Chris Paul Responds To Donald Sterling Comments

Former Wake Forest standout and current L.A. Clipper issued a terse statement about team owner Donald Sterling’s alleged racial comments on Saturday.

Paul, who is the president of the NBA Players Union, re-signed as a free agent with the Clippers last summer for five years and $107 million.

In Paul’s statement, he mentions calling on former NBA All-Star Kevin Johnson, who is currently the mayor of Sacramento, to help oversee the NBAPA’s response to the situation.

Paul’s statement: “On behalf of the National Basketball Players Association, this is a very serious issue which we will address aggressively. We have asked Mayor Kevin Johnson to expand his responsibilities with the NBAPA, to determine our response and our next steps. As players, we owe it to our teams and our fans to keep our focus on our game, the playoffs, and the drive to the Finals.”

In Sunday’s playoff game against the Golden State Warriors, members of the Clippers held a silent protest about the situation by running to center court and removing their warm-up tops and then throwing them into a pile on the floor. Under their warm-up tops, their shooting shirts were turned inside-out so that the Clippers name and logo did not appear.

Before the game, Paul told ESPN that the Clippers held a 45-minute team meeting to discuss the situation.

“We talked as a team about everything,” Paul said. “Trying to keep it internal. Everything we decided to do has been together as a team. We’re going to be one, everything we do, we do it together. Stay together, play ball. We worked hard to be where we are. Can’t imagine going through this with anyone other than Doc (Rivers).”

When the game started, players were wearing black arm bands or black wrist bands and black socks.