Donald Sterling, the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, may have been caught making racist remarks in a private conversation that was recorded.

Did Donald Sterling Make Racist Comments?

Sterling, reportedly talking to a woman named V. Stiviano, took issue with her Instagram posts in which she was posing beside NBA veteran Magic Johnson, according to TMZ. The recording was apparently from a conversation that occurred earlier this month.

“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people,” the voice, which allegedly belongs to Sterling, can be heard saying in the recording. “I’m just saying, in your … Instagrams, you don’t have to have yourself with, walking with black people.”

“Don’t put him on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me,” Sterling allegedly added. “And don’t bring him to my games.”

NBA, Magic Johnson React To Sterling Recording

After the recording began going viral, the NBA released a statement to condemn the comments and to claim that they weren’t fully informed in regard to the situation.

“The remarks heard on the recording are disturbing and offensive,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in the statement, “but at this time we have no further information.”

Johnson, who was ultimately the subject of the phone conversation, has taken to Twitter to share his own dismay with the remarks that reportedly came from the mouth of the Clipper’s owner. He also expressed his sorrow for those who had to work for him at the Los Angeles basketball franchise.

“I feel sorry for my friends Coach Doc Rivers and Chris Paul that they have to work for a man that feels that way about African Americans,” Johnson tweeted. “LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s comments about African Americans are a black eye for the NBA.”

Sterling has somewhat of a reputation for holding a racist worldview, reported the Los Angeles Times. Former Clippers GM Elgin Baylor accused him of having a “vision of a Southern plantation-type structure” for his franchise. Furthermore, in 2009, he paid $2.73 million to settle a lawsuit in which he was accused of refusing to rent apartments to black and Latino families in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles.

– Chelsea Regan