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The Donald Sterling era of Clippers basketball ended over five years ago, and the change in ownership to Steve Ballmer has meant everything to the franchise and its fans. However, the fall of Sterling due to an audio recording of him stating racist remarks remains an interesting topic to many people, and has thus resulted in an ESPN 30 for 30 podcast show.
The show will come in five parts, with the first arriving on August 20th. The series will be narrated by ESPN writer and reporter Ramona Shelbourne, who covered the trial of Sterling, as well as the sale of the team from Sterling to Ballmer. The project is a collaboration between Western Sound, a podcast production company, and the Undefeated, a storytelling arm of ESPN.
The podcast series will be sure to have tons of exclusive interviews and audio clips, and despite the solemnity of the times will also likely be quite funny. An amusing story was already shared in Arash Markazi’s brief coverage of the show in this morning’s LA Times, and plenty more will follow.
For Clippers fans, the show might be a source of some closure on the Sterling era, and of laughter in hindsight, but will also be a sore subject for others. The final months of the Sterling ownership was a dark time, as rumors around the team moving swirled, and there were points where it seemed Sterling might retain ownership after all. For many Clippers fans, the Sterling years are best left in the past, and interest in further exploration of that period might be correspondingly low.
Still, the 30 for 30 will probably be a must-watch for fans of the team, as some interesting nuggets will definitely be contained within. In particular, it might give some insight into Ballmer, who paid a record $2 billion for the team, and who Clippers fans have grown to love over the past five years. Hopefully the series will reveal some new facets to the case, provide some laughs, and tie into the Clippers’ bright future.
30 for 30 Podcasts will release a series on Donald Sterling and the Clippers, “The Sterling Affairs,” which is reported and hosted by @ramonashelburne. I can’t recommend it enough as someone who was covering the team and the trial at the time. It’s five parts and debuts Aug. 20.
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) August 11, 2019