Hypocrisy involved with Sterling's comments

[mjs34]

Long, Here is an article talking about some of Sterling's other escapades.


http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4187729

As you can see, there is a long history with Sterling and I have hard time believing that any of the players and their agents weren't aware of it.

Sterling hasn't broken any laws and because this was a private conversation, I am not sure how much authority the NBA will have to punish him. Again, I am not defending him at all, but it is an interesting situation. I think this will likely become a huge court case, because I don't see a guy like Sterling sitting down for this. He clearly sees himself as being above most of us. I think selling the team is very unlikely, but he could turn over control to a family member, and agree to stay away, but once again, he doesn't sound like a guy that likes to be told what to do so who knows where this goes.

[kms789 [enjin:6694798]]

Nobody is saying he did anything illegal. I'm not sure why you're driving this angle. It's also why it doesn't matter how the tape was obtained. Nor is the character or intentions of this woman relevant.

The NBA is a private business and they will try to suspend him for the maximum amount they can without making themselves vulnerable to a legal attack by Sterling. Moving forward, Sterling will be kept quiet while there will be tremendous pressure from minority Clippers owners and owners around the league for Sterling to sell.

As long as he is the owner and America holds its attention span, there is going to be a tremendous amount of money lost due to fans not wanting to support him, and players not wanting to join him. How long this lasts depends on how stubborn he is, and how long he will be willing to continue losing money on a franchise that is a goldmine right now.

[mjs34]

Nobody is saying he did anything illegal. I'm not sure why you're driving this angle. It's also why it doesn't matter how the tape was obtained. Nor is the character or intentions of this woman relevant.

The NBA is a private business and they will try to suspend him for the maximum amount they can without making themselves vulnerable to a legal attack by Sterling. Moving forward, Sterling will be kept quiet while there will be tremendous pressure from minority Clippers owners and owners around the league for Sterling to sell.

As long as he is the owner and America holds its attention span, there is going to be a tremendous amount of money lost due to fans not wanting to support him, and players not wanting to join him. How long this lasts depends on how stubborn he is, and how long he will be willing to continue losing money on a franchise that is a goldmine right now.

The reason the legal issue matters, is because this will likely come down to a morals clause of some type in the NBA owners bylaws. The question will be, did Sterling violate the clause when he may have had an expectation of privacy. The morals clause may take effect when you do something publicly. They may determine that what he did wasn't in the public eye.

[kms789 [enjin:6694798]]

Good stuff. This is going to be an excruciatingly long fight for the NBA. Sterling has already lost, but he can drag it out as long as he wants. Fortunately for him, "losing" means walking away with upwards of a billion dollars

[Porckchop]

I cant help but wonder , if its a well know fact that Sterling is a racists. Why would a black coach choose to go there? Why would Chris Paul sign his contract? Theyre just now up in arms about this guys exploits? Or were they just willing to look the otherway in order to get paid. Now that something bigger and more public has happened these guys feel pressure from the black community to show outrage ? Does money keep racism swept under the rug?

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Now the players and coach's characters are coming into play. When Sterling's racist opinions were going on in private, people associated with the Clippers could turn their cheek and take their checks to the bank with no public attention on how they'd act. Things have changed now that the entire NBA world, and likely more, know how Sterling really feels.

Can the Clips and Rivers turn this around to a "we don't care, we play for the fans and ourselves" deal? Sure, but for right now the tag that comes with them is that these black professional players play for a racist owner. It may or may not be about just a paycheck now that he was exposed. Much more difficult to ignore when the media, family, friends and world are asking questions about it.

Personally, I doubt the NBA can do much about this. It was a conversation that took place in privacy, or so he thought. I certainly don't agree with Sterling, but in this case all he did was have a "private" phone call with his gold-digging girlfriend about her broadcasting her relationships with minorities. It's not like he did something publicly, meaning during a press conference or interview, to tarnish the league's identity. Whether you like it or not, Sterling was having a 1v1 conversation and she (or whoever) decided to expose him.

He'll have to live with the added embarassment and MAYBE a fine. There's no way he's forced out of ownership legally unless it's on his own account.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

SJM and Cam make some good points. Speaking of hypocrisy, what's amazing to me is that the NAACP was set to give Donald Sterling a Lifetime Achievement Award until this incident cropped up. What!? A guy who has long held dubious views of race was going to receive an award from NAACP, whose core purpose is social justice and anti-discrimination (and some would say to the detriment of personal responsibility and self-determination). That organization's credibility was thin to begin with in my eyes, but that is just pathetic. He must have been a big donor!

And of course everyone from Michael Jordan to President Obama had to give a "statement" about this incident, as if there wasn't already enough condemnation.

To me a lot of this is faux outrage. Everyone knew he was a sleazebag and looked the other way (including the NAACP). Now everyone is falling all over themselves to declare what a monster he is and how the NBA needs to take action.

[mjs34]

I have a hard time believing the players, coaches, owners, etc. didn't know his past. If they didn't, might I suggest actually googling his name rather than sending out that next tweet!

[The Rage Monster [enjin:8010341]]

The comments were bad but I'm having a hard time see the problem with these comments specifically. Essentially a guy with longstanding white supremacist views said something racist, how is that shocking? Again the comments are not good but I generally believe that actions speak louder than words. He must have done something to cause the NAACP to be willing to overlook his past and give him an award, his teams are made up of a majority of black players and he has a black coach. Mostly I blame the media and social media for this becoming such a big issue, word quickly spreads, people jump on the bandwagon, and there's a huge snowball effect.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Swift, strong punishment doled out by Silver and the NBA...quite impressive. Lifetime ban, and a forced sale if 3/4 of owners vote for it.

So, it looks like the Clippers are going to need new ownership. which leads to a huge opportunity for............US! That's right, let's pool our board resources and buy the Clippers (might have to get a bank involved too :)) . Then we move the franchise to Minneapolis and appeal to get the Laker name back. If the LA Lakers refuse to give up their name, then we call our new franchise The Minneapolis Authentic Lakers. We already know the talent on this board so we will share the GM duties, using number of posts as the number of votes each co-owner gets. We will be the best run franchise in the league and dominate for years!

Who's IN?????????