Clippers President Taking Indefinite Leave of Absence Amid Sterling Scandal

Andy Roeser is not the first figure embroiled in the Donald Sterling scandal to step down since it broke

Los Angeles Clippers President Andy Roeser will take an indefinite leave of absence, the NBA confirmed Tuesday, days after a scandal exploded over team owner Donald Sterling's recorded racist comments.

The recordings prompted the NBA to ban Sterling for life and try to force him to sell the team he's owned for more than three decades.

"This will provide an opportunity for a new CEO to begin on a clean slate and for the team to stabilize under difficult circumstances," said Mike Bass, executive vice president of NBA communications.

The league said May 3 that it planned to appoint a chief executive officer to supervise the Los Angeles Clippers' operations after Sterling's life ban.

Roeser's leave of absence is effective immediately, the league said. He is not the first figure embroiled in the scandal to step down since it broke.

Leon Jenkins, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP, resigned May 1, days after the civil rights group withdrew a lifetime achievement award it had been slated to present to Sterling.

"In order to separate the Los Angeles NAACP and the NAACP from the negative exposure I have caused the NAACP, I respectfully resign my position as President of the Los Angeles NAACP," Jenkins said.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling for life and fined him $2.5 million April 29 for making racist comments. Sterling, the NBA's longest-tenured owner, can have no association with the league or the team.

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