Former Time Warner chief named interim CEO of Los Angeles Clippers

By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons was named on Friday to serve as interim chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Clippers while the National Basketball Association prepares for an unprecedented bid to force out the team's owner, Donald Sterling. Parson's appointment came three days after Sterling's top lieutenant, Andy Roeser, was placed on indefinite leave as team president and more than a week after the NBA banned Sterling over racist comments that sparked outrage from players, fans and commercial sponsors. Sterling, 80, who has owned the Clippers for 33 years, now faces an attempt by the league to force a sale of his franchise in a scandal that has unfolded at the end of the team's best season on record. An NBA committee of 10 fellow owners or their representatives initiated the process of terminating Sterling's ownership by voting unanimously last week to proceed \"as expeditiously as possible.\" Parsons, a senior consultant at the investment firm Providence Equity Partners and one-time member of President Barack Obama's economic advisory team, is one of a relatively few African-Americans to have headed major U.S. corporations.

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