Rush Limbaugh adopted and promoted the conspiracy theory that Clippers owner Donald Sterling was set up by people looking to purchase his franchise.

On the April 29 edition of his radio show, Limbaugh latched on to a caller's theory that the recordings of Donald Sterling's racist remarks had been a set-up in order to take the team from him. After entertaining the theory, Limbaugh fully adopted it, later speculating that whoever “set this up” got rid of the team's anthem singer:

RUSH: Whoever set this up is really good. They covered every base. They've got the media wrapped around their little finger. I mean when you get rid of the anthem singer, I used to be in charge of anthem singers at the Kansas City Royals. When you can get rid of anthem singer, you've got power.

Later in the show, Limbaugh expanded his conspiracy theory to speculate that the real reason Sterling told his mistress not to appear in photographs with Magic Johnson was not because Johnson is black, but because he suspected Johnson of trying to take the team and trying to lower the price by exposing Sterling's comments.

The day before Sterling's suspension by the NBA, Limbaugh claimed that he was “only in trouble for not giving enough money to Obama.”