Donald Sterling isn't just disliked, he's the most hated man in America.
That's according to the results of a poll by E-Poll Market Research that was released on Thursday.
The company said that, out of the people that were familiar with the
Los Angeles Clippers owner, 92 percent said they disliked him. In the impressionable 13-24 year old male demographic, 97 percent disliked him, according to the poll.
Sterling beat out Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, who is disliked by 90 percent of the population, OJ Simpson (88 percent), Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray (88 percent) and Justin Bieber (86 percent). Former
New England Patriots tight end
Aaron Hernandez, who pleaded not guilty to two first-degree murder charges on Wednesday, finished seventh on the list.
"Donald Sterling made these callous statements and then he has more than doubled down on them since then," said Jerry Philpott, president and CEO of E-Poll, which said it polled 1,100 people between 13-49 whose demographics were representative of the U.S. population.
To put Sterling's numbers in perspective, Philpott said the athletes in their database are disliked by an average of 15 percent of the population.
Sterling said this week that he would fight the NBA's attempt to kick him and his ownership group out of the league for his racist comments, despite the fact that he gave written permission to his wife Shelly to sell the team. She has hired Bank of America, has taken bids and
is trying to wrap up the sale before the NBA Board of Governors could unseat the Clippers ownership group on June 3.
If Sterling sues and ties up the sale or if a deal can't be consummated, league officials have said it will take over the sale.
Donald Sterling bought the team in 1981 for $12.5 million. Bids have come in for well over $1 billion.