who regularly hosted parties for their “associates” at their Beverly Hills home. Rochelle insisted on personally serving her guests without the assistance of caterers or a hostess. The fare usually consisted of rotgut booze and bargain basement beer, but the good times flowed along with the discount booze for the largely African American gathering of chiropractors and business related folks.
Bottom Feeders
“I know what it feels like to be a Clipper fan all these years, that was my reaction.”
-Superstar Kobe Bryant after the end of the Lakers’ 27-55 season, the worst in franchise history.
As Buss parlayed his acquisition into a championship dynasty and earned the envy of the sports and entertainment world, Sterling, who brought the San Diego based Clippers at Buss’ urging and moved them to Los Angeles, seems to have viewed the franchise as merely another investment and exerted no passion towards improving the team’s won-loss record. Perpetually in the cellar, the Clippers have, over the course of their 30 years in L.A., become the butt of jokes by late-night talk show hosts, and the laughingstock of the sporting world.
Paradoxically, year in and year out, the Clippers have been one of the few franchise teams that consistently turns a profit, allegedly because its owner runs it as a business.
Miserly habits may make for sound business, but not for success in the competitive arena of world class athletics. Over the years, the Clippers have consistently low-balled draft picks, than let them try their luck as free agents instead of re-negotiating their contracts for higher salaries.
Unlike his counterpart Dr. Buss, who delighted in the company of glamorous young women and mingling with the stars, Sterling has led a comparatively subdued life. This was interrupted by the problematic life of his son Scott who achieved notoriety in 1999 when he shot and seriously wounded a friend allegedly over the affections of child actress Lindsey McKeon. In 2013 Scott died of a drug overdose involving questionable circumstances in his Malibu apartment complex.
Sterling himself made an unwilling entry into the scandal sheets in 2009 in a similar predicament to the one now threatening his empire. The Sterlings sued former mistress Alexandra Castro (who’d previously cohabitated with boxer Mike Tyson) in an attempt to regain a Beverly Hills home she’d resided in as they carried on a sexual relationship, performed according to Sterling at $500 a pop, in exchange for sex that was, as he said “…better than words could express.”
Plantation Lullabies
“Inspire a Negro with perfect confidence in you and learn him to look to you for support and he is your slave.”
-plantation owner quoted in “Slavery and the Making of America,” a PBS special.
“Personally I would like to have a White southern coach coaching poor Black players.”
-Donald Sterling from an alleged conversation with Elgin Baylor
Former Food Network chef Paula Deen once waxed nostalgically about a dream wedding in which Black men in white jackets and bow ties would serve her guests to revisit the grandeur of the Antebellum south, just one of the flights of fantasy that toppled her from her perch as queen of Southern cuisine.
SoCal born and bred, Sterling cannot boast the southern pedigree and refinement of a Paula Deen, but he did harbor his own fetishized image of what the Clipper organization could be. In the 1980s, the front office tried to lure highly regarded Villanova coach Rollie Massimino into the pros and the helm of the Clippers. Then General Manager Paul Phipps set up a meeting with Sterling and his prospective employee, who immediately refused to be considered. During the course of the meeting, Sterling bluntly asked Massimino “I wanna know why you think you can coach these nrs?”
Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor butted heads with Sterling for 22 years before being put out to pasture. To Baylor, Sterling seemed to view his highly paid athletes as more akin to valuable race horses in a stable to be shown off to his well-heeled guests. He would habitually bring female visitors into the locker room as his players showered, in much the same way that a Kentucky blueblood might walk his guests through his stables, mint juleps in hand to admire his champion stud animals.
Naturally offended, the players voiced their discontent to Baylor, who relayed them to the owner, who turned a deaf ear. Baylor in turn filed a 2009 lawsuit charging his former boss with wrongful termination on the basis of age and race. The court ruled in Sterling’s favor.
Reversal of Fortune
“In making his point, did Sterling go off the deep end, describing Black ball players as servants he employs and provides with life’s necessities: ‘I support them and give them food, and clothes, and cars, and houses.’ Sterling appears to be, shall we say, a bit controlling…”
-Stanton Peele, Ph. D., JD
Lo and behold, the Clippers’ prospects turned for the better, due to the entry of impact player Blake Griffin and proven point man Chris Paul, winning their first Division title in 2013 as their traditional superiors, the Lakers, tanked in the wake of injury-plagued personnel and organizational strife, possibly aggravated by the death of their paterfamilias, Jerry Buss. Just as the tide has turned for arguably the worst franchise in sports, Sterling’s personal life upended, and threatens to, if not topple, seriously erode his empire and reputation.
As head of the Black Business Association, Earl “Skip” Cooper has had a long social and professional association with Sterling. Their recent efforts to expand the possibilities for African American businesses to enjoy commercially viable relationships with the Clippers, and other venues connected to Sterling’s real estate and other interests, were stymied only by Cooper’s failing health.
Cooper notes a positive component to the present situation, in that affirmative action, civil rights, and racism have once again been brought to the table for national discourse. In this way, we can readdress the issue of racism in the public and private sectors that have impeded opportunities for African Americans in education, employment, and business. In direct reference to the racism charge, he points out that virtually every major corporation has a racial discrimination claim filed against it at any given time.
Much of the criticism directed at Sterling centers on the racism that was apparently an open secret to anyone with a shred of insight and superficial interaction with the man. An intriguing, alternative view was expressed by a clinician in a recent Psychology Today article, focusing on the basic defects of control, envy, and insecurity that plague high achieving men as they wind down with old age.
In the eponymously titled “What’s Donald Sterling’s Hang-Up?” Stanton Peele speculates:
By asserting his control over Black men, was Sterling showing Stiviano he was superior to younger, more physically appealing competitors for her affection?
This catastrophe will by no means send Sterling to the poor house: having purchased the Clippers for a paltry $13.5 million in 1981 (much of that in assumed loans), the team is now appraised at a whopping $575 million. In the event he is forced to sell, that is a tidy little profit in anyone’s book.
Still, for as tightfisted an operator as Sterling this is a wake up call, as scores of advertisers have left the fold much like rats deserting a sinking ship, among them CarMax, Mercedes, and Virgin America.
Rumor-mongering and salacious gossip remain a growth industry in this media saturated town, with thousands of “nosy parkers” earning their living to ensure that hearsay if not out right scandal are fed to the masses. For every headline that fades as the newspapers line the bird cage, another leaps off the presses to take its place. But in journalistic lingo, the Sterling saga has “legs,” on several levels. The original law suit against “Vivian Stiviano” is still pending, and the central issue of Donald Sterling retaining ownership of the Clippers will likely take up the entire off-season.
Perhaps the most intriguing post-script to all this maybe the emergence of a new, politically savvy player’s union. The near-boycott prior to Sterling’s lifetime ban was a show of solidarity not seen in generations, and may be a precursor of a new dawn of activism. Such a change would be a welcome sign of maturity for a group stereotyped as materialistic thugs.
