nba no big gots allowed. i agree. we'll have the best of them tomorrow night as well. that's it for me. i'm don lemon. thanks for watching. "ac360" starts now. we're also facing another line of potential deadly storms, day three in a weather rampage has already cost three dozen lives and putting millions of people in harm's way tonight. and later, these ghostly images are said to be from flight 370.

you will find the radio transmissions from the missing malaysian airliner. more breaking news tonight, another round of tornadoes hitting the south on top of dozens in south carolina, joining alabama, mississippi and parts of the midwest the latest to face -- fury. >> there are lots of things

i think there is going to be so much pressure for him to lead the nba altogether and not have any ownership interest. because we have sponsors, we have fans and players. we're all watching.

>> do i know them? i support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. who gives it to them? does someone else give it to them? do i know? who makes the game, do i make the game or do they make the game? >> the lead commissioner adam silver promised a swift investigation and if warranted, punishment. today, that punishment came. >> i am banning mr. sterling for life from any association with the clippers organization or the nba. mr. sterling may not attend any nba games or practices. he may not be present at any clippers facility and he may not participate in any business or player personnel decisions involving the team. >> as fast as the condemnation came for sterling's comments, so too, did the praise for silver's

decision. michael jordan said in a statement he applauded the commissioner's swift and decisive response. on twitter, lebron james thanked him for protecting the league. and magic johnson said the commissioner showed great leadership. it was another prominent person in california, kevin johnson, that stressed how the strong message sent by the nba would spread way outside the world of basketball. >> i hope that every bigot in this country sees what happened to mr. sterling, and recognizes that if he can fall, so can you. >> rachel nicoles joins us now, you have been talking to players all day long, by and large, what is the reaction? >> very, very positive. they feel like adam silver stepped up for them. and there was a lot of pressure in that regard because several players had been talking about a boycott of tonight's games if they didn't feel he went far enough. so there was a little bit of an

anvil, there is a lot of eyes on the league. if those guys had not gone out on the court tonight it would have been a very big deal. but they were happy. >> rachel, stick around, there is late word on how the cloud of the clippers may already be lifting. indeed, how they will rebuild the relationship with the team, state farm, car max, kia suspended their partnership moments after this. after the team posted this on their website, we are one, it reads, unclear whether selling the clippers will proceed at any of the pace we've seen so far. sterling stands to make a fortune if he decides not to fight. joining us, former nba great, chairman of national basketball retired player's association, and jay williams who is now with espn. otis birdsong, let me start with you, today's decision, what is your reaction.

>> well, first of all, thank you for having me. wolf -- >> anderson. >> i'm thinking of wolf because wolf was at the legend's weekend in connecticut and i got a chance to spend some time with him. >> he is far older than i am. >> yeah, you're much better looking, too. i'm getting myself in trouble. >> no, what was your reaction to the commissioner? >> well, first of all i was very, very pleased and want to commend commissioner silver for how he handled the process. he took his time with the investigation. and was swift and decisive, once he gathered all the facts. i'm very pleased with the decision and the punishment definitely meets the crime. >> you know, otis, when you look at this guy, sterling, in the past he paid one of the largest settlements, although he admitted no guilt in the settlement. there were some that said what took the nba so long?

do you buy the statement by the commissioner that basically they didn't act because he won a lawsuit or settled out of court previously? >> i do buy it. in fact, when elgin baylor sued mr. sterling, we sat back and waited to see what the courts decided. they decided he really didn't have a case so what is the nba to do if the courts decided that they didn't have a case there is nothing the nba could do. >> jay, in today's press conference, roger clemens -- mason, the vice president, said they would walk, have you heard that from players you're in contact with that they were talking about walking? >> i heard gossip of a potential boycott. i thought boycott, pending the decision by adam silver if it was not harsh, was going to be the right decision. you need that tv revenue, you need sponsors to step up to the table and there is no game. you get an answer swiftly.

just to answer the last question to otis, i do fault the nba for not handling the situation properly before. i think adam silver as first year as deputy commissioner, did a great job in handling this -- all of these issues that have gone on with racism and by setting the precedent, yes, a guy like donald sterling will still make a huge lump sum of money. he set the precedent in not allowing the racism to occur in a very diverse group. >> so you think the nba should have acted previously before, even though lawsuits happened without him admitting any guilt at all. and elgin silver -- >> i wish they could have, did they have factual evidence? no, it was more he said, she said. regardless -- this is where it becomes murky water. a person should be allowed to

have a conversation within the confines of his own house. that is a slippery slope when you start to allow this material to leak out when it did not become a public statement. but it did in fact become a public statement. >> he reportedly made it clear to fox news contributor jim gray that he has no plans to sell the team. this was apparently a conversation before the commissioner came forward. it sounds like the league could be in for a fight. how would this actually play out? >> well, the way it plays out, there is a constitution, the by-laws of the nba, and donald sterling signed onto it. there was a provision that said if three quarters of the owners insist, vote to make another owner sell the team he has to sell the team.

now, there are certain circumstances in which that is allowed. i imagine that sterling could go to court and say this is a violation of the agreement. but look, this thing has been lawyered up from the beginning. adam silver is a lawyer. the nba has had lawyers on this from the very beginning. they are not going to do this casually. donald sterling is not going to be able to fight this in court to any success. look, anybody can file a lawsuit. but he is going to be in a position of take his $600 million, whatever it is, and go home. that is how this thing is going to end sooner rather than later. >> and just to play devil's advocate, i got e-mails from people saying what about free speech, what he said it is horrible. but don't people have a right to their opinions? >> well, certainly, but what is important to note is while it was a private conversation it did become public. he is an owner, so did the belief system filter into the way he treated the employees and

conducted his business. so i think you're getting into this situation where you say well, this is a private matter. it was public, it was made public and think there were ramifications. i want to bring up the point where jeff is not going to be the owner. the person we need to look at is shelly sterling. she is part owner. it is california's community property. if you look at the lawsuit, because she actually sued his mistress, the girlfriend, saying all the gifts he gave her are community property and she wants them back. so this is a woman that is very, very active. i suspect this suspension, and correct me if i'm wrong, this penalty has no application to shelly. and so does she continue to go to the games? does she become this straw person -- >> shelly -- >> this has become a big deal now in the past couple of hours. she came out with the statement distancing herself from donald

sterling earlier in this process. >> well, they -- >> she says, me and my children, we distanced ourselves. we think it is disgusting, all that stuff. and in the press conference today adam silver is asked does this ban apply to shelly and other people in the family, and he says no. it only applies to donald. well, this video surfaces, suddenly she is not only condemning him. in fact, she is defending him. this raises a lot of questions, maybe they're a little more in cahoots more than you think. if you look at the lawsuits with the housing discrimination, the allegations is that shelly would go into the buildings and pose as a housing inspector. >> and those allegations were by the justice department. so i really think that she is a significant player here that no one is talking about. >> jay -- the idea that you know, his wife or estranged wife is going to go to games and portray herself. unless the identity is that she

is so wrapped up, she would just take the money and go. >> let's also remember, this is the first step that adam silver has taken in a series of steps. he alluded to that earlier. i don't condone the things she said, she was on his side, then she was not on his side. so i don't see how a lady like that could walk back into you know, the staples center and she is never going to be appreciated by the fans or the players. and so i think this is a series of steps by adam silver to work this whole thing out in due process over time. >> she was there the last game, the game he was asked to stay away from. and it will be very interesting to see if she is in the seats tonight. she has portrayed herself as being separate from him, being the white knight. >> and she is driving the car from the restaurant. >> the clippers today were asked in the announcement said okay,

well, who is in charge of the team? they basically said give us tonight to figure this out. and one of the names were brought forward. >> otis, can you see a situation where she remains one of the owners? >> well, anderson, i agree with jay. first of all we're early in the process. but when the dust settles, i don't see anyhow any member of the sterling family will be involved with the clipper organization. there is just no way. >> out of the question. remember, adam silver has been riding a wave of support that is really extraordinary that ranges all the way from current players, retired players, and even mark cuban, the owner of the dallas mavericks who has not been a friend to the management all the time. if he were to let anyone in the sterling family to continue to own this team it would wreck all the good will he has. he is too smart to let that happen. money solves everything. she will get a lot of money and go away.

>> but he does not have the power is my understanding to control shelly sterling. he does have the power to control donald sterling. and i don't think he also has the power to control the other owners so there is that question there, isn't that right? >> yes, but he is going get the 3/4 vote. he knows that, no owner has come out against him and no owner will, i don't think. but she -- she doesn't have the -- she can go to the games. i mean, that is true, he said she can go to the games. but he decides who the owners of the team are. he is in charge and he is simply not going to allow it. she can go to the games, but so what? >> jeff toobin, sunny, rachel, thank you so much. we'll see all of our panel again when doc rivers speaks to reporters expected soon. of course, we'll bring that to you the moment it happens, as always, set your dvr, coming up next, team owners behaving badly. donald sterling is certainly not the first.

we'll introduce you to others. believe it when we say it, bringing her dog onto the field was not what got her into trouble. find out what did when "ac360" continues. it's my back. i mean bayer back & body. it works great for pain. bayer back & body provides effective relief for your tough pain. better? yeah, thanks for the tip! for $175 dollars a month? so our business can be on at&t's network yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms... let's close. new at&t mobile share value plans. our best value plans ever for business.

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breaking news tonight, l.a. clipper's coach doc rivers will speak shortly. we'll bring it to you when he does. he no doubt looks at the sanctions. and joining us now, stephanie elam. as we wait for this press conference from doc rivers, you actually had a chance to speak to him and ask him questions, what would you say? >> it was interesting to me, i asked if he had heard from donald sterling. it was very interesting the way he put it. i was asked if i needed to speak to donald and i took a pass. i didn't feel like it was the right time. since then, we heard the commissioner today, commissioner silver saying he did speak to donald sterling but donald sterling did not have any remorse or say anything beyond the fact that that was him on the recordings. it is an interesting point because if there was remorse he would have come out and said it at this point. none of that has happened here

and we do expect to hear from coach doc rivers before the game, something he said he was pondering before the nba had their presser this morning. so we're waiting to see how they handle it. but you can almost feel the tensions, anderson, sort of ease away after the commissioner spoke and came down very hard on sterling. >> you have been at the staple center all day, and what has the atmosphere been like since the press conference? into there are people out here who have signs up. one big sign looked like l.a. clippers, but instead of that it said racist. they were prepared here at the staple center. they have the barricades up. i can see the police presence is very thick. they were not taking any chances here but i do feel like the people i talked to including one really huge fan of the clippers, darrell has been a huge fan to 22 years. he said he was not sure what he was going to do but felt

relieved after silver spoke. but all in all, the people seem like they will come out and support the players but it will be interesting to see what the energy is like once the game starts. it is not shocking, given his history, nor should the idea that a wealthy, powerful individual with stone age attitude. also the person may find himself or herself in very hot water, or as randi kaye explains, shot happens. >> reporter: it was not long before the tough-talking cincinnati reds owner opened her mouth and got herself in hot water. in an interview in espn in 1996, she said this about adolf hitler. >> everybody in history knows he was good at the beginning but just went too far. >> shaw defended jews, gays, and african americans. in 1994, she didn't want her players to wear earrings because only fruits wear earrings. before that, she was reportedly overheard saying never hire another n word, i would rather have a trained monkey work for me.

still, she was a favorite, often seen smoking cigarettes at the ballpark, while walking her dog, schotzi. but they saw a different side of her when a veteran player died of a heart attack on opening game. she was more concerned about the game. >> i was more concerned about 50,000 people who came here to enjoy opening day and came with their families and everything. and i just could not believe it happened. >> reporter: her behavior caught up with her. she was facing two suspensions for her comments and an order to undergo multi-cultural training. for years she tried to reverse the damage. >> i know in my heart i am not a bigot. >> reporter: it didn't work, in 1999, she was forced to sell the club. >> we find based on considerable evidence that her practice of using language that is racially

and ethnically offensive has brought substantial embarrassment to the game. >> comments about race also proved to be a problem for minnesota twins owner calvin griffith. he explained he moved the team from washington, quote, when i found out you only had 15,000 black people here. black people don't go to ball games. we came here because you have good, hard-working white people here. griffith was never punished. but the cleveland cavs owner made an off-color remark saying his roster should be at least 50% white for marketing concerns, since fans like to watch players that look like them. a deal was made by david stern who later became nba commissioner.

randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> again, we'll hear shortly from doc rivers, as soon as the press conference takes place. next, we'll tell you about the latest watches and advisories and show you how people are coping with some of the hardest hit areas. next, new claims no flight 370. the company what identified wreckage that could be from a commercial plane. you will find the radio transmissions from the missing malaysian airliner. but it's fun, too -- with touch, and tons of great apps for stuff like music, 'cause a good playlist is good for business. i need the boss's signature for this. i'm the boss. ♪ honestly ♪ i wanna see you be brave

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more breaking news tonight, another round of tornadoes hitting the south on top of dozens in south carolina, joining alabama, mississippi and parts of the midwest the latest

to face -- fury. >> there are lots of things falling out of the sky. >> a second round spawned dozens of deadly tornadoes monday. >> my god, no, no, no. >> the storms tore through large swaths of the south, leaving people homeless and thousands more without power. bringing the total number of people killed since the outbreak began sunday. the system so large it is clearly visible from space. mississippi was hit especially hard. a massive ef-4 twister with winds greater than 150 miles an hour. the tornado tore up trees and homes, left cars tossed around on the side of roads and badly damaged the local hospital. the city of tupelo, mississippi, took a direct hit and caused residents to seek shelter

wherever they could, including a cooler at a local gas station . >> the moment of death is just an inch away. to be right on top of you, you can't describe. >> alabama was also described. the apartment complex in athens were reduced to rubble. the survivors barely made it out alive. >> it was just unreal, the wind came up and roared. >> i don't know if it was tornado. it was just black. so we turned and went a different direction. and soon after it hit. >> three people were killed in the state, including 21-year-old john sovati, a member of university's swim team after the wall in his basement collapsed. it came three years to the day after a massive outbreak in 2011 killed more than 250 people across the state. and while forecasters believe that mississippi and alabama are

in the bull's eye today, 750 people from louisiana to new york remain on alert for any sort of severe weather. >> incredible pictures, let's talk to jennifer gray and chad myers in alabama. jennifer, with the tornado warnings and watches, what do we know? >> right now we have storms still in effect. the ones in mississippi and alabama expire at 9:00 p.m. central time, actually the stormings in north carolina have been the most powerful throughout much of the afternoon, where the focus yesterday was more on mississippi, alabama, we had a couple of tornado warnings just in the past hour, the most recent one expired just about a minute or two ago. you can see just to the south of 95, a lot of powerful storms creating gusty winds, large hail and a couple of reports of actual tornadoes, brief spin-ups there in north carolina. i want to focus now on the

south, because we're seeing thunderstorm development across mississippi and alabama, granted, nothing compared to what we saw yesterday. one of the limiting factors, though, we have been dealing with a lot of coastal showers right along the gulf of mexico and the florida panhandle. that has been one thing that has limited that moisture to surge up into the south. we were not able to heat up the atmosphere quite as much as yesterday. so that is why we're not seeing those strong storms, we do have one severe thunderstorm warning in southeast louisiana, otherwise, though, the good news is we don't have any tornado warnings right now in mississippi and alabama. but just because things are weaker now, still be careful through the rest of the overnight hour. it only takes one storm to bubble up and become severe at a moment's notice. things are trending down and weakening just a bit. we'll continue to monitor it. >> you're in tuscaloosa and alabama, there are concerns about flooding, right? >> reporter: pouring down rain, anderson, and now for hours we were following the storm as it

came in from mississippi. and we know there was potential for spin on the bottom of it. on the southwest corner of this storm it could have spun. and it did briefly. but not enough to get a tornado warning. and that is great news. honestly, this day could have been a big tornado day, as well. but because of the limiting factors that jennifer just mentioned, perfect day to kill the tornadoes and make flooding but kill the tornadoes. so here is what is going on now. it is getting dark here, almost completely dark and it will rain all night in some spots. especially gulf coast, on up maybe towards georgia and atlanta. if you're driving tomorrow morning, early to work before sunrise watch the water on the roadways. it may be flooded. the road may be gone. there could be that much flooding in some spots. now there is no way to tell where that might be. if you live in a flood-prone area and it is raining all day, watch for the creek. it could rain literally all

night. it is a rainy night the georgia, alabama, mississippi and florida, as well. anderson. >> all right, chad, thank you. next, a private australian company says it found what it believes to be wreckage from a commercial plane. the question is could it be from flight 370 even though it is thousands of miles from the search zone? we'll tell you where it is, the surprising location. also we're waiting for the coach of the l.a. clippers to speak, now that he has been banned for life. and you can see all the media waiting for him to talk. we'll bring it to you live as it happens. what's a vision without the expertise to execute it... and the financing to make it grow? whatever your goal, it can change more than your business. it can change the future. that's why, at barclays, our ambition is to always realize yours.

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that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization.

i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. almost two months now, the search team has been looking in the indian ocean for malaysian flight 370. and now an australian company has said it found wreckage from what is a commercial plane. question is, could it be flight 370? and now, in beijing, a recording of the last messages on flight 370 was played for passengers. the first time the recording of communications between the air traffic control has been played in public. here are the last 15 seconds.

>> malaysian 370, maintaining level three. contact ho chi minh. >> that was released 15 days after the plane disappeared. what the families want more than anything is answers, so far there have been none. they are checking out something in the bay of bengal in the search area. miguel marquez joins me from perth. let's take a look at the images that may or may not be from the plane. you can sort of see a plane in them. it is also hard to tell. what do we know about them? >> well, this is a company called geo-residence. it is out of adelaide. they say they have taken images from planes. they captured everything. if you look at the photo images they have things like aluminum, copper, and there is one for titanium.

the sorts of things that you would see on a modern commercial airliner. and they say that they have captured those from the images from satellite and plane. the problem is every expert we talked to says it is just impossible to do that. it is not possible to see that far down underneath the water and even a little ways underneath the water. if this, the sort of technology that they know. they want to know about the sort of technology the company has. >> and anderson, the company apparently gives officials involved in the search, their initial findings on march 31st, nearly a month ago, do you know, are they being looked at? have they been discounted? do we know? >> they had not been seen before the malaysians are now saying that they are going to take it under advisement and look into it. the australians saying that they believe they are in the right place. they say that the area where this company is looking is not along that northern flight path.

it is way off. they see nothing in their data so far to suggest that the plane might be there. so they believe right now they are still searching in the right place here in the southern indian ocean. anderson? >> all right, miguel marquez, thank you very much. joining me now, cnn analyst david gallo, at the woods hole institution, who co-led the search for air france 447. david gallo, let's start with you, do you believe this? >> well, anderson, again it is one thing that is perplexing. the technology, the physics works, but can you see through all that ocean -- >> so this was allegedly taken from the plane? >> plane and satellite is what they're saying. and typically the ocean is opaque to that kind of radiation. there are all of these reasons. and the fact it looks like a plane in some of the data bothers me. also how did they get this one spot in the indian ocean? did they look at the entire indian ocean and say oh, there

is something now when there was nothing. what they should do is send the boat out and repeat the experiment. the satellite again, use the plane, have some other people with them that can testify. do it and reproduce this data. the plane should still be there. >> david souci, what do you make of it? have you ever heard of this company before? has the technology been used in the investigations before? >> well, this analysis has been used before. not in aviation accidents before but a mining company i've been involved with. we looked to see which area we should mine. but the analysis using the electromagnetic particles is not new. what they're proposing here is it is actually nuclear power and gamma rays to determine the edges and reflections off the various kinds of metals. so that i have not heard has been used before. again, i wouldn't discount it for the sake of the families. we spent millions trying to make sure if there was some pieces throating in the ocean we should

find those and let the families know. why wouldn't it be respected. it wouldn't take a lot to have somebody from bangladesh as david said, go repeat the experiment if you see it. let's do it. that is not a big stretch to go out and validate this for the family. >> we don't know how they picked this particular spot. it seems very dubious that they would have done the analysis in the entire bay. >> if they did, it is groundbreaking and a game-changer. so it is quite the statement to make and it is going to be found out one way or another. so we'll soon find out if this is real or not real. >> it also doesn't seem like they used their technology to do this in the southern indian ocean. >> well, it doesn't. as you said if they did it in the northern indian ocean they must have found all of this stuff. we're not seeing that here, too,

it is peculiar and perplexing on a number of fronts. >> also david gallo, i want to ask you about the new search area which is dramatically larger than what has been searched before. i mean, this is -- we're looking at now a large span of time. >> the eight months to survey the way we did it with three vehicles. so i have to come back there too anderson, with, the only witness to what happened to the aircraft are the black boxes. that is the best we have. we need to find the planes and the black boxes. to me, the pingers were like somebody on the mountain saying here i am in one case. how do you walk away from that? so what i hope we see is an expansion around where the ocean shield is now, not some totally new area. >> all right, david souci, david gallo, thank you very much. all right, we're waiting to hear from doc rivers to speak on the ban regarding the nba. we'll be right back and bring it to you live.

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there is the press conference room. now we are anticipating him coming out. any viewers who are just joining us at the end of a very big day, the nba barring donald sterling after that taped racist rant. we'll bring back our panel, rachel nicoles, sunny hostin, and jeff toobin, you said he was gone, there was no way this was not going to happen. his wife is also part owner of the team. does that add a wrinkle into all of this? >> it adds a wrinkle, but i don't think it is a major obstacle to getting new ownership. first of all, if they bring in new owners they're going to want to own the whole team. they're not going to just buy part of it. and remember, if as it appears likely, adam silver has the

support of more than 3/4 of the owners. they can effectively force the sale of this team. and the fact that mrs. sterling may own some of it is really not going to matter that much. this will be a forced sale if donald sterling doesn't decide to sell it himself. so the nba will simply take over and auction off the team. i mean, it is unusual and awkward but that is apparently provided for in the rule. >> no notes or prepped statement here. you know, this last, you know, three or four days have been very difficult for everybody involved. and no matter what the race is, it has been difficult. and i thought adam silver today was fantastic. personally, i thought he -- he made a decision that really was the right one. that had to be made. you know, i don't think this is something that you know, we rejoice in or anything like that.

you know, i told the players you know, about the decision. and you know, i think they were just happy that it was a resolution and it is over. at least, the start of it to be. and other than that, you know, i was just really proud of them. i have been proud of the players in the nba overall. i have been proud of the ownership throughout the league. and i think we're all in a better place because of this. so i would like to open up to any questions. >> doc, when you first sat down you had a -- you sat there and had this big sigh of relief. is that how you feel? is that how the players feel about it? can you move forward? >> well, we can move forward. we have to. you always have to move forward. and you know, like -- and i've said this before, obviously i have dealt with issues before.

you know, you learn over and over, you know, that when something like that happens with the burden of racism it -- it always falls on the person who has been offended to respond. and i have always thought that that is interesting. you know, i felt the pressure on my players, you know, everyone was waiting for them to give a response. and you know, i kept thinking -- they didn't do anything. you know, yet they have to respond. and so adam responded. and i thought that that was the sigh of relief that we needed. is this over?

no, it is not over. but it is the start of a healing process that we need. and it is the start for our organization. you know, to try to get through this. and that is very important. i know we have a game. and you know, i have given that some thought obviously. but i do think this has been more important. and i think our players have done the best that they possibly could do in this situation. >> coach, did you at any time or your players realize that you were working for a man who held such racist views? and did you ever witness any outrageous behavior? >> no, i different, obviously, you heard stuff. i mean, we've heard all the other stuff. listen, it had not happened to us. we had not seen it so the answer would be no.

so i came here on good faith. and everything i have asked they have allowed me to do. but then this happened and you know, there was proof. >> you had said at one point that you were worried about next year, does this decision kind of give you some clarity about going forth? >> no, listen, i haven't thought about it. like -- i had not thought about leaving or staying. i just -- and the main reason is honestly, this should not be about me. this -- about me and what i'm doing or want to do. i want to coach. i love coaching. i have enjoyed these guys. and other than that, really, i think jim or someone asked that question. and honestly i don't have an answer because i have given it zero thought as far as that goes. obviously, adam's decision, if there was going to be one made, makes mine easier.

>> doc, do you need to -- over here, do you need to see progress toward the sale of the team for you to be more comfortable and your players to be more comfortable here? do you need to see progress toward that where you could be comfortable here? >> i think we're just going to let this whole thing play its course or run its course. and then we'll all have better clarity. you know? i am not in the position nor do i want to be in the position where it sounds like i'm threatening anything. i want my players to be comfortable, honestly. i think that is the most important thing. and so let's just see where it goes with them. and that is important for me. is their confidence. >> now that the nba has come out and said this is definitely mr. sterling's voice, if mr. sterling were before you right now what would you say to him?

>> i don't know, i haven't given it any thought. you know, i don't know the answer to that question. you know, i think we've dealt with people who have said bad things before. racially or in another way. and i think the thing you would like to do to anyone like that who feels that way is you like to change it. that is what i would like to do. i would like to change anyone's mind who feels that way. >> coach, now that you know the voice on that recording was donald sterling, do you still want to work for him. >> i don't know if i am. you know, i really don't. that is the point of this. that is why adam did what he did. >> will you continue if he still owns the team next season? >> i don't know if he will. so let's just again, let it all run its course. you know, and we'll find that out. it is a good question, i'm not

trying to be a smart aleck, but i just think we have to wait and see what happens. like i say, once we do have the answer, clarity for everyone, it is not just me. rev lawler has been here forever and he is affected by this, too. we all are. and i think everyone wants to know who they're working for. and i think that is very important. >> doc, had this decision not come down today was there concern on your part that your players would have refused to play? >> no. i would say that, but they were waiting for a decision. and that clearly could have happened. you know, that was one of the reasons i didn't have practice yesterday in a clear practice situation, when you get blown out like you get blown out you probably should have a practice. i just didn't think it would make any sense to do it. i thought they needed to just go

home and be with their families and breathe a little bit. you know? and so -- knowing that adam was going to have a press conference today i just felt like we knew that there would be some type of resolution. that is also why we were -- i was almost happy that it was doing the -- his announcement was doing our practice. so i mean, doing the announcement, none of the players were watching. we were actually practicing and playing a game, because that is what our jobs were. >> have you gotten a sense that it would be more comfortable tonight? and can they play with the freedom that you would like them to play with? >> yeah, i'm hoping. listen, the basketball part of it we have prepared them as best as you can. you know, emotions drain energy. i know that.

i felt that the other night. and when you watch it on tape we were slow in everything. and that is because of all the emotions that have gone into this, quite honestly, i didn't think our guys had enough in the tank. i think that they have been able to breathe a little bit more over the last day and a half. and i'm hoping that they're up for the task. i do think that this will be a safe haven tonight for us. i think our crowd will be amazing tonight. and i think that will help them, adrenalin will be good for us. i think we actually need it. >> doc, can you give us a sense on talking to the players what their reaction was, how they were feeling? >> it was during a film session. and i just -- in the middle of it, just kind of said what happened and what adam had said. and honestly there was nothing in the room at that time when i said it.

it was complete silence. and then i said what i thought i and then we went right back to film. >> l.a. clipper's coach doc rivers talking before the game and after. that does it for us, our coverage begins next with cnn internationa international. the nba ban, now, they want to go further. >> i will urge the board of governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the team. >> capital punishment gone wrong. the botched execution of an oklahoma inmate and the questions it is raising about the lethal drugs. the aftermath, another punishing round of storms ravage the u.s. and