“You go to Israel, the blacks are just treated like dogs,” said Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling to his girlfriend V. Stiviano in a recording that trended worldwide the weekend of April 27.
Sterling, a Jewish real estate entrepreneur, also said he is “a hundred percent” sure that “black Jews are inferior to white Jews.”
Sterling unleashed a catalogue of racist views on the tape, which was leaked anonynmously to TMZ.com and went instantly viral. Countless athletes and public figures spoke out, and the NBA acted quickly to ban him from games and hopefully strip him of the team.
For diehard Clipper fans, the revelations were made even worse because of their timing, creating a distraction in the middle of a playoff run.
But for the Jewish community, including Shalhevet’s, they also became a deep embarrassment.
Sterling has been a large donor to many Jewish causes, including the Museum of Tolerance, the Jewish Home for the Aging, Beit Tzedek and the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.
He also gave $100,000 to Yeshiva Gedolah of Los Angeles, where the words “Donald T. Sterling Pavilion” were highly visible on the east wing of the campus in his honor.
At least until the audio tapes were released.  Officials at Yeshiva Gedolah, a Haredi high school located about a mile east of Shalhevet, covered his name April 28 and had removed it altogether by early May.
“The school doesn’t condone [Sterling’s] remarks,” said a secretary reached at the school, who declined to give her name. She also said Rosh Yeshiva Eliezer Gross did not want to be interviewed about the matter.
At Shalhevet, people who follow basketball reacted from various perspectives. Boys Basketball Coach Colin Jamerson, an African American, spoke out about Sterling’s offensive words.
“I was a little disturbed by his comments,” said Coach Colin. “I do believe everyone is entitled to an opinion…but when it affects others then there’s a problem.”
Coach Colin said he would immediately suspend a player who demonstrated any sort of prejudice, racism or bullying in his locker room, considering “all the different things my ancestors have gone through,” he said.
“Anyone affiliated with me is definitely not going to be a part of that,” Coach Colin said, adding, “We are all one.”
Longtime Clipper fan junior Adam Kaufler said he wasn’t surprised by what was on the tapes.
“We’ve heard reports for years that when he was sitting courtside during games he would make comments to the players and make racial remarks,” said Adam, who plays on the Firehawk Varsity team.
Adam was unsure whether his family would their renew season tickets if Sterling still owns the team next fall.
But he said the players most likely don’t think about the owner in their quest for a first NBA title, so his support for the team was not affected.
“As a fan, I don’t know if I can be supporting a team that has such an owner, but we have to show even greater support for the players,”  he said.

Adam showed that support by wearing a Clippers t-shirt inside-out at school prior to Game 5 against the Warriors — inspired by the Clippers’ pre-Game 4 gesture in which they wore their warm-up suits inside-out to hide the Clipper logo.
Music and journalism teacher Mrs. Joelle Keene, a 10-year Clipper fan, was unaware that Sterling was Jewish or had any ties to the community until told by a Boiling Point reporter. Already upset about Sterling’s remarks, with her new knowledge she grew even more somber, recalling Bernie Madoff and other scandals involving Jews.
“It shakes my concept of my own people,” Mrs. Keene said.
Within days of when the tapes were published, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver — also Jewish — quickly declared plans to force him out of ownership. The NBA Constitution states that an owner can be removed if three-fourths of all owners vote to do so.
That outcome only seemed to grow more certain after an interview of Sterling by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper aired on May 12.  Sterling accused Laker legend and Dodger part-owner Magic Johnson, well-known as a community activist and philanthropist, of being a poor influence on children and non-influential in the black community. He also stated multiple times that Johnson has AIDS, though the basketball icon is HIV-positive but healthy.
At that point, people following the story – including Sterling’s wife Shelly and former NBA all-star and TNT commentator Charles Barkley – began wondering aloud whether he was suffering from dementia.
On May 9, Commissioner Silver announced Richard Parsons, a former CEO of Time-Warner and Citigroup, would serve as the interim CEO of the Clippers.
Meanwhile, the playoffs continued.  The Clippers slid past the Golden State Warriors 4-3 but as of May 14 were behind three games to two in a best-of-seven series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Mrs. Keene said she hoped the Clippers would keep winning, but added that losing to the Thunder would not be as bad as hearing the things Sterling had said.
“It’s definitely the worst thing that’s ever happened to me as a sports fan in my life,” Mrs. Keene said.  Knowing names of the players and having followed their careers, she found it hard to imagine how they could be playing in the shadow of the controversy.
“I’m so hurt for them,” said Mrs. Keene.