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Laz Alonso Retracts Tweet Supporting Donald Sterling

Actor says he "made a mistake" speaking without all the facts.

 (Photo: Bennett Raglin/BET/Getty Images for BET)

Laz Alonso shocked a lot of people when he appeared to tweet his support for reviled Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling over the weekend, but he is now retracting his comments as quickly as possible.
“Why r they makin such a big deal about #DonaldSterling? He was arguing with his girl who was clearly baiting him 2 say those things," Alonzo tweeted on Sunday. "In arguments of passion & despair people say horrible things they dont truly feel...Making racial comments when either #roadraging or #arguing with a lover does not count!!! Everybody acts holier than thou until u do the same. Dude was feeling insecure. End of story."
Unsurprisingly, Alonzo faced his own backlash for standing up for Sterling, who was caught on tape making a racist tirade to his reported girlfriend V. Stiviano. Now, the actor clarifies his position on the Sterling debacle.
“I made a mistake in speaking before I had all of the facts," he tells MadameNoire.com. "First of all, I didn’t know any of Donald Sterling’s history prior to me tweeting that and that was my mistake. Had I known all of the history that this guy has, as far as racial discrimination and real estate discrimination, then that would’ve totally changed the way that I heard the conversation."
He continues, “At the time, when I tweeted that only part of the phone call had come out. I listened to the entire tape last night and the things that were said were disgusting. The part that I was tweeting about was specifically related to the pictures that he wanted her to take down and what I heard was a man who is extremely powerful and extremely wealthy, and old, and no matter how much money he has on the planet, he cannot get [his young girlfriend] to stop doing something that he’s trying to control. He thinks she’s one of his possessions."
"I can admit that there were some tweets that could’ve been better thought out before I started a debate," he says.
Alonzo also voiced his opinion on what he thinks the Clippers players, who are in the midst of a playoff battle against the Golden State Warriors, should do. “If you found out that your boss was racist, would you quit? People expect this dramatic action by the players and I get it. That’s their Muhammad Ali moment, but take it back to yourself," he says. "Most people know if their boss is racist or not and they continue to deal with it. I can’t point the finger at the Clippers players and say they did enough or they didn’t do enough. I believe that, like Magic Johnson said, ‘you guys’ fight is on the basketball court. Let us handle this. We’re handling this fight.’ Whatever it is that Magic is doing behind the scenes is going to handle this."
Read: NBA Bans Donald Sterling for Life
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