Holy shit! Silver just banned Sterling FOR LIFE, fined him 2.5 million and plans to FORCE him to sell the Clippers! Damn!
For comments made in private that were illegally recorded. I got a real problem with that.
Not exactly.
Apparently, like Chris said, Sterling knew the recording existed. So right there that's a huge point for Sterling that doesn't count.
The bigger issue is that this is about who Sterling is.
If this recording came out, but it was Peter Holt (owner of the Spurs, one of the most respected owners in the league), this would be dealt with severely, but there would be no impetus to kick him out of the league. The consensus would be the Holt is allowed to be a racist on his own time as long as he does his job as owner right.
Sterling is:
- Incompetent as an owner. The team is good now for reasons that have virtually nothing to do with him.
- Someone who brings racism to his business dealings. Rumor has it he didn't want to trade for J.J. Reddick because he didn't want to give a white player a 7 million dollar contract. He's had two housing discrimination lawsuits filed against him.
- Generally a scumbag. His dealings with women are just as bad as his dealings with race.
Also, as much as I'd prefer it not be this way, a lot of what allows humanity to be what it is is less rational than symbolic. FDR's new deal policies were mostly garbage, but it was more important that the government be firmly pro-worker and anti-business. Lincoln's rationale for not letting the South secede was completely wrong, but it was more important that governments not be allowed to be divided based on racism.
This is the case here. What Silver's doing with Sterling is problematic, but it has to be done. This isn't dishonest (like the NSA spying). This isn't further empowering the powerful at the expense of the average person (the bank bailouts).
An unrepentant, openly racist person owns an NBA team. In a modern society, this simply can't be.
Finally, if you want to make a more practical argument - Sterling was stupid enough to record himself saying things on the phone with a booty call. How could he have not expected this to happen unless he's too stupid to be responsible for owning an NBA team? His actions are responsible for the NBA losing tons of money and experiencing tons of bad PR. In a pure business sense, Sterling is a catastrophic liability for the league. People are dissatisfied that the Clipper didn't boycott game 4, but they missed the longer game. The Clippers team was waiting to play that card until they saw what Silver did. If Silver didn't drop the nuclear option on Sterling, the Clippers would have called the punishment unsatisfactory and walked out.
When you're doing so bad a job owning your team that you have to worry about your players boycotting your games, you have to be kicked out of the league.
Silver can't be given enough credit for handling this the right way.
Topic: 2013-14 NBA thread v. Adam Silver Lays the Pipe on Donald Sterling ©2014antigoon (Read 114036 times)