The Donald Sterling Thread

this is likely going to be Kevin Johnson's statement for tomorrow on behalf of the NBPA
Sports Should Bridge the Racial Divide, Not Widen It

We’re at a defining moment in the history of the National Basketball Association.

And that’s sad, because when I think about historic, defining moments in basketball, I think about LeBron James becoming the youngest man to be drafted #1, become league MVP, and earn a triple-double. I think about the greats, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, meeting in the championship game for the first time in 1984. I think about the Boston Celtics of the 1960s winning six consecutive titles.

And I think about Earl Lloyd the first African American to play in the NBA in 1950 and Jason Collins the first openly gay player in the league.

I do not think about the racist comments of a wealthy white man who happens to own a sports franchise and who, until this week, the vast majority of Americans had never heard of.

But this much is true: how we choose to deal with Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling will absolutely be a defining moment in the NBA.

You’ve heard by now. This past Saturday an audio recording of Mr. Sterling making discriminatory comments surfaced. In the last 72 hours, I’ve been at the epicenter of a firestorm of questions and accusations about racism, civil rights, legal wranglings, moral imperatives, and economic consequences set off by Mr. Sterling.

As an African-American man I know firsthand that racism is still alive and well in our country. But as a former NBA player I also take heart in the fact that sports is one venue in which we can bridge the racial divide. Why? Because when people play on a team together, it unites them regardless of their differences. I didn’t care if a teammate was white, Black, Latino or even green. What I cared about was whether they worked with me to win. When fans rally around a team you see people of all walks of life hugging, screaming together, high-fiving and backslapping without regard to their color, creed or nationality.

Sports is an amazing convener. It has the power to bridge racial divides. And that’s what makes this incident especially disappointing.

But we can take advantage of this crisis. To do so, we need only to embrace sports as an agent of change. We have a unique opportunity to show that this ill-fated event will not become an illustration of our broader society. In fact, we can use this incident to show that our society will not tolerate such behavior.

The NBA and its new commissioner, Adam Silver, have the opportunity to send a clear message that there is no room for racism in our sport. By doing so, they can set the bar for what clear, decisive action to address reprehensible behavior looks like.

I’m honored to have been asked by the NBA Players Association to lead the effort to attend to this issue from the players’ standpoint. Over the past few days I’ve talked to our Executive Committee, Player Representatives, members of the full body and past players. All of us are united in our belief that we must be actively engaged in bringing this issue to resolution quickly and definitively. This experience has brought together current and former players, united for a cause that will make our sport better for future players. Our collective voice has become stronger as a result of this crisis.

Mr. Sterling’s comments represent the worst of ignorance and intolerance. Despite that, we cannot sit idly by and watch him implode. While some would argue that we should watch with glee as this racist business owner destroys himself, for the sake of the NBA, we must intervene and engage to bring this to resolution swiftly.

Current and former players are in strong agreement that Mr. Sterling and his views have no place in our league. To that end, the NBPA has asked Commissioner Silver to impose the most severe sanctions possible under the NBA bylaws. We may not have the power to force Mr. Sterling to sell his team, but make no mistake, we believe that Mr. Sterling should no longer have the privilege of being an owner of an NBA team. After all, how can we expect any player (the majority of whom are African-American) to want to work for him?

At a minimum, Mr. Sterling should be suspended indefinitely, banned from games, slapped with the maximum fine possible, and forced to extract himself from basketball operations. He should be required to name someone from his executive team or family to take over all duties related to the Clippers.

If the NBA takes this type of strong stand on this issue -- and I have every confidence it will -- it will prove to be a defining moment not just for the sport but for the entire nation. It will signal that the league is listening to its players and alum and treating them as valuable partners.

Then, we can get back to the business of basketball, and sports will once again have served to bridge the racial divide in our country rather than widen it.
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amel223 said:
Legally speaking, I don't think Sterling and the other nba owners have any power to do anything against Sterling, and if they do try anything, Sterling would even have grounds to sue if any actions are taken against him. Tape recordings are inadmissable by California law, I believe. That said, it'd be nice to see the fans and players take a stand. I thought the Clippers turning their shirts inside out was weak sauce.

It was nice to have the sponsors pull their support.
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You are prob right and he also has the ADL (Which fights tooth n nail for jews) waiting in the cut licking their chops for any type of slurs thrown his way, smh.

Dude is a racist but he was pretty much within his rights to voice what he spoke on in the recordings which I'm sure was illegal to do anyway.

Sterling on his "Forty million dollar slave" swag.

How many of yall would take millions from a guy who you know doesn't really like you (due to you having more melanin than him) to play your favorite sport and how many would not?

Just curious.
 
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Majority would as long as the owners stupidity doesn't get in the way of the business or main objective: making money.
 
Let him keep the team but let the players be able to walk....clippers would be worse than philly next year....Chris smith might also make it back to the league :lol
 
How NBA could deliver knockout blow to Clippers owner Donald Sterling

For decades, the Los Angeles Clippers delivered owner Donald Sterling an identity: He was the biggest star of the biggest farce in the NBA. To him, life as a punch line always beat anonymity. The Donald was the Clippers. Sterling turned down richer deals to move the franchise to Orange County because he never wanted to relinquish the celebrity that his courtside seat in downtown Los Angeles gave him.

Without the Clippers, Sterling simply was a multimillionaire slumlord. With them, Sterling had status in the celebrity culture of Hollywood. As the Clippers transformed into winners, something changed in Sterling's life: To the public, he no longer defined the franchise. Here came Blake Griffin. Chris Paul. Doc Rivers. They had big contracts, bigger profiles, and slowly, surely, Donald T. Sterling faded out of focus.

"They're the stars of the Clippers show now, not Sterling anymore," one deposed Clippers official told Yahoo Sports. "They moved him aside and he didn't matter anymore.

"But now, this [scandal] has made him relevant again. In his mind, he's the star of the Clippers again. Everybody's talking about him again. In his own way, he'll revel in this. I would bet there's no way [Sterling] will give in and sell his team. There's no way that he's going to do anything but stay and fight everyone until the very end to hold onto this."

This is why there's so much pressure on NBA commissioner Adam Silver to deliver a devastating blow at his 2 p.m. ET news conference. Sterling's inclination will be to keep the team, keep the NBA mired in courts and the Clippers franchise will never survive it. Rivers will never return as president and coach under Sterling, sources told Yahoo Sports, and that'll start the beginning of a player mutiny that could result with several top Clippers also demanding out of the franchise.

Several league officials – including owners and Board of Governors members – told Yahoo Sports they believe Silver has been studying the nuclear option on Sterling: a provision in the NBA's bylaws that would allow Silver to summon a vote of league owners to strip Sterling of his ownership. The NBA would run the Clippers until the team could be sold.

Minimally, Silver could implement these penalties on Sterling: a one-year suspension, a $1 million fine and an assignment to counseling. For all the years former commissioner David Stern let Sterling slide, there's a strong belief Stern simply feared Sterling in the courts. Sterling is an attorney – he loves litigation – and Stern feared Sterling would become Al Davis to his Pete Rozelle.

Despite his denial of ownership interest in the Clippers, Magic Johnson and potential investors spent part of Monday working to understand the avenues to which they could eventually make a deal to become Clippers owners, sources told Yahoo Sports. If the franchise becomes available, Johnson wants to be positioned to make a deal.

For now, Sterling's estranged wife Shelly believes she can find a way to control the Clippers, but the NBA has no intentions of the team staying in the family's hands. That'll never be a compromise, because Silver and the owners understand the public tenor: The Sterling family must go.

One by one, the owners are issuing statements of condemnation on Sterling. Most are sincere, and some are self-preservation. For so long, the rest of the NBA's owners never minded Sterling, because he was never a threat. The Clippers missed the playoffs over and over, bungled trades and draft picks, and the competitive advantages of leaving Sterling in place far outdistanced the moral outrage of his despicable history on race and decency.

Through the years, his racism has been sometimes subtle and often overt. For those failing to understand why a racist like Sterling never preferred white players, it cut to the heart of his stereotypical stances on athleticism and strength and talent.

Mostly, he's never loved paying white players. In that way, he has an absolute plantation prism with which he sees players: He always preferred long, strong, physical players. To him, that's a basketball player: Big, black and strong.

When Sterling became reluctant to honor Rivers' sign-and-trade agreement for J.J. Redick, there was a belief race played a factor. As one league source said, "He thought it was too much to pay for a white player."

Yes, Sterling didn't want to so easily part with Eric Bledsoe, despite Rivers telling him they could never afford to pay Bledsoe in restricted free agency next summer. That was part of it, yes, but those who knew Sterling – who had history with him – believed largely that his disdain for paying $7 million per year for a white player caused him pause.

Nevertheless, those days could be soon gone. They could end today, when Silver comes to a moment of truth as NBA commissioner. In Sterling's own mind, he is the star again.

It's Donald T. Sterling and those dysfunctional Clippers. Once and for all, Sterling needs to be stopped. David Stern was too scared, but here comes the commissioner's office of Adam Silver now. The nuclear option awaits inside his briefcase, and it's time to go the distance on Sterling now. It's time to make him go away once and for all.
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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/how-nba-could-deliver-knockout-blow-to-donald-sterling-093958859.html
 
Mr Marcus said:
Let him keep the team but let the players be able to walk....clippers would be worse than philly next year....Chris smith might also make it back to the league :lol
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:lol Chris Smith would do that in a heartbeat. Son would average 14 points on 32 shots.
 
I don't envy Silver's position. If he doesn't punish Sterling harshly enough, he faces a PR disaster and might tarnish the image of the league and lose support of lot of fans. If he punishes Sterling too harshly, he's going to be deep in a legal battle with Sterling where Sterling would probably win. Somewhere David Stern is happy he retired.
 
Bill Simmons  ‏@BillSimmons   25m

1. Hearing Adam Silver is dropping the nukes on Donald Sterling today. Everything short of a big mushroom cloud shaped like the NBA logo.
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Haven't really been keeping up with all the articles, but I was at the gym yesterday and saw something about sponsors leaving or suspending their ties with the Clippers. Saw this on LATimes and wow, thats a huge blow.

Announcing their departure were CarMax, State Farm, Kia, Virgin America, Red Bull, Mercedes-Benz, LoanMart, Southern California Ford Dealers, Yokohama Tire, Burger King, Sprint, Samsung, the Commerce Hotel & Casino, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians and the company that makes Corona beer.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-sp-donald-sterling-clippers-20140429,0,220830.story#ixzz30I4DGlVo
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free agency for the players would be great, but they should treat it like the amnesty clause.

sterling loses the team and still foots the bill on salaries owed. turn the clippers into a D League team like they have in summer league
 
Michael Smith just called out David Stern on Numbers Never Lie. Also brought up how this shouldn't have been the tipping point.
 
Rell826 said:
Michael Smith just called out David Stern on Numbers Never Lie. Also brought up how this shouldn't have been the tipping point.
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Saw that, loved how he also brought up the "Stop judging the players" narrative, which honestly hasnt been said enough.
 
Hope Sterling actually sells the team and the buyer moves it to Seattle
 
nba is taking ownership of the clips before they find a suitable buyer?
 
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