[NBA Gossip] Donald Sterling Hates the Blacks, Including Magic

Wrong. Dennis Rodman said Bird was overrated because he was white, and Thomas agreed with him.

Charles Barkley has never said anything this egregious. As I told you yesterday, there are varying degrees of impropriety. Barkley making wisecracks is of an entirely different scope than Sterling's comments.

Could have said? It has been established that the male voice in the recording is the voice of Donald Sterling. And he's not being banned merely because of he said in a private conversation. He's being banned because the comments he made have sparked a nationwide outrage--comments that when coupled with previous allegations of misconduct paint the picture of a man more more interested in exploiting minorities and other parties than he is in helping them or providing fair and just opportunities for them so that they may improve the quality of their lives.

Sterling has shown no remorse for his comments, nor has he offered to make any form of restitution to those affected by his insensitive behavior. People of his disposition should not be in positions of power or authority, nor should they have the opportunity to own or operate a sports franchise.

 

If Sterling refuses to sell the team, can the NBA simply disfranchise the Clippers?

 

Adam Silver has indicated that he will do everything possible to ensure that Sterling is forced to sell the Clippers. As Sterling is an attorney, it's likely he will assemble a team of lawyers to help him fight any further NBA sanctions by filing litigation to block the sale of his team.

As to your question, I don't think the NBA Players' Union would allow such a thing, as it would mean eliminating a minimum of twelve roster spots and would likely trigger a small cascade reaction throughout the league as former Clippers players try to find new teams to play for. Silver addressed the issue of players boycotting the franchise briefly today and stated that he would review any player's refusal to play for the Clippers on a case-by-case basis.

 

Yep, look at what has transpired

Magic knew this woman

Woman secretly baits Sterling into making racist comments while recording it

Woman releases it to TMZ

As SOON as the audio is leaked, rumors swirl that Magic is trying to buy it

Magic immediately goes to Twitter and says he's not trying to buy the Clippers, probably because he doesn't know whether or not the NBA is going to force Sterling out and it would be suspicious for him to announce that he wants to buy before anything has actually gone down

Now that the penalties have been levied, rumors that Magic wants to buy the team are out again



Considering Sterling had no intentions of selling, and how Magic has been phased out with the other la team, the lakers, this seems like it could be a very deliberate plan to force Sterling to sell the team.

 

LA Magic

Orlando Clippers

Make it happen!

 

It is a real life merchant of venice.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>NBPA VP Roger Mason told Yahoo that Donald Sterling's wife or any other family member taking over for LAC is not acceptable. New owner only.</p>&mdash; Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpearsNBAYahoo/statuses/461296287502327808">April 30, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

It's pretty enlightening reading this thread who are adamantly refusing to allow for the prospect of a private business entity conducting business in its own best interests...all to defend the "right" of an old billionaire to be entitled to think and behave however despicably they want to and suffer no consequences, even when those attitudes cause widespread outrage and are deleterious to the image of the product that they seem to be a fan of (the NBA).

Could it be that they want free license to feel the same attitudes and are threatened by the public outcry? Who's next, I wonder?

 

The actual provision is that they can terminate the franchise agreement.

It is up to the NBA in terms of how they wish to execute that termination. That can include preserving the team in place and selling the team to a new owner, moving the franchise, or simply contracting the team. As long as they reach the 3/4 vote threshold, all remedies are available to them.

So yes, they can disenfranchise the Clippers however that outcome is highly unlikely. There is no real justification for moving a team that is successful and with an established fan base.

If worst came to worst, they could simply contract the Clippers and form a new franchise in LA and give that team first crack at the released players. The method through which they distribute players from a contracted franchise is once again going to be defined by the Board of Governors.

I still find it amazing that there are people that think Free Speech covers corporate consequences, or that property rights are infinite. They are not infinite if you limit your own property rights through an agreed contract, which is exactly what all 30 owners of the NBA have done the moment they signed a deal as a franchise of the NBA.

Sterling is 100% going to be gone, by hook or by crook. The relationship between the Owners, NBAPA, the Sponsors, local governments (like Los Angeles), state governments, and the fan base is SO intertwined that it would be completely impossible to allow Sterling to remain an Owner and expect the NBA to function.

If the NBA were to harbor Sterling, not only would they potentially be facing wildcat strikes (read, no Play offs or regular season), fan backlash, and Sponsor flight, but they would be facing potential Federal, State and Local employment rights violations as well as the risk of losing or even having revoked countless Government backed lending and tax break deals.

It could easily snowball into Arena funding collapsing and cancellation of team leases across the NBA.

Silver used the nuclear option because he HAD to use the nuclear option. Sterling had to go, the NBA would likely have a difficult time surviving with a known racist in the ranks.

To think that there would have been no damage to the NBA by allowing Sterling to remain is absurd.

 

Actually, I'm not certain that Sterling is 100% gone. A couple reasons why:

1) The only way you can terminate the Franchise is through the general provision of the termination clause in the NBA bylaws. That specifically points to ethical business dealings and contracts. There is no proof that Clippers as an organization has been run in a racist or unethical way. Baylor's suit lost in the trial and the discrimination settlement was not part of the Clippers. There is no moral clause in the termination clause.

2) If you are an owner, you really don't want to set this precedent. Note that many owners have been quiet on this issue. Mark Cuban specifically said ban and fine = okay, forced sell...not so much.

3) Sterling can and will sue. Although NBA bylaws attempts to prevent litigation, Sterling can argue that his rights were grossly violated. He can do this by going the anti-trust approach, discovery, property rights, etc. There are a ton of approaches and you bet he'll get the best damn lawyers to do this.

4) If Sterling sues and a court takes the case over arbitration, NBA takes a massive risk. If Sterling forces discovery (basically forcing disclosure of internal e-mails of owners, GM, etc. and finds anything racist/homophobic) and succeeds in finding anything, NBA officially looks like a hypocrite. I for one, don't think the NBA's laundry is all that clean.
Sterling can also argue property rights (if you force the sale of an asset, you devalue the asset because buyers would not pay fair market value).

5) Sterling and his family has a massive financial incentive to fight ($300M+ in taxes) He really doesn't give a f how long this takes, but the NBA does. Every court battle = huge PR crap on the NBA

6) Once you get to trial, the actual recording is not admissible as evidence because it was illegally obtained under state and federal law! Basically, if this goes to actual trial, Sterling has a high high high probability of winning.

 

lol Barkley UWOTM8?

'Myself, Shaq, and Kenny, we're black... but we're not really black - we're all successful and really, really wealthy.'

 

Yeah right. Easy to say after the fact. I'm sposed to believe that the same dudes whose statement was turning their warmups inside out were gonna boycott the game? I'm sposed to believe that players from the Wizards, Bulls, Thunder and Grizz were going to boycott?

 

ORLY? ... You don't say...

 

Floyd Mayweather Jr. 'very, very interested' in buying Clippers

 

"a huge fan of the Clippers and Lakers"

Mayweather please

 

I'm licensed in Texas, not California, but I don't see any scenario where that recording doesn't come into evidence. In fact, I'm pretty sure the door would be opened to admitting the recordings, even if they are illegal, by any alleged facts in Sterling's pleadings. You can't complain about the legal reason for some action and then keep the evidence justifying that action out of evidence, period. An impermissible inference can be rebutted by any reliable evidence, even if that evidence would otherwise be inadmissible.

 

Exactly. Sterling is opening the door for the evidence to be used if he decides to file litigation against the NBA to prevent the Clippers' sale. He can't have it both ways and argue that he's allowed to fight a process that would not be in motion were it not for the leak of the recording in the first place.

 

IIRC, Sterling asked his GF to record their conversations per the reports. So she did have his consent to record.

 

I'm assuming that Donald Sterling has something against a few people in the nba that he saved. We're going to be seeing the nba's dirty laundry and it isn't going to be pretty.

 

According to limited information I got, that Sterling guy seems to be a bad guy for sure, and a racist too. On a side note, you can still be a racist even if you date a minority (in the future, posters should never ever use this line to claim he/she doesn't have a racial bias, because he/she is or is married to a minority).

He's been like that forever, right? Didn't state government sued him for being a racist? So, it should not be a surprise to NBA, the league office, and his players. What he said, fully recorded, and then published to the open, was absolutely wrong and offensive. It drew wide outrage, rightfully so. But what's happening now - huge fine, ban, pressure on sponsors and other owners etc, to force him out. Where is the limit of Stern's power? Didn't they have long time conflicts? Why now, all of the sudden, everyone is on the "same page"? Magic had interest in the franchise, and his name popped up in that recording. Now Les felt he could get Clippers' players.

I get it, it's supposed to punish Sterling for being a racist. But what about that all the people in that organization? They are punished hard, for being employed by a racist. What about those Clippers fans?

David Stern is so powerful that he can force a billionaire owner to lose a team. I wonder whether there is anything else coming close to this kind of dictatorship in the society. For argument's sake, if Zuckerberg, as the majority owner of Facebook, said something very wrong of blacks, whites, Asian, Latinos, or any minority/majority groups, can SEC force him to sell all the stocks he owns in FB, for cheap? If he did something like that, despite ALL Facebook employees being outraged, but should they all lose their jobs?

A recorded conversation between a dirty old racist and a gold-digger makes one lose a NBA team. The whole event looks like an organized movement - everyone has to take a stance, shouting out loud the right slogan, to show that they hate a guy did/said something very wrong. Otherwise, you are a sympathizer or accomplice, need to be punished as well.

I am no legal expert, but my guess is there will be long legal battle around this case. On the end, Sterling is surely going to be a loser, but will Stern end up as a Victor? Maybe his power will be limited in the process, which I am sure will be welcomed by NBA fans and players. Check and balance, as powerful as the President of United States, he/she has no way around that. But I have always been wondering, where is the check and balance for Stern?