Just as yesterday’s NBA playoff game between the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors, ABC/ESPN reported that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will make a decision on whether to sanction Clippers owner Donald Sterling for racist comments attributed to him at some point before Tuesday. The timing is critical, since the Clippers-Warriors series will return to Los Angeles on Tuesday night–the first game the Clippers have played at home since TMZ roiled the NBA and the nation at large with a tape in which a man it identified as Sterling told his girlfriend not to bring Magic Johnson or any other blacks to Clippers games.
By the looks of it, Silver’s decision to make a move within the 48 hours between the final buzzer in Oakland and Tuesday’s tipoff in Los Angeles didn’t come without some prodding. Before the game, Silver met with Sacramento mayor and former NBA great Kevin Johnson, whom the NBA Players Association asked to represent it regarding this scandal.? Later, Johnson said that the players want Sterling banned from attending any games for at least the duration of the playoffs. He also said that when a final punishment does come down, the players want the “maximum” sanctions permitted under the NBA constitution and bylaws. Sterling did not attend yesterday’s game, though it’s hard to believe this decision was at all voluntary. In what has to stand as an understatement, Johnson called this “a defining moment for the league.” For their part, the Clippers’ players spoke volumes before the game by peeling off their warmup shirts and dumping them at center court. They then conducted their pregame shootaround in red shirts turned inside out.
Chances are that the players got more ammunition for their strong stand yesterday afternoon, when Deadspin released a fuller version of the conversation that had been released by TMZ earlier. On this tape, Sterling’s girlfriend, V. Stiviano, is recorded as being gobsmacked that Sterling doesn’t like her being seen with blacks. The man whom Deadspin and TMZ claim is Sterling replies, “Well then, if you don’t feel?don’t come to my games. Don’t bring black people, and don’t come.” When Stiviano–who is half-Latina and half-black–wonders how Sterling can square this with the fact he owns a team with 10 black players out of 12, Sterling reportedly replies, “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?”
The man on this tape sounds like someone running a minstrel show, not someone most people would want running any kind of legitimate business, sports-related or otherwise. And that’s without even discussing the rampant complaints about racial discrimination in the numerous apartment complexes Sterling owns around Southern California. However, the comments on this tape alone are enough to repeat my call from yesterday–if this is indeed Sterling, anything less than a year-long suspension would be a bad joke.
Darrell Lucus is a radical lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
edited by tw
