I would like to hear the board's opinion on the Sterling situation

Ballsy

 

The people who said the NBA only punished Sterling, a well-known racist now, mostly as a business decision are completely right. Sterling has tarnished the face of the NBA, regardless of whether or not the evidence was obtained legally or not. Sterling has forced the owners to weight the cost of imposing this precedent of punishing based on private conversations to the losses the league and ultimately they would suffer from public backlash of the NBA harboring a known racist.

Racist senile guy does his own thing and is racist in problem = no problem

Racist senile guy has racist conversation go viral, lose all corporate sponsors, and potentially cost the league millions in damage to its reputation = remove him.


The precedent set here is somewhat dangerous though. I would guess that if you taped lifelong conversations of most people, 99% of the time you would be able to find something highly controversial or unpopular a person has said at one point in their lives. I grew up in a relatively white neighborhood, which I'd like to think was relatively liberal in their views and accepted all races out in public. But in private? I would guess there are a lot of parents that likely privately told their daughters to not date blacks / hispanics. There are likely racial slurs that get thrown around in the middle of heated confrontations. We saw a while ago Justine Sacco, the PR executive fired for a racist tweet about getting Aids in Africa. We saw the CEO of Chick-Fil-A publicly issue a statement saying Gay Marriage is wrong and catching backlash (although less so than racism since people like to deflect using the bible against anti-gay comments).

The only thing you need to start a fire is a conveniently timed recording, and a viral spark. The company you work for could 100% agree with freedom of speech, but if you're hurting their reputation, and thus their wallets, you will suffer consequences. The scary thing is that imo it could happen to ALOT of people.

 

Serling got off easy. Either his players should be allowed to walk or he should be FORCED to sell his team meaning whoever buys it will take advantage of this fact and they will not give him market value.

I doubt sterling even gives a **** about the nba other than the check he cashes in every week.

Silver was over-dramatic and sold it, along with the media that he came down hard on sterling. The way he acted throughout his speech and the way he said lifetime ban. Stfu nerd, we quit acting like you are coming down hard on him with a hammer. These guys follow the same book, and they are looking out for each other.

 

nobody would buy a franchise where all of the best players are allowed to leave

pls think before you post

 

i don't understand why people are so upset?

he's rich and after he sells the team he'll be even richer where he can pay for as many hookers as he wants.

the nba gets to get rid of terrible owner and someone who is a pr nightmare for the league.

both parties win.

 

Learn how to read. I said either. Learn what or means.


Derrrrr

 

Looks like he will get what he deserves.

 

I think losing all those sponsors effected sterling's decision.

 

I'm black and I didn't care what decision was made on Sterling, although this makes it easier on the players on that team because people actually think they should just quit.

Silver getting a lot of props for a so called tough decision. In my eyes it wasn't a tough decision it was a pretty easy business decision that he made.

 

If you really think about it, Sterling didn't want his gf to show him up by posing with and being around young black men. He's 80+ years old and that would just mean she was humiliating him. He probably really meant she didn't want her posing with better suitors that could give it to her in bed then posting it in the media.

Now the worst thing that Sterling and other rich people in power could do is create these horrible ghettos. Sterling's housing and employment discrimination policies for decades created a disparity that ultimately forces the worst ghettos in America to persists. You contain people to a specific regions then strip them the ability to get proper employment, you are basically as bad as it gets. He got away this and there are others in America that continue to promote this type atmosphere. Look at Chicago, who owns and runs the Bulls? Does he have a business practice that sustains Chicago worst ghettos?

 

Can complain it sets a dangerous precedent, but it's nothing new. The only difference is in how quickly and widely that information is dispersed.

JFK was banging Marilyn, but nobody cared. No politician alive could get away with that today.

Word of mouth -> Print -> radio -> television -> Internet/social media

It's just the new world that we live in. The price of having instantaneous access to information and the rapid dispersion of new information is that both good and bad causes benefit. Just as it's easier to organize a revolution, it's easier to bring down a CEO.

Society is shifting with technology, and Sterling got nailed because he's a dinosaur. A more tech savvy person would have required a non-disclosure agreement up front before taping his thoughts. Or they would have taped it themselves instead of involving a 3rd party.

Sterling got caught by being a dinosaur living in the past. He believed that his wealth insulated from all personal responsibility or self-censoring. And he's learned the hard way that money doesn't always buy you immunity from the court of public opinion, or protect you from your own stupidity.

Romney and countless other politicians and businessmen have learned that lesson the hard way. Unfortunately for Sterling, he didn't learn from their example.

 

i kind of agree with cuban's comment on this before the penalty was handed out, about it being a slippery slope. But at the same time, i rather it be this way than having it be a light penalty with no teeth. If it had to be harsher, so be it.

the most on point opinion about this i have heard is from bomani jones on some radio shows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6bLKe9-Mto

I actually thought morey's idea would have been great even tho prob not realistic. It would have been kind of hilarious to force sterling to run some ****ty 1950's looking team.

 

It's the fact that the NBA could have gotten him many times before that makes it all the more pertinent that he should be kicked out. I'd be perfectly willing to give Sterling a second chance if he didn't have a history of being a racist *******, but he does have said history.

 

Cuban is an idiot. Yeah, there's a huge slippery slope from racism to xenophobia and homophobia. Get real; if an owner said "Don't bring those gays to my game" or "don't bring those foreigners" to my game I'd also be okay with significant punishment. And can we stop feeling sorry for Sterling? His "punishment" is that he's about to make over a billion dollars selling the team.

The biggest problem with Sterling is the "slave master" mentality he displayed in his racism. This is fundamentally different than a player saying something in the heat of the moment. This is an owner saying: "I pay for their salaries, I pay for their lives. They should thank me for that, and I can treat them however I want." That makes his racism particularly pernicious and damaging. By the way, for those asking would we ban a player for life for the same thing: maybe? It would certainly warrant a suspension and you could bet that he'd have a really tough time finding a second contract. But the player doesn't employ other people, so the context is totally different.

The bottom line is his association with the league is hurting the other owners' profit margin. At that point, they have every right to end their association with him and make him sell his stake in the league.

 

Sums it up pretty well

 

Didn't see this posted yet, props to the Warriors players.

Warriors Planned To Walk Off Court After Tip-Off In Game 5

The Golden State Warriors planned on walking off the floor after tip-off in Game 5 if Adam Silver not banned Los Angeles Clippers' owner Donald Sterling for life.

“It would have been our only chance to make a statement in front of the biggest audience that we weren’t going to accept anything but the maximum punishment,” Stephen Curry said. “We would deal with the consequences later but we were not going to play.”

The Warriors’ players wanted to protest previously, but decided to give Silver a chance to do the right thing.

Curry, David Lee, Andre Iguodala and Jermaine O’Neal were behind the boycott idea.

The idea included plans to reach out to the Clippers' players, hoping they would join them.

Via Marcus Thompson/Mercury News

 

So, rapists, wife-beaters, potheads (I don't really care about potheads, but some do), Asian bashers (looking at you Shaq), just plain violent people (your Ron Artest's), criminals in general all have a place in this league.

Yet, some owner didn't want his mixed race gf to showcase herself on instagram with black people, and a bunch of whiny millionaires think this is a cause similar to oppression felt by blacks in the pre-Civil Rights?

Give me a break....

 

Just this weekend in Spain, a black soccer player had a banana threw at him. All he did was pick it up and take a couple of bites. He said it was better to do this than give attention to a bunch of idiots. He didn't call Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Obama didn't talk on his behalf and all the hardships he has had.

 

Don't use the Europeans as examples of anything but what NOT to do on race - for all of their high-blown rhetoric, they're far worse in race relations than we are, they can just get away with it because they have fewer minorities there.

 

the NBA Constitution & By Laws .... take note of the specific sections:

Art.24(e) - commissioner authority to investigate
(h)(i)(i) - power to suspend

Art.35A (c), (d) - for fines & suspension for conduct detrimental to league

http://mediacentral.nba.com/media/mediacentral/NBA-Constitution-and-By-Laws.pdf