Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has cancer, ESPN reported on Friday.
Sources confirmed the news to ESPN following a report in The New York Post saying that Sterling, 80, has prostate cancer.
Earlier this week, NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling for life from the league, following the release of an audio recording of Sterling making numerous racist comments. Silver also announced that he would urge the league to force Sterling to sell the Clippers.
“If that is true, my thoughts and prayers are with him,” Clippers star Blake Griffin told ESPN on Thursday, when asked about Sterling’s cancer. “Nobody deserves to go through something like that.”