V. Stiviano ‘very saddened’ at NBA’s Donald Sterling ban, attorney says

V. Stiviano, the woman at the center of the Donald Sterling scandal, said she was “very saddened” by the NBA’s decision to ban him from the sport for life, her attorney said Tuesday.

V. Stiviano “never wanted any harm to Donald,” Calabasas lawyer Mac Nehoray of Calabasas told The Times.

He said the 31-year-old is still reeling from the release of the recordings in which Sterling chastises her for associating with African Americans, including Magic Johnson. He said that “someone released it for money” but it wasn’t Stiviano.

PHOTOS: Who is V. Stiviano?

“My client is devastated that this got out,” he said.

He also insisted that Stiviano and the 80-year-old Clippers owner never had a sexual or romantic relationship and descriptions of her as his mistress in the media and in a lawsuit filed by Sterling’s wife are erroneous.

“It’s nothing like it’s been portrayed,” Nehoray said. “She’s not the type of person everyone says.”

Rochelle Sterling, who has been married to Donald Sterling for more than 50 years, filed suit against Stiviano in March in an effort to reclaim a $1.8-million apartment, luxury autos and cash he gave her.

Stiviano’s lawyer said his client was a hard-working young woman who supported herself waitressing and volunteered helping crime victims before signing on to work as an “archivist” for Sterling.

“She had no association with any rich people before this,” he said.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office confirmed that Stiviano did clerical work and helped explain legal procedures to victims as a volunteer in the agency’s Victim-Witness Assistance Program in 2010 and 2011