Reports: Donald Sterling has prostate cancer

DISGRACED CLIPPERS owner Donald Sterling has prostate cancer, according to several media outlets.

ESPN.com and others have said that the 80-year-old real estate magnate who was banned for life for racist comments has been battling the disease for some time. The news was first reported by the New York Post.

Star Clipper Blake Griffin said he was unaware of the diagnosis.

"If that is true, my thoughts and prayers are with him," Griffin said. "Nobody deserves to go through something like that."

Meanwhile, Sterling reportedly told DuJour, a magazine that caters to the super-rich, that he wishes he'd have paid of his mistress in an effort to head off the racism scandal.

"I wish I had just paid her off," Sterling reportedly said, referring to alleged mistress V. Stiviano, according to DuJour.

He declined to elaborate, telling the magazine he was limiting himself to interviews with Barbara Walters and the NBA.

Stiviano, 31, was named as the defendant in a lawsuit brought in March by Sterling's wife, Rochelle, seeking to recoup marital community assets she claimed her husband gave to Stiviano without her consent.

Reports say that Stiviano made the recording in which Sterling made his racist comments at her Los Angeles residence last September using her cellphone. Sterling said he objected to Stiviano bringing black people to "my games" and to Instagram photos of her and black people, including former Lakers star Magic Johnson.

The New York Daily News said a copy of the recording had been given to a friend for safe-keeping. Stiviano, through her legal team, has denied she leaked the recording.

After the scandal erupted last weekend, NBA commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling from the Clippers for life, fined him $2.5 million and began the process that would empower the NBA Board of Governors to force Sterling to sell the team. Three-quarters of the owners must approve the order to sell, and Sterling reportedly has said he will sue if the owners take that step.