LA Clippers owner racist rant at girlfriend

[lupi]

Uhhhh, nope.

yep, he agrees with the ban and fine which is all that was done so far, not like any owner would state anything against.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Perhaps others could lose jobs, or sponsors. :whiste:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwkyLUk119E#t=134

 

[actuarial]

The sad part is about 90% or more of those jumping on Sterling, had no idea who the fuck the guy was until a few days ago.

I am not defending the guy at all for most of the stuff he has said, however; he was a WELL KNOWN RACIST for 10+ years now. They sad part is it's taken dudes and women sympathetic to what is at best a GOLD DIGGER/BLACKMAILIST to finally go internet batshit crazy over this.

True. There are a lot of people in the NBA who should be mad at themselves for never doing anything about it before. Actually, this was one of the points Kareem made in his article. There's zero chance the players / employees didn't know. I knew as a casual NBA fan that this guy was a racist douchebag.

In reality, the phone conversation was not so much of his girlfriend hanging out with black people as hanging out with the 'thug type/crazy crowd'.

I swear if she was hanging with Icy Hot Stuntaz type looking white guys (and apparently this chick only likes white guys when they are RICH so she is racist herself), he'd have the same heart to heart with her.

Like Magic Johnson, the person she posted an Instagram photo with?

IMHO he was being polite about it on the phone. He never dropped N bombs and the like.

People have a right not to want to associate with a type of people. It's not illegal.

Plus his payroll has made a lot of those MINORITIES very rich people.

There may have been minorities on his payroll becoming very rich, but there were far more suffering from his racism due to housing discrimination (not that this ousting will change that). In addition, those minorities weren't rich because of him. Someone else is going to buy the team and those players are going to still get paid. They would become rich with him or without him. If anything, given the number of former Clippers employees that have had to sue for wages he refused to pay (and sometimes forced to accept settlements for less due to lack of resources to fight), I would contend that the players become rich in spite of him.

This was a lynching in my opinion. They know he is getting up in age and want to see that team go to "Friends and Family", not Sterling's next of kin.

It may have been a lynching, but he still deserves everything he's getting. The mob of public opinion can be troubling at times, but nothing the NBA has done has been illegal or even immoral. The only immoral thing was waiting this long to do it.

 

[mmntech]

Kareem Abdul-Jabar had a great take on it in TIME. Probably already been posted but I'm too lazy to check.
http://time.com/79590/donald-sterling-kareem-abdul-jabbar-racism/

When Stirling was refusing to rent apartments to blacks and Hispanics, why did the public turn a blind eye. What makes this incident the sudden smoking gun? Not only that but why in a post-Snowden era is nobody upset that he was recorded illegally in the privacy of own home? Basically, nobody has clean hands in this story. Not Stirling, not his girlfriend, and most of all not the American public.

 

[Perknose]

This was a lynching in my opinion.

No, it wasn't. A crude, racist jerk who was never a b-ball fan to begin with and who has NOT been a good steward of his franchise will now eventually sell said franchise for an astounding profit not easily accessible to us financial peasants (in relative terms, including households exceeding two million dollars in net worth . . . or more.)

He's an anachronism and an embarrassment. He'll still be ungodly rich, only more so, and he'll still get his dick sucked at will by relatively hot chicks.

Poor, poor bastard, how I cry crocodile tears for thee in close concert with the closet and unconscious racists and the stupidly ideologically bound.

These times are finally changing.

Good gilded riddance to bad trash.

 

[alkemyst]

True. There are a lot of people in the NBA who should be mad at themselves for never doing anything about it before. Actually, this was one of the points Kareem made in his article. There's zero chance the players / employees didn't know. I knew as a casual NBA fan that this guy was a racist douchebag.

I do it at times, but most will not bite the hand that feeds them. Making $1MM+ a year playing a sport you love, why fuck with the boss?

Like Magic Johnson, the person she posted an Instagram photo with?

Hardly the only one and I'd be very concerned of my gold digger GF getting friendly with another rich dude that has AIDS!

There may have been minorities on his payroll becoming very rich, but there were far more suffering from his racism due to housing discrimination (not that this ousting will change that). In addition, those minorities weren't rich because of him. Someone else is going to buy the team and those players are going to still get paid. They would become rich with him or without him. If anything, given the number of former Clippers employees that have had to sue for wages he refused to pay (and sometimes forced to accept settlements for less due to lack of resources to fight), I would contend that the players become rich in spite of him.

Exactly, and I am not defending him....why didn't you make a thread like 10 years ago about these things?

It may have been a lynching, but he still deserves everything he's getting. The mob of public opinion can be troubling at times, but nothing the NBA has done has been illegal or even immoral. The only immoral thing was waiting this long to do it.

Not really, this lynching is a money grab and is going to be played out by even a worse person.

The NBA shouldn't have to do shit, the fans dictate it. Sadly, most of these fans have never been to a basketball game in reality.

 

[Oceanas]

Latest report says they will stop him attending club meeting etc and making decisions on his own club....Im like, WTF, how do they stop someone who owns the club, by rights, he could if he wanted, stop the club cold and no one will get paid sort of thing!

Because that's a possible consequence of owning an NBA club if you get suspended by the commissioner? Agree with it or not, it's a power the commissioner has and all of the owners agreed for him to have. And also one that the owners can get together and change so that he no longer has that power if they so choose.

The same can be said for the power for the other owners to force him out as owner. If the owners wanted to, they could vote to take that power away, but they haven't, so it's not some surprise out of nowhere that he and the other owners didn't know about.

Also, if he tried to stop the operations of the club, it would just cause the other owners to terminate his ownership that much faster which allows all of the things I posted in my last post to happen, so everyone would still get paid and games would still be played, etc.

 

[alkemyst]

No, it wasn't. A crude, racist jerk who was never a b-ball fan to begin with and who has NOT been a good steward of his franchise will now eventually sell said franchise for an astounding profit not easily accessible to us financial peasants (in relative terms, including households exceeding two million dollars in net worth . . . or more.)

He's an anachronism and an embarrassment. He'll still be ungodly rich, only more so, and he'll still get his dick sucked at will by relatively hot chicks.

Poor, poor bastard, how I cry crocodile tears for thee in close concert with the closet and unconscious racists and the stupidly ideologically bound.

These times are finally changing.

Good gilded riddance to bad trash.

I am not defending him Perk.

However, this was all setup to oust him. Many team owners really don't care about the game other than getting paid.

The sad thing to me is why aren't these same people crying out about all our corporations that do the same thing.

Because it's a lynch mob / mob frenzy now / etc. Now the ultra rich know it works.

 

[desura]

Well, I'm happy that they're not quietly ignoring his crude statements. Such things are insidious poison if left unaddressed.

I am all for rich bastards like him being held to the flame for their insensitivities.

 

[alkemyst]

When Stirling was refusing to rent apartments to blacks and Hispanics, why did the public turn a blind eye. What makes this incident the sudden smoking gun? Not only that but why in a post-Snowden era is nobody upset that he was recorded illegally in the privacy of own home? Basically, nobody has clean hands in this story. Not Stirling, not his girlfriend, and most of all not the American public.

At the time and sadly, most white folks didn't want minorities living next to them...they were OK with it.

It took a slightly hot chick that was victimized to active our country in this racism.

That is sad.

 

[actuarial]

I do it at times, but most will not bite the hand that feeds them. Making $1MM+ a year playing a sport you love, why fuck with the boss?

I didn't say it was easy, or even that I'd make the decision. Usually taking a stand causes you to have to give up something. Elign Baylor took at least a partial stand, though settling out of court with (assumption alert!) a non-disclosure doesn't help those that come after him.

Hardly the only one and I'd be very concerned of my gold digger GF getting friendly with another rich dude that has AIDS!

That's goal post shifting, as he didn't mention a thing about AIDS. He also had no problem with her hanging out with or fucking the guys, just not be seen at his games with them or showing it off on instagram.

Exactly, and I am not defending him....why didn't you make a thread like 10 years ago about these things?

Didn't mean to imply you were defending his actions. I don't make threads about anything. I was certainly disgusted when I read those thing in the past. In fact I was moreso disgusted than I am today. Hell there was a story of an employee who the players chipped in to pay for his cancer treatments because he got fired and booted off the company health plan.

Not really, this lynching is a money grab and is going to be played out by even a worse person.

The NBA shouldn't have to do shit, the fans dictate it. Sadly, most of these fans have never been to a basketball game in reality.

What money is being grabbed by the NBA? If it was such a simple money grab they would have done it years ago.

Sterling's a piece of shit who deserved for this to happen to him for years. That's been my opinion for years. Of course this is the internet, so you have no way to verify that I've held that opinion for a long time as opposed to piling on with everyone else who just found out about this.

I have no problem with a bad person suffering for their actions, even if it's a little late.

 

[desura]

LOL, why was the rest of the world silent? Because the rest of the world didn't know. The rest of the world doesn't pay attention to guys like that unless there's something to pay attention to. It's a big and busy world, man.

It takes courage to go after someone as rich and powerful as that. We need MORE of that in our society, not LESS.

 

[JEDI]

Hey did you guys hear the guy who owns the Clippers made a racist statement?

what does it mean to ban an nba owner from the nba?!
ok, you cant go see your teams games in the stadium. whoppee

you have no say in the mgmt. of the team. how the hell can this be enforced?!
heck, is it even legal? injunction to block? then multi-year lawsuit to overturn?

also, the ban is good until a new nba commish is elected. then it could be reversed.
much like Pete Rose's lifetime ban from baseball's hall of fame for placing bets on the team he managed. after a new baseball commish, that ban was lifted. he still didn't get enuf votes during the eligibility period to make it to the HoF tho.

 

[desura]

I'm pretty sure being the owner of an NBA franchise is closer to being a McDonalds franchisee than it is to being a typical business owner.

 

[HopJokey]

what does it mean to ban an nba owner from the nba?!
ok, you cant go see your teams games in the stadium. whoppee

you have no say in the mgmt. of the team. how the hell can this be enforced?!
heck, is it even legal? injunction to block? then multi-year lawsuit to overturn?

also, the ban is good until a new nba commish is elected. then it could be reversed.
much like Pete Rose's lifetime ban from baseball's hall of fame for placing bets on the team he managed. after a new baseball commish, that ban was lifted. he still didn't get enuf votes during the eligibility period to make it to the HoF tho.

True the ban could be reversed. But they will force him to sell via 3/4 owners vote soon.

 

[eng2d2]

Some black commentator is defending sterling

 

[alkemyst]

Some black commentator is defending sterling

share?

 

[waggy]

True the ban could be reversed. But they will force him to sell via 3/4 owners vote soon.

I doubt that happens. i don't think the owners wan't to open that can of worms. Because then who is next?

though if he does he is going to make a ton of profit heh

what does it mean to ban an nba owner from the nba?!
ok, you cant go see your teams games in the stadium. whoppee

you have no say in the mgmt. of the team. how the hell can this be enforced?!
heck, is it even legal? injunction to block? then multi-year lawsuit to overturn?

also, the ban is good until a new nba commish is elected. then it could be reversed.
much like Pete Rose's lifetime ban from baseball's hall of fame for placing bets on the team he managed. after a new baseball commish, that ban was lifted. he still didn't get enuf votes during the eligibility period to make it to the HoF tho.

exactly! i just didn't get how they could legally ban him from his business. i see a bunch of lawsuits filled in the next week or two.

 

[Nebor]

True the ban could be reversed. But they will force him to sell via 3/4 owners vote soon.

I'll bet you money that doesn't happen.

 

[HendrixFan]

I'm glad Silver put the hammer down. This is not something I would have figured to happen if Stern were still the commissioner.

I've read through this thread the past few days but have held off on commentary this far. As I fully agree with the punishment I disagree with quite a few people in this thread and some various articles and blogs. Where to begin?

To start, evidently Sterling knew he was being recorded so there are no legality issues of the NBA basing a punishment on the recordings. To those that feel the girlfriend was working Sterling over to get him on tape saying deplorable things, I say "who cares?" You can bait me all day into releasing a deluge of racist words but I won't succumb, because I'm not a racist.

Delving deeper into Sterling's clear racism, I'm dumbfounded that there is even a debate over his thoughts and their inappropriateness. The idea that his relationship with a woman of color prevents him from being racist is laughable. It goes beyond the old "I have a black friend" defense for being a racist and goes straight into what you see in slavery days, exemplified well by the movie 12 Years a Slave. The character played by Micheal Fassbender carries on a sexual and romantic relationship with one of his slaves but clearly sees blacks as inferior. The sexual relationship isn't based on respect but dominance. This ties in closely with the notion of Sterling being a plantation owner of sorts.

Now why, given Sterling's long disgusting history, is this now an issue? Wasn't his discrimination over housing a more serious issue? I believe there are a couple factors at play. First, Stern was the commissioner during the previous transgressions and I have mostly felt he did a poor job overall. He oversaw tremendous growth in the league as Bird, Magic and Jordan shined. I think Stern was fortunate to be around at the right time and rode that success. A better commissioner could have propelled the NBA to greater heights during that same time window.

Second, the issue here is more directly tied to the NBA than the housing discrimination lawsuit. Sterling is on record for not wanting blacks in "his" arena. This gives the NBA, and a proactive commissioner like Silver, a huge opportunity to rid themselves of this disease. The bit about Instagram isn't what nailed Sterling, it was about who should be at the games. As an owner, stating in whatever form that blacks shouldn't be coming to the games is a death knell.

The media, most notably social media, has latched onto this story in a big way. Why this incident with Sterling and not before? Who can say for sure? It makes me think of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. For whatever reason this story resonated more and hit a critical mass quickly. I think the timing of this incident is "better" than the previous issues because society has advanced enough in the past decade or so that most people would have a problem with it. Though the comparison is on a vastly different scale, at one point slavery was an expectation despite detractors, and eventually there was enough outcry that it could be ended. This is how these things work. Look at gay rights and how far we have come in the past 20 years. Society changes and what was "acceptable" for Sterling to get away with back then isn't acceptable now.

Looking at the punishment, I find it fitting and see no reason that the NBA will be unable to get what they want as a resolution. Sterling may fight it, but it is a losing battle. The NBA won't allow the franchise to be sold as a fire sale. To those unfamiliar with the NBA, those with just a passing interest, my username is all over any of the NBA threads over the past few years. I spend alot (too much?) of time following all things NBA. The lockout and subsequent years have been huge in increasing the value of the franchises and the exposure of the NBA. This link gives some detail:

http://grantland.com/features/the-worlds-most-exclusive-club/

The NBA and the fellow owners who will vote to push out Sterling will not allow the Clippers to go cheap. Quite the opposite and for good business reasons. There is a long line of people ready to buy NBA teams and a limited market to purchase form. They will leverage a tremendous asset in the Clippers for maximum value. $1.5B will be the floor.

At the end of the day Sterling as an owner is a representative of the NBA. His words, as they hit the public sphere, become a voice of the NBA unless it takes action. There is a HUGE (massive massive massive) TV deal coming up soon and the NBA cannot allow a racist moron to jeopardize the cash cow that is coming. Thankfully racism now has an inverse relationship with business. Sponsors and society want nothing to do with it and the league gets to follow suit.

 

[IAteYourMother]

I'll bet you money that doesn't happen.

How much are you looking to bet? 1:1 odds?

 

[HendrixFan]

I'll bet you money that doesn't happen.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/10852199/challenge-donald-sterling

 

[zinfamous]

well, this all happened relatively fast.

:hmm:

 

[Nebor]

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/10852199/challenge-donald-sterling

I'm not saying it's not possible, I'm saying only 4 out of 30 owners will support such an action.

 

[HendrixFan]

I'm not saying it's not possible, I'm saying only 4 out of 30 owners will support such an action.

Maybe I misread your post. Do you think the owners will force a sell?