Race row roils NBA

[NavyCanDo]

Honestly, why is this guy just making news?  A married  billionaire team owner who brings his mistress to the game and nobody blinks an eye.  He should have been under scrutiny a long time ago, and in other States under other teams probably would have been.   

[massadvj]

I find it unbelievable that a guy who owns an NBA team would have this attitude.  He's paying African-Americans millions of dollars per year.  Does he think they're part of his plantation?  If so, then I wish I had the talent to be a "slave" as well.

When I was training to be a Realtor we were constantly told to be wary of customers who ask about the racial make-up of neighborhoods.  At the time I remember thinking that people just don't think that way anymore.  But then, after I got into the business I found a surprising number did.  Not a majority, mind you, but a significant number (maybe 15 percent).  They'd use the n-word like it was the most natural thing in the world.  I haven't sold real estate in 20 years, so I wonder what the percentage would be today?  Less, I hope.  I'd like to think guys like this, and that other guy in Nevada, are dinosaurs.

The more important question as far as I am concerned is how an old, ugly guy like that can get a young good-looking beauty to pretend she cares about him.  I guess money can buy just about anything.

[mountaineer]

The more important question as far as I am concerned is how an old, ugly guy like that can get a young good-looking beauty to pretend she cares about him.  I guess money can buy just about anything.

We've all heard the term "beer goggles," but I think "money goggles" are more prevalent.

[NavyCanDo]

We've all heard the term "beer goggles," but I think "money goggles" are more prevalent.

I can think of 2 billion reasons why a young girl latches on to an old fart like him. Or in the case of George Soros, 10 billion reasons.

[mystery-ak]

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=7B37D06E-228D-4B89-9559-FF2972A10045

 Oprah Winfrey speaks out on Donald Sterling
By: Jonathan Topaz
April 29, 2014 09:05 AM EDT

Oprah Winfrey joined the chorus of critics that have bashed Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for his comments on race, saying they were indicative of a “plantation mentality.”

When asked on CBS “This Morning” on Tuesday whether she had been following the story, Winfrey said: “Of course I’ve been following this story. It feels like a plantation mentality in the 21st century, in 2014, it just doesn’t fit. And, I’m waiting to see what they’re going to do, because something has to be done.” She reiterated her belief that action needs to happen “now.”



The NBA has yet to announce any specific actions it might take against Sterling. The league will hold a press conference later Tuesday.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who appeared on the program with Winfrey, said he believed Sterling should be permanently banned from the NBA. “If it were up to me, I’d ban him for life,” he said.

[evadR]

T H E   O P R A H   has spoken..now we can move on.

[evadR]

Dummy Sterling, should have paid the Obama shakedown and this could all have been washed under the deck.

[massadvj]

Oprah, whose own career is dependent on first amendment freedoms, had little to say about the implications of the mob taking action against a person for something he said in a private conversation, however repulsive it may be. 

[mystery-ak]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/bigot-final-shot-sterling-pleads-team-article-1.1772279

Clippers owner Donald Sterling begs former mistress V. Stiviano to 'make this go away'
Sterling is scrambling to salvage his reputation and hang on to his team after 15 minutes of tape surfaced over the weekend of him going on a racist tirade about Stiviano publicly associating with African-American athletes.

BY Nancy Dillon , Bill Hitchinson
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, April 28, 2014, 9:55 PM

 With his “gold-digger” ex-girlfriend holding 100 hours of damning, unreleased tape recordings, babbling billionaire bigot Donald Sterling is pleading for the mercy rule.

The 80-year-old Los Angeles Clippers owner has reached out to the attorney of his 31-year-old former mistress, V. Stiviano, begging, “How can we make this go away?” according to a report.

Sterling is scrambling to salvage his reputation and hang on to his team after recordings surfaced over the weekend that revealed him launching a racist tirade about Stiviano publicly associating with African-American athletes.

He demanded she strip her Instagram account of photos of her posing with black athletes like Magic Johnson and Los Angeles Dodgers star Matt Kemp, and commanded her: “Don’t bring blacks to my games!”

At least a dozen corporate sponsors of the Clippers suspended their association with the team on Monday because of Sterling’s vile rant. The comments have sent shock waves through the NBA, and even Clippers coach Doc Rivers said Monday that he’s so angry he’s refusing to take Sterling’s calls.

“I’d just like to reiterate how disappointed I am . . . in the comments attributed to our owner, and I can’t tell you how upset I am, our players are,” Rivers told reporters in a conference call.

continued
Updated: Tuesday, April 29, 2014, 9:14 AM

[DCPatriot]

Geez....why can't anybody respect what was supposed to be a PRIVATE CONVERSATION?

And who among us...not here in the forum only, but across the globe would not be destroyed if ANYTHING  you've uttered in your life could become headlines and life-ruining?  (Metadata my a$$)

The way I see it....and certainly not excusing him here but, here's an 83 year old man who, despite his wealth and fame, is no longer virile and able to enjoy what he looks at all day.

And he's paying $$$ in gifts just for a trophy on his arm.

And she's boinking black athletes who can make her scream all night long.


NOW.....go listen to the tape again and perhaps it will add a little context.

She set him up.   The beginning and end of it.

[mystery-ak]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/exit-strategy-for-nba--donald-sterling--sell-clippers-to-magic-johnson-073015142.html


Exit strategy for NBA, Donald Sterling: Sell Clippers to Magic Johnson
Adrian Wojnarowski
By Adrian Wojnarowski April 28, 2014 3:30 AM Yahoo Sports

For all these despicable revelations tumbling out of the hateful heart of Donald Sterling, there promises construction of a roadmap to redemption for the Los Angeles Clippers and the NBA. There's a way out for the most hated man in Los Angeles now, a way out for the commissioner's office and the owners responsible for long legitimizing and harboring a bigot and slumlord.

Magic Johnson and his billionaire backers, the Guggenheim Partners, want a chance to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers, league sources told Yahoo Sports. "Magic's absolutely interested," one source closely connected to Johnson's business interests told Yahoo Sports on Sunday night.

To bail themselves out of the NBA's worst crisis of credibility since the Tim Donaghy officiating scandal, the easy part for the NBA will be enlisting the eagerness and financial muscle of Magic Johnson and Mark Walter of the Guggenheim Partners – owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

For commissioner Adam Silver, the chance to turn the Clippers over to Magic Johnson and his partners is the best possible of solutions. Exit Sterling, enter Magic. It would be the greatest trade in sports ownership history since, well, Magic for the McCourts, with the Dodgers.

Magic Johnson is the ultimate cleanser in sports, and steering a Clippers sale to him could be transformative for the franchise. Truth be told, it could change the balance of basketball power in Los Angeles forever. To keep Doc Rivers as president and coach, to hold together the core of a championship contender and keep building it, Magic can make it happen.

Make no mistake: Magic's Dodgers group is angling for a Southern California sports empire. Magic Johnson and Guggenheim had been aggressive in pursuing a purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers – only to have the Buss family make clear to them the franchise isn't for sale, sources told Yahoo Sports.

Nevertheless, this is business and Magic's willing to change colors and make himself a Clipper. Between the Dodgers and Clippers, Magic Johnson could be the face of two championship contenders.

Magic could have it all.

"This is 100 percent Magic's plan," a league official intimately involved in the buying and selling of franchises told Yahoo Sports.

As an exit strategy, Sterling could walk away with a $1 billion-plus sales price for his franchise, and a final act of goodwill to soften his exile into the sports netherworld. Sterling will be reviled forever, but he has to understand clearing the way for Magic Johnson and the $200 billion-plus group backing him could be a decent farewell punctuating a most indecent ownership tenure. Sterling made Magic Johnson a part of those hideous audio tapes that have started to crumble his Clippers ownership, and here's the old man's way to make it right.

After all, he has little choice left. Sterling will never be able to sit courtside for a Clippers game again, never be able to march through his locker room glad-handing players. All the reasons Sterling has loved owning an NBA team, well, they're all gone.

Across the league now, owners want Sterling out. They should've done so years ago, but understand every franchise will now pay a price for failing to remove Sterling. Finally, they're pushing Silver to find a way. These owners are on the clock, and they know it.

"If the owners can't force [Sterling] to sell, they need to be held accountable to change the bylaws so they can," one member of the NBA's Board of Governors told Yahoo Sports on Sunday. "A fine and suspension is meaningless, and that'll be seen as a lack of acceptance that the league and owners are responsible for this ass----."

The Dodgers group is serious about owning an NBA team, and the league knows it. Together, they arranged for Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners to purchase the WNBA's cash-strapped Los Angeles Sparks in February. The league office needed someone to spare it the embarrassment of the WNBA's flagship franchise folding, and Magic and Guggenheim bailed it out. This hadn't been born out of a sense of benevolence, but rather a pragmatic move to deeper ingratiate themselves with the NBA.

So Sunday, Johnson goes on national television and tells everyone: Donald Sterling should lose the Clippers. He's right. The NBA will move to suspend Sterling in the short-term and turn its army of lawyers onto a way to force Sterling into a sale. Magic Johnson could always see the court, the next play, and it's unfolding now. It won't be easy. It won't be tidy.

For now, it's the ultimate escape plan for the NBA, the ultimate exit for Donald Sterling. Magic Johnson wants the Clippers, and it could change Los Angeles basketball – change the NBA – forever.

[massadvj]

"This is 100 percent Magic's plan," a league official intimately involved in the buying and selling of franchises told Yahoo Sports.

It makes me wonder whether Magic and his group might have had a hand in getting the girlfriend to tape the conversation and go to the press in the first place.  Not that I would criticize Magic's group if it was true.  Quite the contrary.  Their business adversary had a soft underbelly and they figured out how to take advantage of it.

That's the way business is supposed to work.  When the old bull is too old and incapacitated to tend the herd, the young bull turns him out to pasture.  If this was a setup, I have to admire the ingenuity.

[flowers]

http://www.tmz.com/2014/04/29/donald-sterling-clippers-nba-commissioner-punishment-indefinite-suspension/

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has tentatively decided to suspend Clippers owner Donald Sterling INDEFINITELY and impose a multi-million-dollar fine -- but Sterling will NOT be forced to sell the team -- sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ Sports.

We're told the suspension does NOT include members of Sterling's immediate family, but the NBA will have approval rights on who is running the team.

We're told Commissioner Adam Silver had a forensic expert review the recording and found no evidence it was altered and confirmed Sterling's voice.

And we're told ... an NBA investigator spoke with Sterling by phone after we posted the recording and the Clippers owner agreed to sit down for a follow-up interview but then changed his mind and backed out.

And we're told V. Stiviano told NBA reps the same thing we've reported ... that she had Sterling's consent before she recorded him.

One source tells us the fine has been tentatively set at $5 Mil.

[truth_seeker]

Why don't the rich black men buy a team of their own? A few of them have the brains and discipline to manage such an undertaking.

[Scottftlc]

A lifetime ban and $2.5 million fine.

One question:  If he is banned for life, why would he pay the fine?

I think a lawsuit is coming...

[flowers]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/naacp-forgive-clippers-donald-sterling-yanking-award/story?id=23501911

The NAACP said today they are still willing to work with Los Angeles Clippers' owner Donald Sterling despite yanking an offer of a lifetime achievement award over an audio tape containing racist comments that Sterling allegedly made.

At a news conference today, NAACP Los Angeles president Leon Jenkins said that an audio recording that surfaced this weekend on TMZ, which purportedly had Sterling's voice recorded making racist comments, was "devastating."

But the organization would be open to talking to Sterling, with whom they've worked for nearly 20 years.

[mountaineer]

If they don't like what he said, perhaps they should return all the money he's donated.

[DCPatriot]

A caller to the Rush Limbaugh program would not name Johnson, per se, but.....two plus two still equals four, doesn't it?

Rush says, right now they're in the "Driving the price down" stage. 

[mystery-ak]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-bans-donald-sterling-for-life--fines-him--2-5-million-for-racial-comments-181803437.html


NBA bans Donald Sterling for life, fines him $2.5 million for racial comments

By Adrian Wojnarowski 1 hour ago Yahoo Sports

The NBA has banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life and fined him $2.5 million for racial comments he made to his reported girlfriend. The NBA will immediately begin working to try to force him to sell the team.

"The hateful opinions voiced by that of the man [on the tape] are those of Donald Sterling," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. "…I'm personally distraught the views expressed by Mr. Sterling came from within an institution that has historically taken such a leadership role in matters of race relations."

As part of the ban, Sterling is not allowed "to attend any NBA games or practices, be present at any Clippers office or facility, or participate in any business or player personnel decisions involving the team." Sterling also will be barred from attending any Board of Governors meetings and participating in any other league activity.

The fine is the maximum the NBA can issue under the NBA constitution, Silver said. Seventy-five percent of the NBA's owners must vote to oust Sterling to force him to sell.

"I fully expect to get the support needed," Silver said.

Several groups hoping to purchase the Clippers are already stepping forward with a bidding war expected to exceed $1 billion for the franchise, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Among those groups, Magic Johnson and Guggenheim Partners will be front and center in pursuit of the Clippers.

Silver said Sterling violated league rules through his "expressions of offensive and hurtful views, the impact of which has been widely felt throughout the league."

The NBA's announcement comes a little more than three days after TMZ released the first audio recording of Sterling telling his reported girlfriend – identified as V. Stiviano – he didn't want her bringing African-Americans to Clippers games. In the recording, he also said he wanted her to remove photos of African-Americans – including one of former Los Angeles Lakers guard and NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson – from social media.

Among the more inflammatory quotes attributed to Sterling:

• "It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to?"

• "You can sleep with them. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games."

• "Don't put him [Magic Johnson] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don't bring him to my games."

Deadspin later released an extended version of the audio recording in which Sterling tells the woman that blacks are treated "like dogs" in Israel. When reminded that most of the players on the Clippers are black, Sterling goes on to say, "I support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. Who gives it to them? Does someone else give it to them? Do I know that I have – who makes the game? Do I make the game, or do they make the game? Is there 30 owners that created the league?"

Clippers players staged their own subtle protest during Sunday's playoff loss to the Warriors by wearing their warm-up shirts inside-out to hide the "Clippers" name. They also wore black socks and wristbands.

Many of Sterling's fellow NBA owners, including Michael Jordan of the Charlotte Bobcats, condemned the comments in recent days.

The controversy ranks as the NBA's greatest since the Tim Donaghy scandal and comes less than three months after Silver replaced David Stern as NBA commissioner. Sterling had been sued multiple times in the past for racial discrimination, including a 2009 case in which he paid $2.7 million to settle allegations his companies targeted and discriminated against blacks, Hispanics and families with children in renting apartments in greater Los Angeles.

Under Stern, the NBA never publicly punished Sterling after the settlements.

[truth_seeker]

Forcing him to sell, and reap a profit of over $1 billion, for owning about the worst pro basketball team of all time?

Where's the punishment in that? Will it hurt his feelings? His self-esteem?

[alicewonders]

Rush had a fascinating segment about this today, "Caller's Sterling Set-Up Theory".  It's a bit of read, but right on the money!

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/04/29/caller_s_sterling_set_up_theory

[DCPatriot]

Forcing him to sell, and reap a profit of over $1 billion, for owning about the worst pro basketball team of all time?

Where's the punishment in that? Will it hurt his feelings? His self-esteem?

Had some jerk radio host say that he was for forbidding Sterling from selling the team....so that he couldn't realize profits.

He wants it tied up until he dies and then his family can sell it.

Amazing what creatures we are isn't it?

[sinkspur]

Anybody else bothered that private conversations are now fair game for job actions?

Meanwhile, the carjackers-in-waiting jump in the stands attacking fans and beating up their wives and are lauded.

Who in the NBA ISN'T a criminal?

[mystery-ak]

Anybody else bothered that private conversations are now fair game for job actions?

Meanwhile, the carjackers-in-waiting jump in the stands attacking fans and beating up their wives and are lauded.

Who in the NBA ISN'T a criminal?

Bothers me a lot...not that I agree with this a-hole but I thought this country had a little thing called free speech...guess not!

[Luis Gonzalez]

Two and a half million?

What a joke.

He probably spent more than that on his "girlfriend's" gender reassignment surgery as his penile pump implant