Clippers Owner Donald Sterling Battling Prostate Cancer

Once this becomes widely spread news, there will be plenty who weigh in on it.

New York media sources, including the New York Post,  are reporting today that disgraced Los Angeles Clippers NBA owner Donald Sterling has prostate cancer, and has been battling it for nearly two years.

The Post says his puffy appearance over the last few months  is probably related to medications he is taking.   Sterling was given a life-time ban by the NBA this week over racial remarks linked to him on an audio recording made by his girlfriend.

There have been rumors of health-related issues for Sterling, but sources told the Post this week it's prostate cancer.   Sterling, interestingly enough, refused to pay for prostate cancer surgery for a former Clippers assistant coach, Kim Hughes, nearly a decade ago.

Hughes reportedly told a newspaper in 2011 that when he contacted the Clippers about covering the cost, they said it wouldn't be covered.   Hughes says the Clippers told him if they did it for him, they would "have to do it for everybody else."   Four players, when they learned of Hughes' condition, chipped in to cover the $70,000 procedure.

Meanwhile, Sterling has been reaching out to friends, seeking support.  He's been asking friends to tell him he's not a racist, but the Post says (citing their sources)  his associates are reluctant to support him, for fear he would be recording their conservations!

Since the scandal broke, says the Post, Sterling has fled his Malibu mansion on the oceanfront he shares with his estranged wife Sharon, as they are now, according to a source, fearful it's full of electronic "bugs."  The source, a neighbor, told the Post, by staying at his penthouse office the walls are concrete and can be swept for bugs.