RUSH: Donald Sterling. Now, this is Monday night, CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s interview, and this has just come to light now. I mean, there’s a lot that he said. And this is before he realized that they had put two buckets of excrement in front of him for him to step in. And he did. And Cooper said, “Look, the players on your team, the Clippers –” who, by the way, were eliminated in playoffs last night against Oklahoma City. And players said, nah, the Sterling thing had nothing to do with it. We’re not gonna use that as an excuse. Anderson Cooper said, “The players on your team say they don’t want to work for you.”

STERLING: Let me just say that I apologized to the league. People want me to hire a wall of lawyers and them to hire a wall of lawyers and to go to war. I don’t think that’s the answer.

COOPER: So what are you gonna do?

STERLING: I think the answer is, the league is a good league. All honest people. And I think that whatever they decide that has to be done, I think I should work with them and do it. I don’t want a fight with my partners.

RUSH: Now, see — really, this guy, I don’t know that he, A, remembers what he says when, and may not know what he’s saying when he says it, and I don’t mean that as any kind of excuse, don’t misunderstand. This guy’s elevator may not be going to the top floor here. Because he says this before realizing, I mean, this is in the same interview where he’s saying (imitating Sterling), “Magic Johnson, what has he done? What has he done? He’s got the AIDS. He slept with every woman. He’s not a hero. I mean, hell, I’ve done more for my synagogue, uh, uh, uh, and, you know, Magic, he called, he wanted me to appear on TV with him, he’s phony, he knows the girl, yeah, you know.”

And then later in the same interview, here he is trying to curry favor. He’s trying to be classy and praise his partners, the other owners. (imitating Sterling) “I don’t want to sue anybody. I don’t want to go to war. Honest people. Some really good people, and I just want to, you know, whatever they decide has to be done. I should work with them.” Well, okay, so he finishes the interview. He stepped in it with Magic. Everybody’s just jamming him on Magic. So he forgets this, and now, after saying Monday night that he wanted to work with ’em, to do whatever they want done, “I should work with ’em. I don’t want to fight with my partners.” Donald Sterling tells NBA to pound sand. He is not gonna pay the fine, and he’s not gonna sell the team.

Now, just five days ago he thought, I’m sure this guy thought by saying what you just heard that he was re-ingratiating himself. He was praising them. They’re honest people. They’re good people. I don’t want to fight with my partners. But he didn’t realize that what he’d said about Magic — one, he says Magic a hero, he’s a great guy, and then next minute he’s got the AIDS, and he’s sleeping with every woman in every town in America, he’s not a role model. So I’m sure he finished that interview with Magic Johnson thinking he might have stopped the bleeding and maybe even turned it around.

Then he goes and sees the reaction to it, and it’s totally opposite what he thinks he accomplished. So now (imitating Sterling), “Okay. To hell with all of you. You know what? I tried to be nice and I tried to be complimentary of Magic. I tried to praise my fellow owners in the league, but the hell with that now.”

So now he’s basically telling ’em to put it where the sun doesn’t shine. He’s not gonna pay the two and a half million-dollar fine, and his attorney put this in a letter to the NBA. The person who reported this to USA Today requested anonymity ’cause he’s not authorized to speak publicly about the letter, which was sent yesterday. The attorney, Sterling’s attorney, Maxwell Blecher, wrote that Sterling doesn’t warrant any punishment at all for his racist comments that were recorded with a female friend and made public.

This lawyer’s a well-known anti-trust attorney. He contents that the fine violates Sterling’s due-process rights. So now Sterling has lawyered up. He’s put on the gloves, and I’m sure after what he thought was making peace Monday night, something told him that didn’t work. So now he’s loaded for bear.