(CNN) — Los Angeles Clippers President Andy Roeser on Tuesday began an indefinite leave as the team and the National Basketball Association search for a new chief executive officer for the franchise.
NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a written statement: “This will provide an opportunity for a new CEO to begin on a clean slate and for the team to stabilize under difficult circumstances.”
Last week the NBA suspended Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life and fined him a league-maximum $2.5 million for racist remarks that were recorded and made public.
Roeser joined the Clippers franchise in 1984 and become president in 2007. In his role as president he was running the team’s day-to-day operations with Sterling suspended.
Commissioner Adam Silver and the league’s 29 other owners are also in the process of forcing Sterling to sell the team he has owned for 33 years.
While the team has been distracted off the court, it has continued winning on it. The Clippers routed the Oklahoma City Thunder 122-105 on Monday in Game 1 of their second-round series of the NBA playoffs.
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