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

Am I the only one hoping that Sterling wins this case.

I don't understand how you can take a recording from a man who wasn't under the impression he was being recorded and have all assets taken away.

What a load of crap that is.......

And to those who are backing Magic, his businesses actually f over the poor/minorities.

Sterling needs to step down on his own, after he wins this case. But it doesn't change the fact this is completely ridiculous how the NBA is pushing him and his wife out like this.

I think he wins.

 

tmac35, it doesn't matter.

if he is the owner at the beginning of the next season the coaches and players will do everything they can to leave the team.

this would hurt the integrity of the franchise and the league.

the Board of Governors has to vote him out, this is the only way he will leave.

he doesn't think he did anything wrong, and he certainly isn't having his assets taken away.

he needs to take his close to billion dollars and go away forever.

 

They aren't taking away his assets. They are kicking him out of their private club. That means he sells the team by cashing out. He keeps his money that the NBA earned him, despite his horrible business practices. If the Boy Scouts don't have to have gay troop leaders, then the NBA doesn't have to associate with racist, slum lording, asses like Sterling.

I hope Sterling loses and have wanted to see him go down for years. Even more, I want to see an ugly court case that some how ends up exposing dirty NBA secrets and where the bodies are buried.

Part of me hopes he wins, just to push the players to play their hand.

 

As JeffB said, they're kicking him out the club, not seizing his assets.

What Sterling said was deemed to be anathema to the NBA's business interests. They have no obligation to keep him on if his actions, no matter how they were recorded (they're in the public sphere now), hurt the NBA's bottom line. If players boycott, that would hurt the business.

This would be similar to a CEO's secret neo-Nazi blog being exposed. It doesn't matter if his true sentiments were "leaked," what matters is that they became public knowledge. The company would be under no obligation to keep him on by saying "It doesn't matter if people know about this now, the true insult is how they found out."

Free speech doesn't mean you're immune from consequences of what you say. It means you can't be imprisoned and prosecuted by the government for what you say.

 

I don't give a crap about Sterling's right to own an NBA team.

I just want to watch real basketball and not have players boycotting. The players have the ultimate power, w/o them, the NBA is nothing.

 

It seems highly unlikely that the issue will be resolved legally by next season. It could be years before the legal battle ends.

 

Cheering The End Of Donald Sterling; Fearing The End Of Sports-Antitrust

A couple of interesting takes on the matter:

Cheering The End Of Donald Sterling; Fearing The End Of Sports-Antitrust
By Marc Edelman

In a vacuum, I love the idea of Donald Sterling being ousted from the NBA. His words are demeaning to African-Americans, his behaviors are offensive toward women, and his role as owner of the Los Angeles Clippers left an unfortunate perception that America has not evolved much since Jackie Robinson first broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier 67 years ago.

However, as an antitrust scholar, I am not sure whether today’s decision to ban Donald Sterling from owning an NBA franchise is truly a good thing, especially if Sterling tries to use antitrust law to overturn his ban.

If Donald Sterling opts to challenge his lifetime ban from the NBA under antitrust law, a court will be forced to balance the NBA owners’ restraint of trade against any pro-competitive benefits of the league’s collective conduct. Given that Donald Sterling has quickly become a pariah in American society, there is a more reasonable chance that the NBA would win its case against Sterling than against almost any other boycotted party – even though courts have long overturned sports leagues’ group boycotts on many different grounds.

While there is an argument that the NBA should win its case based on a very narrow antitrust exception related to Sterling’s exposure of the league to industry-wide liability, it is far more likely the NBA’s lawyers would argue the case more broadly — attempting to create precedent that could erode antitrust law’s ability to perform necessary checks and balances over professional sports leagues. The NBA might even use this as an opportunity to attempt to move the governance of pro sports a step closer to the owners’ ‘holy grail’ of deregulation, which sports owners so badly sought but failed to obtain, in American Needle v. National Football League.

Indeed, bad facts make bad law. And society’s visceral detest for Donald Sterling — albeit, one with which I strongly sympathize — could lead to the emasculating of sport-antitrust law under the guise of keeping a purported racist out of league ownership.

So while I am momentarily delighted to see Donald Sterling gone from the NBA, my fingers are also crossed that he will not seek to file an antitrust lawsuit that would hand the NBA on a silver platter its best possible case for a sports-antitrust exemption.

And if such an antitrust lawsuit is filed, let’s hope a victory for the NBA, if any, would be based on the industry-wide liability that would flow from continuing to associate with Donald Sterling, and not from any broader factor that could end the powerful checks and balances that antitrust law currently places on professional sports leagues.



Experts: NBA likely to win in Donald Sterling legal fight

By Curt Anderson

A cadre of attorneys and a flurry of lawsuits could certainly slow down the NBA’s plan to force Donald Sterling to sell the Los Angeles Clippers over his recent racist comments, but legal experts say the league would likely prevail in the end.

And that goes for Sterling’s wife, Shelly, who has said she’d like to keep her stake in the team even if her husband is ousted.


The NBA’s constitution, which Donald Sterling signed as controlling owner of the Clippers, gives its board of governors broad latitude in league decisions, including who owns the teams. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is pushing for a swift vote against Sterling, which requires a minimum of three-fourths of the other 29 controlling owners to agree.

Silver also has imposed a lifetime ban on Sterling and a $2.5 million fine. The ban does not apply to Shelly Sterling.

SI.com and ESPN.com, citing unidentified sources, reported Thursday that Sterling’s lawyer, antitrust litigator Maxwell Blecher, wrote a letter to Rick Buchanan, the NBA’s executive vice president and general counsel, threatening to sue the league and saying Sterling will not pay the $2.5 million fine.

‘‘Sterling’s own signature will come back to haunt him,’’ said Michael McCann, founding director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire. ‘‘You agree to certain basic understandings. That’s what makes a sports league different from other businesses.’’

The key to the NBA’s authority, attorneys say, is Article 13(d) of the league’s constitution. That section says that, whether Sterling intended to or not, an owner cannot ‘‘fail or refuse to fulfill’’ contractual obligations to the NBA ‘‘in such a way to affect the Association or its members adversely.’’


There’s plenty of evidence Sterling’s comments, revealed in a recorded conversation with a female companion, affected the league adversely. They provoked threats of a player boycott, led sponsors to withdraw support and created a racially charged image problem in the midst of the NBA playoffs that even President Barack Obama remarked upon.

If Article 13(d) was violated, the legal experts say the board of governors has solid grounds to force Sterling to sell the team along with any other owners, in this case his wife.

As long as the NBA meticulously follows its own constitution and rules regarding the Clippers sale, it will be difficult for Sterling to find a legal theory that would stand up in court, said Daniel Lazaroff, director of the Sports Law Institute at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

‘‘This is not an antitrust issue. This is not a First Amendment issue,’’ Lazaroff said. ‘‘It’s a question limited to the interpretation of the NBA constitution and bylaws, and whether those terms are met.’’

Another question involves California family law. It’s a community property state, meaning spouses jointly own property they acquired while married. The Sterlings were already married when he bought the Clippers in 1981.

Although a potential divorce could complicate the Clippers’ sale, McCann said the couple’s joint ownership actually works to the NBA’s favor because — legally speaking — they are a single entity. So if the NBA forced Donald Sterling to sell, even under a divorce scenario, Shelly Sterling would have to sell, too. They have been married since 1955.

‘‘The NBA is well positioned to ultimately prevail,’’ McCann said.

For his part, Donald Sterling has repeatedly said he does not want to sell the Clippers. In his recent interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he cast doubt on going to court if the NBA governors ultimately do vote to force him out.

‘‘People want me to hire a wall of lawyers and them to have to hire a wall of lawyers and go to war,’’ Sterling said on CNN. ‘‘I don’t think that’s the answer.’’

Sterling’s longtime attorney, Robert Platt, declined to comment when contacted Wednesday.

Shelly Sterling’s attorney, Pierce O’Donnell, did not respond to email requests for comment from The Associated Press. But he has previously said she wants to remain a passive owner of the Clippers even if her husband is no longer involved.

For now, the NBA has installed former Time Warner and Citigroup chairman Dick Parsons to oversee the team’s business operations. Parsons said this week that a prolonged legal battle ‘‘is in no one’s interest.’’

‘‘I would hope we could avoid that,’’ he said.

If he is forced out, Sterling still stands to reap a huge financial windfall in a Clippers sale. He bought the team for $12.5 million in 1981, and Forbes magazine recently placed its 2014 value at $575 million, or No. 13 in the NBA. Of course, there would also be a sizable capital gains tax bill for that.

The Clippers’ postseason run ended Thursday night when they lost 104-98 to Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals.

 

All Sterling has to do is to put pressure on the owners that plan to vote him out.

Put a bounty on them. Offer a $1M reward to any person for any recordings of any owners that has any type of hate in them.

Anything against women, gays, Jews, black, Mexican, Asians, poor, liberal, conservative, etc...

I'd bet there are many tapes out there.

 

Irvin "Loan Shark" Johnson.

 

Upon final review. Sterling and Magic were partners in exploiting minorities and low income people in general. Sterling exploiting housing markets of lower income people while Magic put people into debt they couldn't possibly payoff in a timely manner becoming loan shark debtors for the rest of their free life or until they went prison. Sterling being an 80 something year old with wrinkled and malfunctioning body got jealous of his gf with younger black guys and responded the way he did.

 

thanks for the recap, Liberon

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>NBA started procedure to terminate Donald Sterling's ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers.</p>&mdash; Jeff Zillgitt (@JeffZillgitt) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffZillgitt/statuses/468465660079529985">May 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>NBA charges that Sterling &quot;Sterling engaged in conduct that has damaged and continues to damage the NBA and its teams.&quot;</p>&mdash; Jeff Zillgitt (@JeffZillgitt) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffZillgitt/statuses/468465832486387712">May 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Sterling has until May 27 to respond to charge. Hearing will be held June 3. Owners can oust Sterling with 3/4 vote.</p>&mdash; Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) <a href="https://twitter.com/HowardBeck/statuses/468466058341679104">May 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>NBA says Sterling actions &quot;significantly undermine...efforts to promote diversity and inclusion&quot; and &quot;damage NBA’s relationship w/its fans&quot;</p>&mdash; Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) <a href="https://twitter.com/HowardBeck/statuses/468466624278704128">May 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Hearing is planned for June 3 -- two days before Finals -- at which Sterling will be permitted to appear and present evidence.</p>&mdash; Ken Berger (@KBergCBS) <a href="https://twitter.com/KBergCBS/statuses/468467147320991746">May 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>NBA started charge seeking to terminate Sterling's LAC ownership. If the BOG sustains a 3/4 vote, all ownership interests in LAC terminated</p>&mdash; Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpearsNBAYahoo/statuses/468467350635700225">May 19, 2014</a></blockquote>
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I hope Sterling wins. That Clippers franchise has been horrible and lucked into the CP3 and Griffin era. He's been bad for the league, but good for every other Western Conference team.

 

If Sterling wins, or even drags this out, he has possibly the worst team in the entire NBA to attempt this with. His revenue for the team all depends on the fans, unfortunately for him he happens to be in one of two cities that has more than one team. The fans can still stay "hometown" and just go support the Lakers. If he stays as owner for too long, that franchise will start hemorrhaging cash.

 

Why would you hope he wins?

He should just sell the team and be done with it...but most extreme he'll keep it and get disenfranchised and will have a worthless business that is basically doomed from that point on.

 

Um, I hope he wins because Sterling being (for the most part) at crappy owner who doesn't spend is good for the Rockets. And lol, it's a billion dollar franchise, it won't be worthless if he stays on.

 

cant the league just disenfranchise the clippers?

its a private league and if one owner acts in the manner he did - kick him and his team out -- its still his team he can have his team join the other leagues (whichever other 'pro' basketball leagues there are)

I would probably prefer that - players would leave and the value of the team would plummet. The guy is gonna make hundreds of millions of dollars through all this which is sad.

 

Yep they could but I see that as a last resort which im not even sure the league wants or feels it needs to.

If he did stay it would be interesting to see what would happen to the franchise.

 

http://mediacentral.nba.com/media/mediacentral/051914-Summary-of-Sterling-Termination-Charge.pdf

 

they will do enough to make it look like they did something...

a year later..fans will move on..and all will remain the same.