UPDATE 1-Los Angeles Clippers president takes leave after owner banned

(Corrects first name of owner to Donald Sterling in first paragraph) LOS ANGELES, May 6 (Reuters) - Los Angeles Clippers President Andy Roeser is taking an indefinite leave of absence, effective immediately, a week after club owner Donald Sterling was banned from the National Basketball Association for racist comments, the NBA said on Tuesday. Roeser's leave, which comes days after the league moved to strip Sterling of his ownership, will "provide an opportunity for a new CEO to begin on a clean slate and for the team to stabilize under difficult circumstances," league spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement. One of the longest-tenured executives in the NBA after 30 seasons with the Clippers, Roeser, 54, had been in charge of all facets of the club's business operations since 1986 and assumed the role of team president in 2007, according to his official biography. "Mr. Sterling is emphatic that what is reflected on that recording is not consistent with, nor does it reflect his views, beliefs or feelings," Roeser said, adding, "It is the antithesis of who he is, what he believes and how he has lived his life." Three days later, under a firestorm of outrage from players, fans and commercial sponsors, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver fined Sterling $2.5 million and banned him from pro basketball for life, saying that Sterling had acknowledged to the NBA that the recording was authentic and had not offered an apology.
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