Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is battling cancer, sources have confirmed to ESPN.com.
The news was first reported by the New York Post.
The Post, citing sources, reported that the 80-year-old Sterling has been battling prostate cancer for an extended period of time.
Sterling was banned for life from the NBA and fined $2.5 million by commissioner Adam Silver earlier in the week after racist remarks he made were published by TMZ.
Silver has urged the league's owners to force a sale of the Clippers, which they can do with approval from three-fourths of the league's 30 owners.
Blake Griffin, speaking after the Clippers' 100-99 Game 6 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night, said he was unaware of Sterling's cancer.
"If that is true, my thoughts and prayers are with him," Griffin said. "Nobody deserves to go through something like that."
Chris Paul, who also said he hadn't heard about the cancer, called it "truly unfortunate," while coach Doc Rivers said he didn't know about it and that he hoped it wasn't true.
The league's advisory/finance committee held its first meeting about Sterling on Thursday. The 10-member committee said in a statement that it "unanimously agreed to move forward as expeditiously as possible" on the process of terminating Sterling's ownership and planned to reconvene next week.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
