It’s a shame that in the middle of the playoffs, the NBA news is dominated by Donald Sterling’s racist comments. As Chris Sheridan writes, Adam Silver didn’t exactly do a great job of handling it.
One of the responses I don’t get in the wake of this whole thing is people questioning his girlfriend’s motivation. She didn’t coerce him into going off on a racist tirade. It’s not just the comments that are unacceptable, it’s the attitude that creates them. Racist actions are obviously unacceptable, but just as unacceptable are racist people.
The problem is that Donald Sterling appears to think a certain way, as proved by these comments allegedly made by him. If he did make the comments, and the tape is unaltered (there’s a longer version published by Deadspin, if you’re interested), it’s merely proof that he doesn’t belong in the league. He wouldn’t belong in the league any more if he had kept quiet, we just wouldn’t know about it. Now we have what appears to be concrete proof, and it’s time to do something about it.
Of course, it’s not like Donald Sterling being racist is a new thing. ESPN.com republished an article yesterday that appeared in ESPN the Magazine in 2009. Here’s an excerpt:
When Sterling first bought the Ardmore, he remarked on its odor to Davenport. “That’s because of all the blacks in this building, they smell, they’re not clean,” he said, according to Davenport’s testimony. “And it’s because of all of the Mexicans that just sit around and smoke and drink all day.” He added: “So we have to get them out of here.” Shortly after, construction work caused a serious leak at the complex. When Davenport surveyed the damage, she found an elderly woman, Kandynce Jones, wading through several inches of water in Apartment 121. Jones was paralyzed on the right side and legally blind. She took medication for high blood pressure and to thin a clot in her leg. Still, she was remarkably cheerful, showing Davenport pictures of her children, even as some of her belongings floated around her.
Jones had repeatedly walked to the apartment manager’s office to plead for assistance, according to sworn testimony given by her daughter Ebony Jones in the Housing Rights Center case. Kandynce Jones’ refrigerator dripped, her dishwasher was broken, and her apartment was always cold. Now it had flooded. Davenport reported what she saw to Sterling, and according to her testimony, he asked: “Is she one of those black people that stink?” When Davenport told Sterling that Jones wanted to be reimbursed for the water damage and compensated for her ruined property, he replied: “I am not going to do that. Just evict the bitch.”
The question when the team Sterling owns came out to play was what they would do, if anything. Here’s what it was:
The Clippers took off their shooting shirts and dumped them at center court. pic.twitter.com/Nod5QWsWJy
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) April 27, 2014
The Clippers have turned their shirts inside out and are warming up in generic red shirts. pic.twitter.com/dUST40wBaO
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) April 27, 2014
CP3: “We’re going to be one. Everything we do, we do it together.” pic.twitter.com/aQC4kcNEMZ
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) April 27, 2014
Now, on to more strictly basketball news.
MARK CUBAN IS HAPPY WITH THE MONTA ELLIS DEAL
Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com:
Finally on the playoff stage with a team that has a fighting chance, Monta Ellis is making the most of the opportunity after all those miserable years.
But Ellis, a man who has admitted that the waves of criticism of his game fueled his fire, wasn’t about to boast after by far his best playoff performance. He didn’t see his career playoff-high 29-point performance in the Dallas Mavericks’ sensational 109-108 Game 3 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday as the time for told-you-so talk.
His billionaire boss sure did.
“Boy, Monta has really made everybody look smart that said it was a dumb signing,” Mavs owner Mark Cuban said, sarcasm dripping with the beads of sweat after the wild celebration at the American Airlines Center set off by Vince Carter’s game-winning buzzer-beater. “He was just the worst signing of the summer. You know, he’s just not efficient in the playoffs, not efficient in the regular season.
“Monta was great.”
There’s no doubt that Ellis — whose three-year, $25 million deal looks like a better bargain by the week — was spectacular Saturday afternoon, when he was 12-of-22 from the floor and saved his best for crunch time. He scored 12 points on 5-of-5 scoring in the fourth quarter, with five of those buckets coming in the final 6 minutes, 35 seconds.
“The thing was he stayed aggressive, but he had great patience as well,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “We really needed him to step up at the end. Those were all huge plays.”
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Dan Malone is currently in graduation limbo after finishing his journalism degree at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and spent last summer as a features intern at the Cape Cod Times. He blogs, edits and learns things on the fly for Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on Twitter.