- published: 25 Aug 2011
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Nathaniel "Nate" Thurmond (born July 25, 1941) is a retired American basketball player. Dominant at both center and power forward, he was a seven-time All-Star and the first player in NBA history to record an official quadruple-double. He is also only one of three players, along with Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, to grab more than 40 rebounds in one NBA game.
Thurmond remains one of the greatest rebounders and shot blockers ever, named both a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.
Known to fans as "Nate the Great", Thurmond has had his #42 jersey retired by both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers franchises.
He played in high school with another future NBA star, Gus Johnson, at Akron Central. Their powerful team went undefeated before losing to Middletown, led by Jerry Lucas, in the Ohio state high school playoffs.
Passing on a scholarship offer to Ohio State, to avoid becoming Lucas's backup there, the 6'11" Thurmond chose Bowling Green. He was named a first-team All-American by The Sporting News in 1963, and was drafted by the San Francisco Warriors later that year.
Donald T. Sterling (born Donald Tokowitz; April 26, 1934) is an American businessman and attorney. He was the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers professional basketball franchise of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1981 to 2014. At 33 seasons of ownership, Sterling was the longest-tenured owner in the NBA since the death of Los Angeles Lakers majority owner Jerry Buss in 2013.
In April 2014, Sterling was banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million by the league after private recordings of him making racist comments were made public. When asked about the recordings in an interview with Anderson Cooper, Sterling stated "I'm not a racist," and also told Cooper that he had made a "terrible mistake" and was "here to apologize." In May, Sterling's wife, Shelly, reached an agreement to sell the Clippers for $2 billion to Steve Ballmer, which Sterling has contested in court. The NBA Board of Governors approved the sale of the Clippers to Ballmer on August 12, 2014.