Because his team is made up of predominantly black players, and a black coach, and they play in a predominantly black league, and he's on record as saying (putting it nicely here) that it is in poor taste to be seen with black people. That's like owning a gay bar and then telling someone you believe that being gay is "perverted" (a la the most recent "Bachelor"). It's like dude, everyone's entitled to their own beliefs, no matter how skewed they may be. But if are showing clear discrimination (and have a history of doing so) against the very people who are making you millions of dollars... then you just gotta get out of the game. It's not right. In better news, here's a video of a soccer player who got a banana thrown at him, then gave a middle finger to the fan by peeling and eating it because "my dad told me they cure cramps" as he later wrote on twitter: http://instagram.com/p/nT1vlsOH8c/
I am of the opinion they'll suspend him, it's really all they can do. Taking away something he owns for being a racist asshole won't happen.
I mean - ok so he's a racist piece of shit. You get to do that in America. You get to have those viewpoints. You don't get to ACT on them, but you get to express them. If he's not discriminating against people actively - and he's legit on all his financial information - then...he gets to be a racist piece of shit who owns a basketball team. It's 100% bad for his business, and obviously people who watch basketball and buy into that type of stuff have the choice to support him or not. But I don't get the mandates and investigations and prosecution and all that.
It's pretty much the only thing they can legally do that will hurt him in any way, so yes, I agree they will probably suspend him. Make sure that he can't parade his friends up and down courtside during games(apparently this is a huge deal for him), among many other things.
I'm impressed by the response to this. I like how people are not tolerating these comments. However in Spain recently a prominent player for Barcelona had a banana thrown at him during a game. Obviously this is blatant racism. The governing body for Spanish soccer, La Liga, has no response to this. Apparently racists gestures are tolerated in Spain. Imagine if someone threw a banana at LeBron James over here, or if someone shouted monkey at specific NFL players?
League investigations, not criminal. Just as he can excercise his 1st Amendment, so can the league not to allow ignorant assholes. Freedom of speech from government censorship, not freedom to societal and business repercussions.
Fucker is in the wrong sport. If he owned a Nascar, this would be a nonissue. Wait...are there any AA Nascar drivers?
There have been no mandates, investigations or prosecutions here. If he wants to be a racist piece of shit, that's great, but if he's free to do that then everyone else is free to have nothing to do with his organization, and it's just a fact of economics that he can't be a basketball owner if he has no revenue. In fact, the NBA has a vested interest in keeping him out if it hurts their revenue.
Freedom of speech just means the government won't prosecute him for saying what he thinks. However, the business community does not have to follow such rules. I'm always astounded by Europe sometimes though. Dani Alves gets a banana at him and Spanish media is hardly reporting it. If someone did that, there'd be absolute hell to pay. I doubt someone would be able to leave the stadium without being hurt if they did that here.
Yes. I understand this. I understand that freedom of speech is not freedom from repercussions. Definitely know that. And I understand Ghettoastronaut's little cartoon there as well. Got it. I guess what I'm asking is - why should he be forced out of ownership? Assuming it's his team (I have no idea - I don't know if it's like with the Rangers where there is an ownership collective or if he's the sole owner or what) and he expresses himself like this - he kinda gets to do that. In no way does that mean I agree with his views. I just don't understand the league saying 'you can't own the team now you have to sell it' or taking it away or whatever. It would be, in my eyes at least, a more significant 'punishment' if fans acted on their intolerance of his views rather than the league taking the team away. Take the team away - somebody's gotta pay him money, right? Fans take action and say "fuck it, we're not coming back until he's not the owner of the team", that message is much more significant. edit - I do see the point about the NBA having a vested interest though. That part does make sense.
Major sports team ownership is more like an oligopoly. You have to be approved to enter, and I'm sure there are certain assumptions that you must follow if you want to keep your team(s). I imagine not getting caught saying racists remarks is one of those assumptions. There's probably a way to legally to force him out.
I would have liked to see the Clippers players just flat out refuse to play, turning the shirts inside out was......a statement I guess.
The only known legal way to flat out force him out is the thing I mentioned previously that doesn't apply here. That doesn't mean that they can't suspend him/put pressure on him to sell, but they cannot force him to do anything (other than pay a fine which will mean less than nothing to him).
Apparently they (Clippers) are planning something bigger for their next game. Doc Rivers tried to talk them out of it (according to the sports sites), but evidently its bigger than the shirt thing from the other day.
Incidentally, a good article about this: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.nbcsports.com/joe-posnanski/nba-cant-ignore-donald-sterling-anymore" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.nbcsports.com/joe-posnanski/ ... ng-anymore</a>
I thought the shirt thing was classy. I guess a bigger gesture is warranted, but they need to be professional about it.
Good for them, I hope it makes a bigger splash than the shirts. I just read that the owner of the Rockets has asked the NBA to consider making all the Clippers players free agents effective immediately. Interesting idea. From what I have been reading the only way the NBA can take the franchise from him is for gambling infractions.
It's interesting, but it's not based in reality. Am I the only one who's getting pissed at all the armchair quarterbacks around the league saying what Doc Rivers/the Clippers should/shouldn't do? Kobe said "I wouldn't play for him." Really asshole? Then why were you this close to signing a contract with the Clippers years ago? Or are we just pretending that no one knew of Sterling's horseshit until last Saturday? Mark Jackson said "I couldn't coach that team" and that the fans should boycott the next game. Shut the fuck up Mark. I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that the team you're coaching is on the road for that game. Nope. Nosiree. Doc Rivers is one of the highest paid at his profession, coaching a borderline-elite team. He should just give all that up on a whim because you (allegedly) would? Fuck you. Same goes for the players. They've worked their entire LIVES to get to this point. They should give all that up because a bunch of idiots on Twitter/Facebook (who don't have to face ANY of the repercussions of actually DOING any of this) say that they should? Please. ::end rant::
The NBA has to be extremely careful how they handle this. If they force him to sell the team and it gets out that they have forced him out and he can only get 1/3 of what the team is worth the NBA opens themselves up for an anti-trust lawsuit. He would laugh all the way to the bank with the guaranteed triple damages.
Someone earlier (It doesn't matter who because it's a common sentiment around here) posted this: "One thing this board needs again is new members. I like the regulars here, but it helps to have a steady stream of new people and lurkers to keep the place alive. One thing I miss about this place and the old board is how we'd get a retard in here every once in a while and everyone would lure them in and tear them apart like a bunch of jackals." Those kinds of things don't help encourage people who are lurking to post. Because now they have to worry that the people here are going to pick them as the retard of the week and, having lured them in, will dogpile on them. That's not a welcoming attitude at all. As for the basic question of moving the board goes, I don't really care what the URL is. A place with interesting topics, funny stories, and a lack of political and religious threads is where I want to read and post. If that's here, great! If that's elsewhere, great! But I definitely agree something needs to happen. No new member signups is a guaranteed slow death. You need an active, vibrant, diverse community to make things really shine. Another problem/symptom is that new threads are rare and mostly confined to WDTs. Take a look at the general forum listing. How many of the top ten threads are weekend drunk threads? We've lost something when we've lost targeted discussion topics. So ultimately, either the back end stuff needs to be fixed here or we migrate or we just let it die off over time. I'd prefer option 1, am fine with option 2, and will be a little sad at option 3 but will somehow persevere.