LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling apologized Sunday for racist comments captured on tape, saying they were a "terrible mistake."
"I'm not a racist," Sterling told CNN's Anderson Cooper in excerpts posted from an interview taped Sunday and set to air Monday. "I made a terrible mistake. I'm here to apologize."
In his first public comments since being banned for life from the NBA, Sterling said years of good behavior as an owner should count toward his future.
"I'm a good member who made a mistake," Sterling said. "Am I entitled to one mistake, am I after 35 years? I mean, I love my league, I love my partners. Am I entitled to one mistake? It's a terrible mistake, and I'll never do it again."
The interview came nearly two weeks after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling, fined him $2.5 million and urged the other league owners to force him to sell the team (see full story).
Cavaliers: Mike Brown fired again
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Mike Brown's second shot with the Cavaliers lasted one season.
Brown was fired Monday as coach for the second time in four years by owner Dan Gilbert, who brought back the only coach to get the Cavs to the NBA finals but then dismissed him after the team failed to make the playoffs.
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The Cavs went 33-49 under Brown, who had four years remaining on his contract.
"This is a very tough business," Gilbert said in a statement. "It pains all of us here that we needed to make the difficult decision of releasing Mike Brown. Mike worked hard over this last season to move our team in the right direction. Although, there was some progress from our finish over the few prior seasons, we believe we need to head in a different direction. We wish Mike and his family nothing but the best."
Gilbert also said David Griffin would lose the interim in his title and be the team's full-time general manager. Gilbert took over on Feb. 6, when Gilbert fired Chris Grant.
Cleveland went 17-16 under Griffin, but the club finished 10th in the weaker Eastern Conference and failed to make the postseason despite Gilbert's pledge the club would qualify (see full story).
Clippers: Interim CEO confident in sale
LOS ANGELES -- The interim CEO hand-picked by the NBA to run the Los Angeles Clippers says he's confident the league will succeed in forcing a sale of the team.
Dick Parsons arrived in Los Angeles on Monday to meet with management and staff of the Clippers, whose owner Donald Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA and fined $2.5 million after recordings of him making racist comments surfaced.
Parsons says he's just beginning to familiarize himself with the workings of the team, which is in the midst of competing in the playoffs.
Asked about Sterling apologizing in a television interview airing Monday, Parsons says, "He's a little late, to be sure."
Parsons says he's being paid by the NBA, but he doesn't report to Commissioner Adam Silver or the league's other owners (see full story).