Clippers CEO: Doc Rivers will quit as coach if Sterling stays

Clippers CEO: Doc Rivers will quit as coach if Sterling stays
(Image credit: Robert Mora/Getty Images)

Interim Clippers CEO Richard Parsons said that Doc Rivers, coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, will leave the team if Donald Sterling remains the owner.

Parsons made his testimony during a court case to decide whether Donald Sterling's wife, Shelly Sterling, had the right to sell the Clippers to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.

"Doc is troubled by this maybe more so than anybody else," Parsons said. "If Mr. Sterling continues as owner, he does not want to continue as coach."

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Rivers, who is black, has coached the Clippers for more than a year. Donald Sterling faces a lifetime ban from the NBA after making racist comments in April. Sterling filed a new lawsuit Tuesday against his wife as well as NBA commissioner Adam Silver for defrauding him and attempting to sell the Clippers.

"If Doc were to leave, that would be a disaster," said Parsons. "Doc is the father figure, the one who leads."

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