Donald Sterling refuses to pay NBA fine

Donald Sterling has said he will refuse to pay a $2.5 million fine from the NBA for racist comments.

“We reject your demand for payment,” LA Clippers owner’s lawyer said in a letter to the NBA, Sports Illustrated magazine reports.

Donald Sterling, 81, is also reportedly threatening to sue the league.

He was banned from the NBA for life after he was recorded making racist remarks.

Donald Sterling was heard asking his girlfriend V. Stiviano not to associate in public with black people nor bring them to games.

In the letter, Maxwell Blecher also wrote that no punishment was warranted for Donald Sterling’s actions and that his rights for a fair investigation had been violated, according to the USA Today.

The NBA recently appointed Dick Parsons, a businessman and lawyer, as new Clippers interim president while the league attempts to force a sale of the team.

Amid the upheaval, the team was eliminated from the league play-offs on Thursday.

Coach Doc Rivers told reporters after the game “the locker room was not good in a sad way. It felt like all the stuff they have gone through came out and they released all their emotions”.

Doc Rivers himself was fined $25,000 for shouting at a game official during an earlier game.

“I know I am tired,” he said, adding he expected to return to the Clippers next season.

“I am going to go somewhere and lose some weight. I gained 40 pounds in this thing. I just felt like I had to try and protect our guys.”