So it has been splashed all across the media; Donald Sterling's racist world-view and perspectives. I won't reproduce that shite here though.
It now appears the some of the sponsors of the LA Clippers are starting to back away from the team based upon the owners statements.
Given that many communities across this nation continue to sponsor the construction and upkeep of this nations stadiums, with our tax dollars paying for the bulk of these venues, just how much do the personal views of the various teams owners play into this?
Do owners of professional sports teams have a moral responsibility to conduct themselves within acceptable limits, just as they do their employees?
Does a failure to do so constitute a violation of the moral and civil code so egregious that their ownership of the team becomes invalid?
For those of you who repeatedly advocate the "its my business and I can do what I want with it" approach; where do you stand with the incident surrounding Mr. Sterling?
Are Mr. Sterlings comments made in private, and recorded apparently without his knowledge or approval, legally actionable? Should they be?
Certainly in this case there are several slippery slopes upon which this incident resides, among the most germane of them is the fact that almost every single sporting team in this nation is a privately owned business being subsidized by tax dollars, and in my mind, as such it is legally obligated to operate within the laws of the land, local, state, and federal; which includes non-discriminatory practices.
Is what Mr. Sterling said any worse than what Paula Deen was accused of?
LMAO!
I just saw this on the network news. This is a photo I took of my television screen. This guy is a law professor at a university whose name I did not catch because of what this guy looks like. . .
He looks like he goes to Don King's barber for cripes sake! :big grin: (And I put it in this topic because he was talking about the Clippers situation)
(http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr111/hlovett_2008/photo_zpsaa6dee75.jpg) (http://s475.photobucket.com/user/hlovett_2008/media/photo_zpsaa6dee75.jpg.html)
I really don't care what the asshole thinks about O0 but when he can use his money and his position to control it, that's the final spike in his black heart and in his coffin. :yes: But at his age that isn't to far away. :dig: :biggrin:
Banned from the NBA for LIFE!
Quote from: Locutus on April 29, 2014, 02:27:48 PM
Banned from the NBA for LIFE!
and fined $2.5 million
It was the right thing to do.
Yep, :yes:
From what I have been reading, EVERYBODY knew this guy was racist for a long time now.
I'm not 100% positive about this but wasn't his mistress half black herself?
Quote from: Locutus on April 29, 2014, 05:44:33 PM
I'm not 100% positive about this but wasn't his mistress half black herself?
Yes. :yes:
Quote from: Locutus on April 29, 2014, 02:27:48 PM
Banned from the NBA for LIFE!
Quote from: Henry Hawk on April 29, 2014, 02:47:24 PM
and fined $2.5 million
And instructing the board of directors to force the sale of the team forthwith.
Now, some might find this draconian punishment. Some but not me. In fact, this asshat is going to make more than a half a billion dollars above and beyond what he bought the team for in 1981. (12 million verses 575 million today).
Some punishment. The IRS will take more of his profit than the NBA did. That fine is chump change to him.
I'm going to be somewhat of a devil's advocate here.
Does Sterling own the team or does the NBA own the team? - now that question totally ignores my position that the citizens SHOULD be legally entitled to at least part, if not full, ownership.
Now I don't claim to know the contractual machinations of the NBA/owners, but if Sterling owns the team - which should include the facilities, or at least has contractual access - just how does anyone, including the NBA, do anything to force Sterling to accede to their will?
Is Sterling a racist? It appears so, but there are racists all across America - even 'closet' ones here on this board - and no matter how despicable his speech might be, as long as he doesn't put it into practice in certain areas, Sterling has the constitutionally guaranteed right to spew his distaste of blacks and other minorities in his conversations - and that's not even going into the privacy issue at play in all this. The bottom line is you can't stop people from being racists.
Now another point I'd like to make here - and I must include the disclaimer that I no longer care for the American version of professional sports. I find to be corrupt and corrupting, entertainment and not sport, and foully awash with greed and poor folks money. - is that NONE, as in NOT ONE, of those 'incensed' folks making their living from the 'sport', INCLUDING the players, were incensed enough to walk away from the money. To my eye it's smacks of false indignation and hypocrisy.
Oh for the days of Rosa Parks, the Freedom Riders, and Martin Luther King. Those folks had a devotion and the courage of their convictions. Had they been the players etc., Sterling wouldn't have a team to own. A far better way to make the point that racism is to be tossed into the dustbin of history.
Quote from: Y on April 29, 2014, 07:41:15 PM
I'm going to be somewhat of a devil's advocate here.
Does Sterling own the team or does the NBA own the team? - now that question totally ignores my position that the citizens SHOULD be legally entitled to at least part, if not full, ownership.
Now I don't claim to know the contractual machinations of the NBA/owners, but if Sterling owns the team - which should include the facilities, or at least has contractual access - just how does anyone, including the NBA, do anything to force Sterling to accede to their will?
Is Sterling a racist? It appears so, but there are racists all across America - even 'closet' ones here on this board - and no matter how despicable his speech might be, as long as he doesn't put it into practice in certain areas, Sterling has the constitutionally guaranteed right to spew his distaste of blacks and other minorities in his conversations - and that's not even going into the privacy issue at play in all this. The bottom line is you can't stop people from being racists.
Now another point I'd like to make here - and I must include the disclaimer that I no longer care for the American version of professional sports. I find to be corrupt and corrupting, entertainment and not sport, and foully awash with greed and poor folks money. - is that NONE, as in NOT ONE, of those 'incensed' folks making their living from the 'sport', INCLUDING the players, were incensed enough to walk away from the money. To my eye it's smacks of false indignation and hypocrisy.
Oh for the days of Rosa Parks, the Freedom Riders, and Martin Luther King. Those folks had a devotion and the courage of their convictions. Had they been the players etc., Sterling wouldn't have a team to own. A far better way to make the point that racism is to be tossed into the dustbin of history.
I began running that issue through my processor on the first day I heard about this. Almost immediately I ran into that stingy term "franchise", which basically places the owner of any professional sport team into the indentured slavery category in my mind. Puts them right alongside McDonalds, Burger King, etc.
The owners are subject to the whims of their "employers" just as any one of us are. You have to follow the rules, you have to fulfill your obligations to the "almighty board of owners / the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB," etc.
Moreover, in my mind, because so many, if not all of these sporting venues, (read:palaces), are subsidized by the cities in which they are built, this subjects the team/owner to further obligations surrounding those who pay for their palaces; placing them squarely into the realm of the public eye. Additionally, because of the nature of what they do for pay, they enjoy a high level of publicity and public attention; both of which the almighty league, and Grand Poobah of the Franchises, has rules about.
Celebrity is a double-edged sword, which lots of money seems to be very capable of making its earners forget. When you are a member of a franchise, whether you are its "owner", front office flunky, or star player, you represent the franchise and the league in all aspects of your life. (Much as us normal folks do and are told when we work for other private enterprises for a lot less money). Do or say something that goes against the basic rules or philosophy of the company/franchise/league and you will be subject to disciplinary action up to, and including separation, if that action results in a news story, a social media frenzy, or some other action that places it into a high profile viewing.
And the rub is, unless you are a member of a bargaining unit with specific contractual obligations, or can prove that the "corrective action" undertaken was a direct result of the violation of some federal law surrounding, race, creed, sexual orientation, or age, you are SOL surrounding legal recourse toward your former "employers; be they a league, administrators of a franchise, or just Joe's garage where you turned wrenches for minimum wage. And good luck proving a violation of any of those "protected class" laws, because the bar is high surrounding proof. Way too high for 99% of the population.
And forget about the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of speech, and the sanctity of a man's home, blah, blah, blah. None of that applies to businesses, corporations, etc. They can restrict your speech, forbid you to say anything they want to, and there isn't a damn thing you can legally do about it.
Sterling owns the team, but the team has a franchise with the NBA; and without it they cannot legally participate in the league. (A situation that brought about the National League and American League in Baseball, and the NFL / AFL in football, among others. "Franchisees" back in the day became disgruntled with the league and struck out on their own. Something that would be next to impossible to do today given the clout and propaganda machines that are NBA/NFL/NHL/MLB.)
No franchise = No team = No League Play = a 12 million dollar original investment not worth the price of toilet paper.
It's one of the main reasons the players in every league have rightfully formed "Players Associations" and Unions, just to be able to maintain some level of security within their careers and dealings with the owners and the leagues.
MLK and Rosa Parks would be stepped upon with as much consideration as an ant gets today. The enemy has grown and become increasingly complex over the decades, and corporations now harbor and abet these miscreants via an impenetrable blanket of policies and laws, and a phalanx of lawyers to administer to them.
Ol' Marge Schott got her own lesson in all of this a while back. That racist hag had to give up her controlling ownership of the Cincinnati Reds because of her racism. . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_Schott (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_Schott)
Quote from: Palehorse on April 29, 2014, 08:42:40 PM
Ol' Marge Schott got her own lesson in all of this a while back. That racist hag had to give up her controlling ownership of the Cincinnati Reds because of her racism. . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_Schott (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marge_Schott)
I just wonder how hard and hard work the NBA will have to do to collect the $2.5 Million. :haha: :wink:
Quote from: The Troll on April 29, 2014, 10:26:57 PM
I just wonder how hard and hard work the NBA will have to do to collect the $2.5 Million. :haha: :wink:
Probably not very hard at all, given the fact that the sale and transfer of the team and franchise will hinge on all fees, fines, and monies due to the parties with interest in the team and league, will have to be paid in full before transfer of ownership can take place.
Just maybe he doesn't give a damn about transferring the team right away. :biggrin: He don't need the money so he can play a lot of games. :grin2:
I never thought I'd ever say a word to defend a racist, especially one with all that power and money, and I'm still not. But. Read the following, from yesterday's Washington Post, and see what you think. By the way, the writer, Courtland Milloy, is a respected black man whose columns usually appear in the Metro (local) section of the Washington Post.
In Donald Sterling case, some civil rights groups were willing to play along with him
By Courtland Milloy, Published: April 29, 2014
A secretly taped telephone conversation, posted last week on the Web site TMZ, has caused a furor because a man purported to be billionaire Donald Sterling was heard telling his now ex-girlfriend, who has identified herself as black and Mexican, to curb her public appearances with black men.
"I'm just saying, in your lousy f---ing Instagrams, you don't have to have yourself . . . walking with black people," says Sterling, the 80-year-old owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, to V. Stiviano, 31, a bikini model. "Admire him, bring him here, feed him, f--- him, I don't care. You can do anything. But don't put him on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me."
I can understand why basketball great Magic Johnson would be upset with the disclosure, he being the "him" Sterling was referring to.
I can understand why the Miami Heat's LeBron James wanted all NBA players to boycott the game until Sterling's fellow owners forced him to apologize and then sell the team.
And I can understand why NBA Commissioner Adam Silver got the message and banned Sterling for life Tuesday.
But to overlook the context of the conversation is to miss the point of what has been disclosed.
The United Negro College Fund has taken Sterling's money; so has the Black Business Association of Los Angeles, among many other black groups.
The Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP counted on Sterling's support and was about to present him with another award before the telephone conversation was made public. Suddenly, its members are critical of the benefactor and have pledged to give back $5,000 he gave them in 2010.
Before the ban was announced, the players had been calling on African Americans and Latinos to boycott the Clippers games. But will they step up and do more to support black organizations? Maybe groups such as the NAACP wouldn't have to depend so much on the Donald Sterlings of the world if they did.
The relationship that Stiviano had with Sterling was bad; the one that the NAACP had with him was worse. Even as the billionaire was being exposed in 2009 as one of the largest slumlords in the country, he was being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the glitziest branch of the nation's oldest civil rights organization.
It happened to be the 100th anniversary of a group that W.E.B Du Bois, author of "The Souls of Black Folk," had helped found.
Who would have known that, a century later, the souls of so many black folks would be up for sale?
Sterling is a slumlord real estate magnate with a foul tongue and a slave owner's mentality. But that's been public knowledge for years — and ignored.
What we have in his relationship with Stiviano is a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse of life on the Sterling plantation, where black people live of their own volition, knowing that he is a bigot.
Stiviano was his reputed mistress, according to a lawsuit filed by Sterling's wife. In Sterling's world, a $1.8 million duplex in Los Angeles, as he reportedly gave Stiviano, along with the use of a Ferrari, two Bentleys and a Range Rover — plus a quarter of a million dollars in spending change — buys control and a look the other way.
No Instagrams with Magic Johnson wouldn't be asking a lot.
Despite the outrage, this episode does not have the makings of a great civil rights crusade. It's just a sick game. Call it "Everybody's Got a Price.
"
If anything, it's time for black people to reflect on how willing they are to play along.
To read previous columns, go to washingtonpost.com/milloy.
© The Washington Post Company
I can see Courtland Milloys' point in his opinion piece, and it is a valid one; however, I don't think he goes far enough in accentuating the fact that not only is this a problem for those organizations that take the money, and the people of minority that are the object of his racism, but it is an indictment of our society as a whole. He does hint at this, but mostly calls those that are members of a minority to task for their hypocrisy. In reality, it is this entire nation that should be deeply ashamed of itself.
Why you may ask? If so, then you are part of the problem.
Passiveness and silence are taken as approval in our world. It is why despite the fact this country "settled" a war with racism as its centerpiece almost 150 years ago, racism has simmered below the surface and boiled over at times.
It is why despite the passage of civil rights legislation about 50 years ago, the issue continues to fester within this country. What individuals say publicly does not always agree with what they say within their private lives, with what they do in their day-to-day lives, with how they live each and every day.
Is what Stiviano did by recording a "private" conversation without the consent of all parties present right? No. It isn't. I believe if this were done to any one of us, despite the fact that content of whatever we said was benign, every last one of us would be hopping mad; and rightfully so. In fact, in some areas of this country it is strictly illegal to do something like this.
However, once the bell is rung it cannot be un-rung, and Sterling has been harbored and abetted for decades. People and institutions that stand 180 degrees from his very well known world views have taken his money and given him awards. Professionals have signed contracts with him that have made them wealthy ; and every single one of them knew full well where he stood. (Of every race, creed, and color).
And this is just one of a very large percentage of the individuals in this country who are just like him, and in many cases even worse. These individuals continue to thrive due to the greed that is inherent to our species; and it exists in every race and creed at some level.
When a racist obtains wealth and success, it provides them the ability to buy the loyalty of just about anyone. An individual that hates women and speaks about them privately as if they are human chattel, can employ a company of 10,000 of them and obtain their full support within that company if s/he is willing to pay them enough and play "the game".
If the truth were to be known there are two root causes for why the NBA, and society in general, are quickly aligning to have Sterling "slaughtered":
1. If they don't, then they will soon join him under the bus and find their own careers, companies, products, and lives in ruination.
2. The ingrained desire of the majority of the population to tear the "high and mighty" down; which is like putting a block of cheese in front of a starving rat to the media. Throughout history the media has played up the downfall of the successful, the wealthy, and the powerful; and they do so for one reason and one reason only. Marketshare. And the average Joe/Jane eat it up just like the rats do, and always have.
The reality is that it doesn't matter one bit what Sterling said or has done. Society has already weighed in on that via their implied consent throughout his 80 years of life.
The real tragedy in this is that, as Courtland Milloy points out, racism is taking a rumble seat to this societies willingness to prostitute itself and its values for money, but it isn't just the minority population that is prostituting itself, but the entire nation. As I write this our legislators in various states in this country are busy dismantling laws that have been ineffective for the 50+ years they've been in effect, in favor of NO laws to enforce equal, civil rights in communities from shore to shore. In what world does something like this make any sense what-so-ever? The United States of America; where the good old boy network is alive and well, and where a wink and a nod or silence imply acceptance of racism. And a lot of them hold elected positions of authority from which to administer and nurture this scourge.
And Sterling being under the bus? Don't feel too bad for him. He stands to make a cool half-billion plus return on his initial 12 million dollar investment over this incident.
A consolation prize for being outed by his girlfriend via a potential violation of his privacy. . . :rolleyes: :mad:
Quote from: The Troll on April 30, 2014, 10:31:47 PM
Just maybe he doesn't give a damn about transferring the team right away. :biggrin: He don't need the money so he can play a lot of games. :grin2:
He, or his team, won't be playing any basketball games though. The NBA board of governors will yank his franchise faster than a pimp can slap his prostitute.
And you know as well as I do, that he will not turn his nose up at a 470% + return on his original investment.
Quote from: Palehorse on May 01, 2014, 06:39:06 PM
He, or his team, won't be playing any basketball games though. The NBA board of governors will yank his franchise faster than a pimp can slap his prostitute.
And you know as well as I do, that he will not turn his nose up at a 470% + return on his original investment.
2 billion dollars on a 12 million dollar investment 30 years ago. Anyone surprised he is dropping his lawsuit and giving the okay to the sale?
Anybody feeling sorry for this racist bastard?
Quote from: Palehorse on June 04, 2014, 08:15:19 PM
2 billion dollars on a 12 million dollar investment 30 years ago. Anyone surprised he is dropping his lawsuit and giving the okay to the sale?
Anybody feeling sorry for this racist bastard?
Not a bad retirement plan.....NOPE, I'm not going to lose any sleep over this one....
Quote from: Henry Hawk on June 05, 2014, 08:18:37 AM
Not a bad retirement plan.....NOPE, I'm not going to lose any sleep over this one....
Ah, but shouldn't we be?
The reality is, this racist SOB got away with his crap for decades! Decades! And when he is finally exposed with no hope of recovery, he, in an ironic and twisted echo of the CEO golden parachute debacle, walks away from the whole thing billions richer for it.
All I can say is, Karma is a bitch. :mad:
Honestly, there are so much more important things going on in this world that keeps me from sleeping solid. Guys like this are dying off....this story is up there with honey boo and the kardashians. His mistress is capitalizing off of the ignorance of this creep.
Fortunately this story is going away.....