Recording conversations with Donald Sterling seems to be an increasingly common pastime among his supposed friends.
In the latest recording purportedly of a conversation involving Sterling to be made public, the banned owner of the Los Angeles Clippers allegedly offered an unlikely excuse for his racist remarks. A man identified as Sterling in the audio that was released by Radar Online on Friday morning can be heard telling a friend that he made his infamous racist statements to V. Stiviano out of lust rather than hate.
“You know, if you were trying to have sex with a girl, and you don’t think anybody’s there, you might say anything in the world. What difference does it make? Then if the girl tapes it and releases it? My God, it's awful,” the man identified as Sterling lamented in the conversation released by Radar Online.
SCROLL DOWN FOR RADAR ONLINE RECORDING
Contacted by the New York Daily News on Friday, Sterling, who the newspaper described as "befuddled," reportedly seemed unaware of the latest recording released.
“It wasn’t me,” he told the News. “I haven’t given one interview. Thank you.”
CLICK HERE for complete Daily News report
A day earlier, Radar Online released another audio recording purportedly of Sterling telling a friend that he was not a racist. During that recording, the man identified as Sterling seemed skeptical that the NBA would actually be able to force a sale of a team, claiming at one point that “you can’t force someone to sell property in America.”
LISTEN: Donald Sterling Allegedly Explains Racist Rant
These taped conversations were released less than two weeks after another audio recording of Sterling making racist remarks to Stiviano was first released by TMZ. In that recording, Sterling told her not bring black friends to Clippers games or share photographs of herself with black friends on Instagram. The recording sparked national outrage and led to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banning Sterling for life from the NBA and slapping him with a $2.5 million fine. During a press conference held to announce those punishments, Silver also made it clear that he would urge the league's 29 other owners to force Sterling to sell the Clippers.
“At the appropriate time, I’ll express what my thoughts and my feelings and what my heart says, OK?” Sterling told the News on Friday.