NBA legend Magic Johnson and Earlitha “Cookie” Kelly knew each other from a young age. They were in an on-and-off relationship for years throughout Magic’s college and NBA careers. They went through a lot of ups and downs during their relationship. The couple even had their wedding canceled twice. Despite all this, Magic and Cookie tied the knot in 1991. In 2014, the Los Angeles Lakers legend had to leave his wife while on a date due to a huge controversy involving the Los Angeles Clippers.

Donald Sterling, the then-owner of the Clippers was caught on tape making racist remarks including a reference to a social media post of Magic in 2014. This shook the NBA and fans around the world.

Magic Johnson had to leave

In April 2014, Magic Johnson and his wife Cookie were on their way to a movie date when his phone went off. The news about Donald Sterling’s racist comments came to the light. So Magic had to leave immediately. As per reports from Ebony, Magic said to Cookie, “I’ve got to run home. Everything’s changed” and left immediately.

According to reports from TMZ, Sterling was not happy with his then-girlfriend V. Stiviano bringing black people to games. Ironically, Stiviano is black and Mexican. Furthermore, he was not happy with her posting photos taken with black people on social media.

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Sterling reportedly said, “I?m just saying, in your lousy f******* Instagrams, you don?t have to have yourself with, walking with black people.”?

He added, “Don’t put him [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.”

As expected, this received major backlash from the public and NBA players. All-time greats like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and so forth voiced their disapproval of his comments. Superstars like LeBron James, Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, and so forth were outraged. Many demanded that Sterling should give up his ownership of the Clippers. But he was not ready to sell the franchise.

Lifetime ban for Donald Sterling

As protests continued, Donald Sterling made himself clear that he is not going to sell the Clippers. But the NBA issued a lifetime ban on Sterling and fined him $2.5 million. He was not allowed anywhere in the facility and cannot engage in any team business.

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NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated that he would try to force Sterling to sell the franchise. After a few months, Steve Ballmer bought the team for $2 billion in August.