Sterling has been a known racist for decades. This is not the first incident. If the league were able to boot him, Stern would have done so ages ago prior to his retirement.
If I recall correctly, this is the first incident where there is a "smoking gun", so to speak. Previously there had only been allegations, the federal lawsuit for housing discrimination and the Elgin Baylor lawsuit. This time, the league is faced with possible proof that Sterling is a racist and that proof is now available for all to hear. I didn't say that the league was going to "boot" him, what I'm saying is that the NBA will likely suspend him, and I don't think it's going to be a short one. The league will want to keep him out of sight until all of this blows over and a suspension plays right into that desire. But the problem is that no suspension or sensitivity classes will change who Sterling is. He will retain all of his hateful and fearful beliefs and will remain the Clippers owner and everyone will know it. This is something the league will have to contemplate going forward.
He literally lost a lawsuit over his refusal to rent properties to minorities, and during that lawsuit it came out that his wife falsely posed as a government "health inspector" in order to gain access to tenants' apartments so that she could do things like record their ethnicity and family size. There have been plenty of smoking guns for decades.
Way to swing the hammer Adam Silver! The comments about this issue on the Fox & Friends Facebook page are amusing to say the least.
^Wow, surely Sterling's got lawyers good enough to beat that. Banned for life (granted, not as long as it sounds in this case by looking at him) from a team that he owns? For something he said while his vindictive girlfriend was illegally recording him?
I don't see how any legal team could make this go away. Everyone knows Sterling said these things and believes them. Nobody cares how it was recorded. (This isn't a court of law, after all.) Yeah, yeah, I know, people have the right to be racist jackasses, but that doesn't free them from the consequences of same.
Well I'm certainly not going to place myself in the position of defending the NBA in this case. They should have begun an investigation long ago, as you say, and perhaps the situation would not have gotten to this point. I'de be willing to bet that the NBA would have ignored this situation too had the tape not contained Sterling's own voice and had it not gone viral. Elgin Baylor's lawsuit was also a giant red flag that David Stern chose to ignore. Doesn't matter anymore how the recording is acquired, just ask Mel Gibson. I do understand the subtlety though, Sterling is being punished because his private thoughts got out into the public. But that is the way things are these days. And this is a PR horror story for the league. They CANNOT have Sterling sitting on the sidelines at games being stared down by the players (including Clippers players), coaches, fans, T.V. audience, not to mention the loss of advertising revenue. Sterling is said to be quite litigious so we may not have heard the last of this, but somehow I don't see him winning a court battle. Silver has, apparentely, acted within the rules of the NBA constitution. I'm sure the rest of the league is hoping Sterling will eventually sell his interest and just go away.
My thoughts are more or less along the lines of what Mark Cuban was saying before the banhammer hit: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/1...rails-donald-sterling-not-favor-kicking-owner Anyway, I guess with the 3/4 boot rule he's probably done for. I assume the vote results are public? I seriously doubt 3/4 of owners really think he should be gone, but I imagine that nobody, including Mark Cuban, is going to cross that line to face the public shitstorm on this one. But I'm sure this codger is going to dig in and drag it out as long as possible. If I were the presumably former girlfriend, I'd get a full-time bodyguard. Sterling's gotta have some Jabba the Hutt BRING ME SOLO AND THE WOOKIE rage pent up.
Sorry, I can't get behind Cuban in this instance. Sterling isn't simply being punished for what he says and thinks; he's punished for doing those things because he is a public figure. He owns - owned - a team. He was in the position to affect players' careers, the team's integrity, and fans' perception. That alone opens his views and comments up to rigorous scrutiny.
So what's the message here: public figures should watch what they say on the phone to their SOs? He's a public figure, but this was not public conduct. When he made these comments he did not expect them to be "open[ed] up to rigorous scrutiny." Are you saying he should have?
Would you feel differently if the leaked comments had been made to a professional confidant (doctor, lawyer, priest, etc.), or should public figures watch what they say to them too?
Isn't his Girlfriend 1/2 Black 1/2 Mexican?, what a fucking hypocrite. The sad part is he'll make money when they force him to sell.
They can sue the person who revealed those confidences, but, unless they invent a machine that can cause everyone to forget what they said, I don't think it's reasonable to pretend he didn't say it. At the minimum, it's a PR nightmare. More accurately, though, he's a reprehensible human being. How about the NBA fine him and ban him from games for his going around and evicting tenants who were black or Hispanic? Would that solve your complaint?
If they want to kick the PR nightmare to the curb for business reasons, that's one thing. I focused on the fine because it is purely punitive, and I'm a little uneasy with such a harsh punishment for comments made under reasonable expectation of privacy.