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Clipped episode 6 presents a factual account of the Donald Sterling scandal. The episode depicts Shelly Sterling preparing to host meetings for potential buyers of the Clippers. It is true that Oprah, David Geffen and Magic Johnson were interested in purchasing the Clippers in 2014.
Before Shelly ultimately sold the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer for a record-setting $2 billion. Balmer, who still owns the Clippers, is worth over $130 billion today.
Similar to the Barbara Walters interviews in Clipped episode 5, the CNN interview featured in episode 6 was based on an actual televised sit-down between Anderson Cooper and Donald Sterling.
The real-life Donald Sterling had much more to say about Magic Johnson than was portrayed in the dramatized interview. Donald Sterling claimed that Magic Johnson called him and offered him help. Donald Sterling accused Magic Johnson of manipulating him so he could purchase the Clippers. The real-life interview was worse than the dramatization.
V. Stiviano was brutally assaulted in a stunning racially motivated crime as depicted in Clipped. However, the facts of the occurrence were slightly altered for the dramatized version.
In Clipped, Stiviano walks over to the man and gets in his face after she repeatedly uses a racial slur and takes a selfie of him and his friends with Stiviano in the background. According to CNN, the assault took place outside of a New York hotel. A man from Long Island was charged with assault in June 2014, but those charges were later dropped in December of that same year.
One major omission from Clipped is the real-life V. Stiviano's racist comments about black people that she recorded herself making.
In May 2014, TMZ reported that Stiviano mocked black people by using harmful stereotypes in a self-produced video. The video was from a 2011 reality show about gold diggers.
"Clipped" takes viewers inside the Los Angeles Clippers' organization during one of its most controversial periods. The series follows Coach Doc Rivers, portrayed by Laurence Fishburne, as he navigates the fallout from owner Donald Sterling's racist remarks.
The scandal, captured on tape and broadcast globally, sparks a fierce power struggle involving Sterling, his wife Shelly, and his ambitious assistant V. Stiviano. As Rivers works to keep his team united and focused on winning, the show explores the broader implications of Sterling's actions and the quest for accountability and change within the sports world.