NBA players and all of America are rightfully incensed and outraged by the words and deeds of Clippers owner Donald Sterling. His attitudes are ridiculous, unfathomable, and ignorant. But in reality he is just one lone idiot in a league that has been the model and leader on the issue of colorblindness. When the smoke clears after the league acts and the outrage dies down, there will be many lessons to be learned from here. Some of them will be great
With the explosive headlines being splattered all over the place this weekend concerning Clippers owner Donald Sterling, the thing that surprises me is that people are surprised. Under his ownership, The Clippers have been the doormat of the league for 30 years. He has paid millions of dollars in fines to settle race discrimination suits before in his other businesses. Every star player who ever played for him has fled screaming for the hills at the first opportunity. He flaunts his
NBA commissioner Adam Silver cannot just suspend Clippers owner Donald Sterling for the rest of the playoffs. Silver cannot just suspend Sterling for a year and drop a seven-figure fine on him the way his predecessor did to Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor in 2000. Taylor broke the rules. Sterling broke the game. Silver has no choice but to suspend Sterling indefinitely, as in until he sells his team. And when Silver suspends Sterling, it is important that anyone and everyone with an opinion on
BROOKLYN — The Toronto Raptors were tired of being the less physical, aggressive and careful team in their first round series with the Brooklyn Nets. So they flipped the script on Brooklyn in Sunday night’s Game 4 at the Barclays Center and took control of their playoff fate. Toronto set the tone in the first quarter by scoring 35 points and finished the game by not allowing a field goal over the final six minutes and 11 seconds in an 87-79
In what surely would be a failed attempt at objectivity, I searched the Internet to see if there was any way I could give Donald Sterling the benefit of the doubt. I have to admit I was giggling at the premise. Sterling has a long and glorious history of idiocy, so any attempt to paint him as a party wronged in his current racist controversy — or, in fact, any of his controversies — would be spectacularly futile. But miracle of miracles,
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
Masai Ujiri made his first trip to Brooklyn since his infamous remarks about the borough before Game 1 at a fan rally in Toronto. “F*ck Brooklyn,” Ujiri said. (Some of you might not have known exactly what Ujiri said. Now you know.) Sitting courtside at Barclays Center before Game 3, Ujiri spoke with SheridanHoops about the incident and the hostile environment the Raptors would face in Brooklyn going forward. “It wasn’t about Brooklyn, honestly,” Ujiri told SheridanHoops. “I apologized to Brooklyn, I apologized
Here’s an appeal to Shaq: As Pat Riley would say, STFU when the topic of discussion is Dwight Howard. Shaq’s ongoing, unrelenting and borderline ridiculous criticism of Howard is old and tired. He’s been at it for years, whether it’s Howard’s play in Orlando, Howard’s decision to leave the Lakers, Howard’s decision to sign with Houston or Howard’s play in the Rockets’ playoff series with Portland. He’s ripped him on TV, in the newspapers and in his autobiography. Shaq, whose dim-witted presence on