SH Blog: Donald Sterling Bailed out of Barbara Walters, Anderson Cooper interviews; Noah’s ‘Melo recruitment was sustained

We almost got to hear Donald Sterling’s side of the story. Almost.

TMZ.com is reporting that Sterling bailed out of a planned interview with ABC News and Barbara Walters, deciding he was not prepared, along with a second interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. The woman at the center of the scandal surrounding him, V. Stiviano, kept up her side of the bargain and sat with the woman once called BabaWaWa.

“I think he feels really alone, Now really supported by those around him. Tormented. Emotionally traumatized,” Stiviano said. “I’m in a stage where I want to help him, urging him to come to his own rescue. But even so, I think he feels that he is alone.”

Stiviano also said “only God knows” if Sterling will apologize. 

Click here for a link to an outtake of the Walters interview.

Here is more from TMZ.com: “Donald Sterling talked to Walters and Cooper at length and decided NOT to go on camera, telling them he “wasn’t prepared” … sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ. V. Stiviano did sit for a LONG interview with Walters, telling Babs she does NOT believe Sterling is a racist and saying the 15 minutes of audio were “taken out of context.”  She also said there was a 3rd person in the room when she recorded Sterling and he KNEW he was being recorded. We’re told poor Anderson walked away with zilch.”

Trust me folks, this story has more legs than a caterpillar. And until we hear what Sterling plans to do, there is no telling when it will burst back into the forefront of the NBA — no matter how far along we are in the playoffs.

Old colleague Ramona Shelbourne has a brilliant piece on ESPN.com looking at the first five days of the Sterling sandal with a magnifying glass. One nifty item: TMZ rented out several rooms at The Four Seasons Hotel where the Warriors were staying so that they could do their papparazzi thing without getting ejected.

Here is an interesting nugget about what went down when the Clippers issued their defiant statement, under team president Andy Roeser’s name, in the first 24 hours after the tapes went public.

Roeser hired an outside consultant to help craft a statement to respond to the tapes on Saturday. They discussed and weighed three different messages. The first was to cop to everything. Say that Sterling was sick, that he needed help, that he apologized and felt terrible for offending anyone. The second was to dispute the veracity of the tapes, question the motives of the woman on the tapes and why they were released, and argue that what’s said on them misrepresents Sterling’s true feelings. The third was to say very little except that the team would cooperate with the NBA investigation. Roeser felt the third message was the best option. Sterling did not. They went with defiance, and they stuck Roeser’s name on it.

WWDD? (What Will Donald Do? That is a question I addressed in this podcast, and Shelbourne’s column adds some more insight.

Those who know Sterling expect him to fight in court. “Knowing him, I would think the first thing is, ‘How do I fight it? What is the legal strategy here?'” said Steve Soboroff, a civic leader, a longtime Clippers season-ticket holder and the driving force behind the building of Staples Center in Los Angeles. “Sterling has never sold anything. I don’t even think he sells his used cars. So this is against his nature. But I believe the way they set it up, so strongly, that he can’t even make decisions having to do with money, having to do with the team, that he cannot continue to own it and eventually he’ll see that. “When he sees that, that he is banned, he’ll realize the sooner he gets rid of it, the better it will be for him. And that’s what he’s always concerned about.”

 News items from around the league:

_ Jonathan Feigan of the Houston Chronicle: Kevin McHale will return as the Rockets coach for next season, a person with knowledge of the decision said today. McHale just completed the final guaranteed season of his contract, but multiple individuals with knowledge of the Rockets thinking have said management believes in him and wants him to have more time with a relatively new team that spent the season battling injuries. The fourth year of McHale’s contract was subject to a team option but it appears the Rockets are sticking with him.

_ What to make of Andray Blatche’s guarantee that the Nets will defeat the Raptors in Game 7? Greivis Vazquez was not impressed: “I don’t know who does he think he is. He’s not KG or Paul Pierce or Jason Kidd. But you know, we’re going to listen to his nonsense. He’s gotta earn that and he hasn’t yet.

_ More on the Blatche guarantee and the questions of legacy from our own Michael Scotto: “Normally, talking about his ankles is a sore subject – no pun intended – for Williams who has been heavily criticized for his inability to stay fully healthy since signing a maximum contract with the Nets as the team moved to Brooklyn. That wasn’t the case, however, during Game 6 when he went to the floor in pain clutching his right ankle. Unlike most familiar scenarios when Williams has gone down with an ankle injury, he walked it off with a noticeable limp as his adrenaline carried him through the remainder of the game – a must-win for Brooklyn to keep its season alive.“I thought Deron showed a lot of heart, a lot of grit,” Garnett said. “I’d like to use another word, but I can’t. For the most part, I thought he showed great leadership coming out and playing aggressive. He was beat up a little bit, but he sucked it up and got through it. My hat goes off to him.” If Williams outplays Lowry in Game 7, he will be viewed as a warrior for overcoming his injuries and being the leader Brooklyn envisioned when it gave him a maximum contract – not the washed up injury-riddled guard he’s currently labeled as. “In the three games we’ve won, I’ve been really aggressive getting into the paint, making things happen, scoring the ball, making the extra pass,” Williams said. “I know that’s what my teammates need me to do and so I wanted to come out early and establish that.” Williams is averaging 23 points and shooting 46 percent in Brooklyn’s three wins. Conversely, Williams is averaging 12.67 points and shooting 37 percent in Brooklyn’s three losses.”

_ Mitch Lawrence from the New York Daily News: John Calipari has no shot to get the job, just as he didn’t when Rex Chapman tweeted that Calipari was on his way to Laker-land with a “done deal,” as Kentucky hit the court for the NCAA championship game against UConn. Calipari knows the Lakers have zero interest in him and that’s why he tweeted on Friday that he is not leaving the Wildcats

_ Who should be the next coach of the Lakers? Vote in this poll.

_ From Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times: “According to several sources, including a teammate, Noah’s All-Star Weekend “conversation’’ with New York Knicks standout Carmelo Anthony didn’t end in New Orleans. They had discussions via text the rest of the season, including the day after the Bulls were eliminated in the playoffs by the Washington Wizards. “I was kidding Jo that they were boys now,’’ a source said in a phone interview Friday. “ ‘Well, get your boy to come to Chicago.’ ’’

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