Donald Sterling receives lifetime ban and $2.5M fine for racist comments

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Thats mighty Edwin Epps of Massa Sterling.

[ralaw]

Sterling is about to get that Paula Deen treatment.

[jeffx]

Sterling was going to receive a SECOND NAACP award before this shit came out....(facepalm)

[TeflonDonny]

So news comes out today that Magic Johnson and his investment group are interested in buying the Clippers. This makes me wonder if Magic or someone in his group helped leak this recording to force Sterling's hand. Is it just a coincidence that Magic was the subject of this argument?

[EmpireWF]

Can't wait to see over the next few weeks/months, how the NBA try to force an owner into selling his team.

Magic and co. will easily buy it for a billion dollars, but short of Sterling realizing he should go off into the sunset, if he's resistent...can they literally force him to sell?

[PP]

Can't wait to see over the next few weeks/months, how the NBA try to force an owner into selling his team.

Magic and co. will easily buy it for a billion dollars, but short of Sterling realizing he should go off into the sunset, if he's resistent...can they literally force him to sell?

They force his hand by pulling backroom deals with Sponsors who come out and say they don't want to advertise with anything Clippers home or away. Only way they can remove him is if he cannot pay his bills. Sponsors pay the bills by buying the luxury suites etc.

[MrBill]

Well played if Magic is behind the release of the audio tapes. I don't even care about how under handed it would be because he drew more attention to a racist piece of crap that has no business being in a position of power in a professional sports league in the first place.

[PP]

Well played if Magic is behind the release of the audio tapes. I don't even care about how under handed it would be because he drew more attention to a racist piece of crap that has no business being in a position of power in a professional sports league in the first place.

To be fair hes owned the team since 1981. The world was quite different back then. Not to mention at 80+ who knows if he is having dementia or something. All signs point to him being a POS for a long time no doubt but at 80 he grew up in way different times and some people just can't change.

[jeffx]

I just LOL @ all the feigned outrage. Everyone, including the NBA, knew what this cat was about for decades. So the attitude is we'll look the other way, just keep your bigotry in the closet so as not to give us bad PR.

[Slateman]

So how come the NBA will condemn a racist owner, but the NFL will protect the owner of a racist team?

[Tailback U]

I just LOL @ all the feigned outrage. Everyone, including the NBA, knew what this cat was about for decades. So the attitude is we'll look the other way, just keep your bigotry in the closet so as not to give us bad PR.

It's not illegal to be racist. I'm not taking sterlings side but he can be as racist as a wants to be as long as he isn't breaking any employment laws and keeps his comments in private. Once it becomes public it becomes a problem, so i would look the other way until it becomes a PR issue as well.

[Houston]

Blah.

I wish I had a racist employer paying me millions of dollars.

[MrBill]

I just LOL @ all the feigned outrage. Everyone, including the NBA, knew what this cat was about for decades. So the attitude is we'll look the other way, just keep your bigotry in the closet so as not to give us bad PR.

I think you are painting with a broad brush. Some people that enjoy watching the NBA do not pay a lot of attention to teams outside of their market and the primary rivals of the team. I couldn't tell you the names of more than 5 owners in the entire NBA but that doesn't mean I cannot be appalled by their actions. If this guy was one step short of being in the Klan, how in the hell was the NCAA giving him an award for what he has done for the African American community? I'm not looking at you to answer that one but it just further clouds how widely this was known prior to this incident.

[Glenbino]

I think you are painting with a broad brush. Some people that enjoy watching the NBA do not pay a lot of attention to teams outside of their market and the primary rivals of the team. I couldn't tell you the names of more than 5 owners in the entire NBA but that doesn't mean I cannot be appalled by their actions. If this guy was one step short of being in the Klan, how in the hell was the NCAA giving him an award for what he has done for the African American community? I'm not looking at you to answer that one but it just further clouds how widely this was known prior to this incident.

It was known.. Sterling was on record as saying he didn't allow black tents in some of his buildings because they were "smelly". He had to pay for that one out of pocket. There's plenty more stuff that was public knowledge for decades too, which meant that there was probably boatloads more that never saw the public light.

Jeffx is right, Stern and the ownership group were totally fine with this guy as long as he kept his mouth shut and played second fiddle in Los Angeles. Now the team actually has a competitive construct, and an NBA demigod was caught in the crosshairs of one of Sterling's racist tirades so it's fire and brimstone.

[Houston]

how in the hell was the NCAA giving him an award for what he has done for the African American community?