behind bars until his next possible patrol in 2017. adam silver sits down to reveal the behind-the-scenes details. >> i was hoping it wasn't donald. i thought it was so outrageous. >> unselfish. how this guy became one of the greatest leaders of his era. >> what a leader has the capacity to do is step outside his own circle and live 20 to 25 different lives. >> the coach of the american team at the american cup is causing a stir by saying his team doesn't have a chance to win.

>> reporter: it's certainly not a popular thing to say, but this is an honest thing that he said. welcome to "unguarded." there is no doubt what the biggest story in months has been over the last couple months, the saga of the clippers' owner, donald sterling. as news on this continues to develop daily, smack in the center of it remains the league's brand-new commissioner, adam silver. i sat down with silver to get one of the most gripping stories of the year. this is a very unguarded conversation, starting when he reminded me, whenever you think this might be over, it's not. >> it's not done. donald sterling still has $1 billion lawsuit, filed against

the league, against me personal and i am not worried about that because i can't afford it, and there is one last issue, and it's donald dropping his lawsuit. >> are you in a i will believe it when i see it mode? >> i have been in it with him before. he has almost sold his team, and he was there at the closing and then did not sale, and until he signs that document we have a pending litigation. >> welcome to the nba commissionership, by the way. >> thank you. i will deal with the cards however they are dealt. this is not something anybody expected, and we dealt it. >> tmz first reported and released the recording of sterling on your birthday, right?

>> i had known the team had called a day or so before to say there was going to be a recording. wasn't quite clear whether he had heard it, but he knew he was going to be bad. >> you don't have to have yourself walking with black people. >> when you heard the recordings, you clicked and played them, what went through your head? >> i was hoping it was not donald. i thought it was so outrageous. i have known donald sterling for more than 20 years, and i never heard anything like that come out of his mouth. i was hoping that maybe beyond hope that he was going to say it was fraudulent, his voice had been doctored, something, but that it was not him. >> so as the nba starts to investigate this over the next few days, who did you lean on the most? >> i had a preplanned trip to memphis for a memphis and oklahoma city playoff game.

i got on the plane and it was not until i was in the airport on my way to the arena that i was watching the crawl and they were promoting a press conference, and i was the one holding the press conference, and i stopped and gathered my thoughts in the airport, because i didn't know anything at that point. >> as the evidence comes in, you are put in being america's racial conscience in that moment. what was the weight of that like? >> i have not quite absorbed that yet. i have a sense of people that talk to me on the street, how symbolic this has become. i understand why it takes on so much symbolism, but i have not had a chance to think about the meaning for a larger society, because as i said, it's not over. >> how did you decide given everything you knew in the moment to go for the maximum, the maximum lifetime ban and the maximum step of disassociating him for the team. >> i knew i was going to go for

the maximum after i heard the tape and the results of the investigation. the fact was he was not denying he said it. the context in which he said it, while important, didn't change my view in any way and frankly, he was not remorseful. >> we all saw you come out for that press conference, which will now be a historic press conference. what was going through your head and what was going on? >> i tend to get nervous in those situations, and i have knocked out in such a large stage, and up until the last second i was writing what i was going to say. >> effective immediately i am banning mr. sterling for life from any association with the clippers organization or the nba. >> so then what about the five minutes after you walked off that podium and had delivered this shellshocked bomb to everybody?

>> i did not have a sense of what a big moment it was until i walked back to the office. we were over at the hilton hotel and then i was walking back and it's two or three blocks from my office, and i realized so many people watched it, i didn't have a sense so many people were watching it live when i did it. >> you were walking on the street and people started talking to you about it? >> absolutely, yeah. i began to have a sense of the magnitude of the decision. >> around that time we heard mark cubin say he did have concerns about the, quote, slippery slope" to take a team away from an owner in this way. >> i spoke to mark as well and i understand his concerns about a slippery slope and my response, and he understood it, was in this case, under these facts, here is where we are drawing the line. >> do you get the sense that if there had been a vote it would have been unanimous? >> yes. yes. well, it's good adam silver feels that way since he may have to reinstate that board of

governors vote. meanwhile, sterling is reportedly hired a team of former fbi agents to dig up dirt on silver as well as the league's 29 other owners for the billion-dollar lawsuit. it never ends. we have much more with the commission inner after this break, including what is blooding his inbox these days. >> if you read my e-mails, it's not all positives. there are a large segment of people saying this is america, and he should be able to say whatever he wants. in pursuit of all things awesome, amazing,

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i asked silver his plans for the league once this drama does eventually end, but first i have questions about the past. after this decision, you got tremendous positive support from the public. "saturday night live" immortalized you. but there was criticism. the most pervasive question, stories of donald sterling's past were more widely circulated that, hey, why didn't you do anything about this guy before? there is all kinds of behavior along the way in the past two decades that seems to have raised a lot of red flags and actually crossed the line. >> if you read my e-mails, it's not all positive. there are a large segment of people out there saying similar to what donald sterling's lawyer said, this is america and he should be able to say whatever he wants.

in terms of his past behavior, you are right, in today's age of social media, should we have approached it differently? maybe. i would have only said that at the press conference if we had remotely seen evidence like this. there were other things that were settled without any findings. >> i know you don't think because somebody has money to make their problems go away that makes his problems go away, but there were depositions and videotaped depositions in the cases of people testifying to horrid behavior. >> he mentioned specifically that hispanics just sit around all day watching television and smoking cigarettes. >> sexual harassment claims. >> are you trying to flirt with me? why are you winking at me? are you sexually harassing me? >> because you had the settle

and never have those get ajude indicated, why didn't you launch your own investigation the way you did in this case? >> i can't say we were ever having that discussion. in this day and age of social media, tmz and dead spin post a tape like that and within 24 hours 10 million people heard it. i think in the old days it was different, and i think for conduct that had nothing to do in the nba, it didn't come to our attention in the same way. i didn't want to make excuses. there's a much greater awareness now of how that behavior can affect people and impact our league. >> let's talk about the future of your league. i hear you keep a little notebook around to jot down what the next things you want to do are. what is the top of the list right now? to fix the air-conditioning in san antonio? >> check, fixed.

>> it clearly affected players and the game. this is the same arena where the opposing players found a snake in the locker room, and i am not suggesting a conspiracy, but is there a responsibility in accountability that this franchise has to take in providing facilities that are acceptable for an event of this level? >> yes, and i am ultimately responsible, and it's one new area where the checklist gets longer and longer. it's almost like the federal government and the state governments, they say stay out of our affairs. >> states' rights. >> and something goes wrong and somebody says, you need to add, yet, more rules. i am responsible for insuring we have perfect playing conditions for the players. unfortunately, that human and mechanical error is always going to be part of the game in any

live event. >> as we go forward in the adam silver era, what do you think the biggest differences will be between your term and david's terms? >> the games were still on tape delay when he first became the commissioner. it was such a different time. there were plenty of things we need to concentrate, and we can do a better job with replay and officiating, i want to make sure we have the utmost confidence in the integrity of the product on the floor. i want to raise the minimum age from 19 to 20. >> i think the better balance would be for two years out of high school. >> i think that lead to a better league. those are the things i am focused on. it's a wonderful time to be the commissioner of the nba.

well, it's certainly an interesting time. that is for sure. thank you to commissioner silver for that very candid interview. there's a lot more coming up after the bring, when we will be joined by one of the hall-time greats, hockey hall of famer. >> i knew we were willing to face whatever came my way, regardless. care what age you are. take it on the way you always have. live healthy and take one a day women's 50+.

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welcome back, there is nobody cheering louder than one of the greatest of all-time, mark messier. first in edmonton and then in new york, he defined leadership and he was a pretty exceptional leader, too. i caught up with mark earlier. take a look. ♪

>> mark, welcome. first of all, what has the atmosphere been like around the rangers in the stanley cup finals? >> as you can imagine, it has been crazy. i was spending a lot of time on the streets and subways, and i can tell you, it has captured the imagination of the people here again. >> i love the idea of a ranger fan finding you riding the subway. we are 20 years since you won the cup with the rangers, and this is also the 20th anniversary of, of course, of your famous guarantee, the rangers facing elimination to the devils in the eastern conference finals and you promised a win, and i am always curious to go back to the moments. did you have second thoughts? what was that like? >> the thought was to make sure the team really felt like we could go in and win game seven. my thought was so focused in on what our team would be reading, and i forgot everybody else would be reading the same

article, but at that point there i didn't really care. >> well, new york, after 54 years, your long wait is over. >> fortunately, it worked out for you just fine, and you won with some guy named wayne gretzky, something like that, from edmonton. but what is the reality? how close are you these days? >> we talk often and i got a text from him a couple minutes ago before i came on the show, and we certainly see each other throughout the year. >> that's great. you were involved in nominating players for the nhl's leadership award earlier. it's named after you. what qualifies do you think separates the elite leaders in sports. >> well, i think what a leader has a capacity to do is step

outside his own little circle, and live 25 different lives. he has to be involved with everybody on the team at a deep level and he has to be able to forget about his own problems and help other people. >> we like to think about you as that guy back then and the leader and the player on the ice, and people don't think you have had a post player here and you started something called the messier project dedicated to helping the concussion issue in hockey. >> everybody that came in 1979 and 80 had to wear a helmet, so i think you see the evolution of the game over years and to the point where visors are going to be mandatory, and it's all designed to make the game better and safer. >> once again, mark messier taking a leadership role. no surprise there. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> always fun to visit with mess. hard to believe it's been a

decade since he retired. coming up next, we will head to rio to check in on the world cup. do you have something for pain? i have bayer aspirin. i'm not having a heart attack, it's my back.

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welcome back to "unguarded." i am rachel nichols. it's official one of the world's biggest sporting events has become. we have seen violent protests erupt around brazil railing against the human and financial costs of this event. i want to bring in our own laura baldasaro in rio. what is the buildup, both good and bad? >> reporter: this is different than other world cups i have been to, in the sense brazil is such a large country and these stadiums are located in so many different areas that are so far apart, so you are not getting that sort of convinced nature of the world cup nature. but you know it's world cup time. >> we have seen video of airports and roadways under construction, and is this going

to be like sochi or the olympics where we here about practical problems. >> the concern is not so much about whether the stadiums are ready, it's more about the protests and the rioting that could erupt out of anything? >> yeah, absolutely. the u.s. team, they play their first game on monday, and the team's coaches actually have been at the center of controversy. he came out and said it's not realistic that the u.s. can win the world cup. there has been plenty of people thinking why is the guy leading the team setting the bar so low. >> it's not a popular thing to say, and that's because he is not american, he is german, and people think it's that building year for the u.s. team, building up until 2018, however they are still going out there to win. all of these guys on this team, they want to win.

>> what should americans who don't regularly follow soccer, when they tune into the world cup, what are they looking for over the next few weeks. >> this is the year you are going to get to see a new superstar emerge. this is the first time in a long time we are not going to see donovan as the face of u.s. soccer, and with him being left off the squad, it means dempsey, this will be his third world cup appearance and this could be his last world cup and he is out there to play hard and lead these guys and he is going to be the guy that will break through and become the superstar of american soccer. >> we love our stars in american sports, right? that's for sure. we will look for you all month from rio, and thanks to awful you. that is going to be our show tonight. can you follow me on twitter or like us on facebook.

of course we will see you back here next friday night on "unguarded." good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com an employee from a large brokerage firm disappeared. her computer revealed she was leading a double life. among the bits and bytes were the clues to her final destination. to friends and family, 36-year-old sherry durall had an enviable life. married with three young children, sherry had a high-paying job with a stock brokerage firm and the respect and admiration of her colleagues.