That’s it, Adam?
Donald Sterling has agreed to miss one game?
And you didn’t say anything negative about him?
Damn. I guess David Stern spoiled us. The old commissioner would never have delivered such a vanilla series of statements in reacting to one of the biggest scandals the NBA has seen in years.
Let me get this straight: We have an owner (allegedly) making statements that he doesn’t want his girlfriend to bring black people to Clippers games, and he doesn’t want her to bring Magic Johnson to games. The league is in an uproar, the players are talking about possibly boycotting a game, Jesse Jackson is piping up … and Adam Silver shows up 31 minutes late for a news conference to address the fiasco and starts talking about due process? Are you kidding me?
Didn’t anyone explain the bully pulpit theory to the new commish?
Saturday night was a time for Silver to define his authority, to dictate his distaste and to speak boldly and forcefully about racism in general, racism in sports and racism in the Clippers ownership suite. It was not a time to sound like a lawyer. It was time to sound like a benevolent and bereaved dictator. And Silver blew it.
This was about as nasty as it got: “The audio was truly offensive and disturbing. We intend to get to bottom of it as quickly as possible.”
Silver even ducked a question about Sterling’s possible attendance at Tuesday night’s Clippers-Warriors game. It is understandable that a lawyer would duck a question, but Silver is supposed to be more than a lawyer right now. He is supposed to be the face and the voice of the league, and this was an instance for which a strong, loud, succinct voice of repugnance was called for.
Silver dropped the ball. I give him an ‘F.”
And I miss David. (Never thought I’d say that.)
Silver has surrounded himself with many of the best and brightest people in the NBA office, none of whom, apparently, is a writer. Here is what he should have said:
In the last two presidential elections the country was divided evenly.50% red and 50% blue. Based on that projection half the owners of all sports, religions,politics,even on your jobs are racists,but it doesnt stop you from getting a paycheck,especially when its millions of dollars.If sterling is so racists turn your checks back in you immoral hypocrites .You cant accept racism but you talk down people who dont want their children to see men kissing on worldwide tv.smh
If this story wasn’t complicated enough, it just got worse, as DEADSPIN has released an extended 5 minute tape that doesn’t seem to have been edited.
http://deadspin.com/exclusive-the-extended-donald-sterling-tape-1568291249?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
In it he says:
“You think I’m a Racist?
Reply: “I don’t think you’re a Racist”.
Other highlights:
“You go to Israel … the Blacks are just treated like Dogs”
“I don’t want to change the culture because I can’t”
She brings up the Holocaust.
He fights back with “there is no Racism here” (referring to Staples Center).
In the end, he appears to be a cranky old man, with lots of experiences, with a woman he never should have let into his world. He honestly doesn’t think he is a Racist, but rather a Realist. Noone in the Media or NBA will buy his argument(s). If he wants to do something constructive, then he should retire from the NBA and go on an interview tour.
That would be the only way to have the first open discussion on Race, without Political Correctness.
What you fail to realize is that this issue is bigger than the NBA. As a commisioner, Silver handled that as any well-trained lawyer would, and even if you think that he should have acted as a “dictator”, you have to understand the legal implications of doing so.
As others have pointed out, the Constitutional right of due process before legal action against a person does not get suspended because this is basketball. It is an American right, and regardless of how wrong his comments were–and don’t get me wrong, if the tape has not be altered, then they are absolutely disgusting–his Constitutional rights cannot be ignored. A public condemnation (or action against Sterling) without all of the facts–and believe me, there is no way that this is as black and white as it seems right now–could have resulted in a potential lawsuit from Sterling
Secondly, TMZ has a history of sensationalizing. Do I think that they definitely did? No. The man has a history of racism and this could very well be his latest race-driven scandal. But you have to take into account that the possibility exists that the tape was not authentic and until it is proven to be, Silver would be dropping the ball to take drastic action.
Finally, understand that this woman is not a good person. She, too, must be investigated. Not to mention the whole idea of privacy comes into play.
If everything comes out, and the situation remains the same, then yes, Silver needs to deliver. But at the moment, he can’t. The law stands in the way, and basketball doesn’t change that. To act as you would have liked could have exacerbated the situation and would have been a blatant disregard for American rights. Silver did what he was able to do, and anything else would have been a mistake.
Looks like you wrote this before waiting until more facts were available. The only possible grade to give Silver is INCOMPLETE, and for good reason.
The woman has refused to cooperate with the NBA. Silver correctly said that he has to determine the motivation for the remarks, besides finding out if any of the tape was modified. Sterling DID make some complimentary remarks on the tape, but the woman kept trying to con him into making inflammatory remarks. As some on Twitter have said, he sounded more Eccentric than Racist.
From TMZ tonight, “Shelly Sterling (Donald’s wife) claims in her lawsuit Stiviano embezzled $1.8 million by scheming to get as much as she could from an old man — Donald Sterling. Stiviano claims everything she got was a gift.” According to NBATV and Sterling’s people, the woman “vowed to get revenge”.
Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2014/04/26/donald-sterling-nba-investigation-v-stiviano-racist-audio-clippers/#ixzz303MzZw4f
Silver has a tough task if one of the 2 parties involved won’t cooperate.
Why did they wait until now to leak this tape? It seems that the Clippers and their fans are going to suffer the most. Sterling probably doesn’t have long to live anyway. The guy is 81 years old.
The “motivation for the remarks” is completely irrelevant. The only thing that should matter is whether he said them. What could someone do that would justify his “remarks”?
She didn’t have to “con” Sterling into saying anything, moron. From Sterling’s own history and recounts from others who’ve worked around him, it’s clear that his girlfriend has already heard him say similar things several times before. Her being able to record him is only because she knew for a fact that he’d say it.
That’s his problem and stupidity, not hers.
Legally it would be thrown out in court if she planned all of this, due to entrapment (posting picks with Magic Johnson – who by the way most people born after 1980 probably don’t know the true history of how he slept with thousands of women as a sport, etc., etc.) and bringing him and others to games (and posted on Instagram) as part of a plan. Then her bringing up race repeatedly in this audio, but he would only reply with talk of “culture”, something that even Commissioner Stern had problems with. He DID make a couple of Damning remarks, which of course the Media has highlighted, but Silver MUST hear the whole history of those remarks and whether he really meant it (all of us are guilty of saying things in private that we don’t really believe). Sterling also said some complimentary remarks, which of course the media didn’t repeat, because they dare not upset the players.
And he was never convicted of any discrimination in the past (even though it might have been true), so that can’t be used against him legally either. He might have discriminated in his business in order to keep the value of his properties higher, not because he was inherently Racist. But what few people understand is that the guy is 81 years old and comes from an entirely different perspective. He clearly was stupid and gullible to ever believe that This Woman could ever bring him happiness.
In order of bad people, where 1 is good and 10 is someone I wouldn’t trust if my life depended on it, I’d rate Magic Johnson and Sterling an 8 and this Woman a 10. I trust that Sterling knows 1000x more than any of us about Magic Johnson.
George had it right in the beginning, in that they will probably work behind the scenes to get him to agree to sell the team.
Right now the Lakers (Magic Johnson’s team) is benefiting from all of this negative publicity. Coincidence? Why did they release this audio at the time when it would hurt the Clippers players and Fans the most?
Whoa there big boy. I didn’t know that due process goes out the window if someone is accused of racism. Given that this is coming from Sterling, its likelier to be true than not, however, it would be far worse if the commissioner jumps to conclusions and then the entire incident is found to be made up. Keep in mind that this woman was allegedly blackmailing the clippers organization and demanding money in the order of millions.
Also, at the end of the day, I did not know we lived in a country where ownership could be removed because someone is a racist jackass. Last I checked, there were no laws that make it illegal to be a racist. In fact, a person’s words are protected by that little thing called the first amendment. We all have the right to make utter imbeciles of ourselves. The NBA will have a lot of problems if they rush into things and try to remove Sterling for what he said. Clippers players would have major legal problems if they sat out as racist comments are not grounds to flaunt legally binding contracts.
Frankly, the commissioner is right to go about this gingerly – if the recording is authentic, better to maneuver in the background to get Sterling to sell his ownership than to come out all blustery and potentially make matters more difficult in the long run. Maybe Sterling can be pressured to sell the team to a group led by Magic. Now that would be rich and well deserved irony!
All good comments. No doubt it shouldn’t be too difficult to get Sterling to sell team, privately, if the media and players don’t ruin things first, for the Clippers. Free Agents won’t sign there and the value of the team will continue to remain low. $525 million is an extremely low figure for worth of Clippers. Prokhorov’s people now believe that the Brooklyn Nets are approaching $1 billion in value, based in part on the sale of the lowly Bucks.
But in addition, noone in the media or among the players has dared to criticize the woman behind this (unlike the UNCENSORED Internet, where she is the main topic of discussion, besides saying that Sterling is just a dirty old man, who got “used” by this woman).
I challenge anyone to listen to the full audio again (even assuming the tape wasn’t edited) after learning that the Woman had “vowed to get even”. Anyone who does that, will realize that everything she has done and said in the audio, is likely a ploy to encourage Sterling to say things that may be taken as Racist.
I also highly doubt that this woman has much black heritage (at the very most, 1/8 African), as she suddenly claims to Sterling’s surprise. I suspect that was part of her ploy. The media should do their job (for once) and do some investigative reporting.
The media still can’t even tell us when this audio was made or why this woman waiting until the middle of the 1st round of playoffs to release it.
The players are all too young to know this, but it was Jews like Sterling and Stern who led the fight for Civil Rights in the 60’s. However, most of this older White America hasn’t embraced some of the “culture” (the word Sterling uses), that has developed in recent decades. Lets not forget that even Commissioner Stern tried to minimize this culture, when he instituted dress policies, which were aimed at stopping the loss of White America from the NBA fan base – most notably players like Alan Iverson.
People have such selective memories.