OT - Donald Sterling Banned from NBA for Life
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced today that (likely soon to be former) LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling is banned from any type of involvement with the league or the Clippers for the duration of his life. This punishment also came with a $2.5M fine, which is the most allowed under the bylaws of the NBA's constitution. Silver also said that the league and its owners will do all things possible to force the sale of the Clippers. Props to Adam Silver and the league's front office for doing everything in their power to remove this horrible person from the league's ranks.
suggests he was referring to what we are talking about here--as opposed to "about what Sterling said about JJ". Gotta have some context.
It helps that Sterling doesn't own the building his team plays in, but wouldn't this get stickier if he did? It's easier to ban someone when you're not banning them from a building they happen to own. I suppose the league can go to Staples Center security and tell them not to ever admit Sterling to the building, but what if it were, say, Tom Gores - all the people employed at the Palace work for him.
can they all so ban coach hoke for life too
Keep Trolling Jobu
Somebody needs to talk some sense around here.
"Freedom of speech" does not mean freedom from the consequences of your words. One is not free to yell "fire" inside a movie theater or claim to have a bomb while entering a plane to name but a couple. Donald Sterling just found that out.
With some exceptions, it is really only a freedom against governmental restriction or censorship.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech
further, there are exceptions even for the government--one being, "hate speech", which likely applies here.
I'm not sure how you could even have a reality in which what people said could not be held against them.
Like everyone else, Corona is appalled by the comments allegedly made by the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. These comments run counter to the type of brand Corona aspires to be. Because of this, we are suspending our sponsorship agreement with the Clippers until the NBA completes its investigation.
CarMax finds the statements attributed to the Clippers’ owner completely unacceptable. These views directly conflict with CarMax’s culture of respect for all individuals. While we have been a proud Clippers sponsor for 9 years and support the team, fans and community, these statements necessitate that CarMax end its sponsorship.
We trust and respect the NBA’s process to formally investigate the matter, and in the interim, are suspending all team-related marketing activities. We will continue to support our Red Bull athlete, Blake Griffin, his teammates and coaching staff in their pursuit of an NBA title.
The remarks attributed to the Clippers’ owner are offensive. While those involved sort out the facts, we will be taking a pause in our relationship with the organization. We are monitoring the situation and we’ll continually assess our options. We have a great relationship with Chris Paul and will continue supporting the Born to Assist advertising campaign involving Chris and now other NBA players.
Amtrak believes the language used is unacceptable and is inconsistent with our corporate belief to treat everyone with integrity and dignity. Our sponsorship with the LA Clippers expired at the end of the regular season a few weeks ago. As with any sponsorship advertising, some assets remain in market – to that end we are diligently working to remove all sponsorship assets. Moving forward, we will continue to monitor the situation as we look to make decisions about 2014-15 sports marketing sponsorships.
As the Official Beer of the NBA, we are disappointed to hear the alleged recent comments attributed to L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling. While Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light are not team sponsors of the L.A. Clippers, we fully support the NBA’s efforts to investigate quickly and trust that they will take appropriate action.
Mandalay Bay finds the comments attributed to Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling to be shocking and appalling. We have suspended our advertising and sponsorship relationship with the Clippers’ organization and await action from the NBA before determining if we will permit any continued association with the team. We continue to wish the players, coaches and fans all the best in the playoffs.
I don't believe the Clippers have any sponsors, currently.
Yes, the Clippers lost their sponsors but those companies already gave the franchise their money for this year.
Tiger Woods lost his sponsors too, they came right back when it cooled down. They'll do the same thing with the Clippers
It makes the company look good and doesn't hurt anyone in the long run.
Golf Digest 50: Tiger Woods' Total Earnings
- 2003: $83,700,288
- 2004: $89,370,407
- 2005: $86,992,739
- 2006: $98,941,827
- 2007: $122,702,706
- 2008: $117,337,626
- 2009: $121,915,196
- 2010: $74,294,116
- 2011: $64,067,059
- 2012: $86,124,386
- 2013: $83,091,508
http://golf.about.com/od/tigerwoods/f/tiger-woods-earnings.htm
Of course, I wouldn't mind "only" making $83 million last year.
There wasn't any change they could try to lever out of Woods to limit their embarrassment, and the embarrassment was pretty minimal in comparison.
If you're going to spend oodles of money on advertising to NBA fans, you're probably going to choose to do it in a way that doesn't threaten to honk off your African-American customers. I would guess those sponsors will make it clear that they'll be happy to consider returning, just as soon as Sterling is no longer part of the franchise.
If that's what you think, you don't have a very good understanding of freedom of speech...
Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequence from private entities. Surprise!
Consequences such as a neg-bang to Bolivia, for example.
Freedom of speech only protects you from legal prosecution based on what you say. It has nothing to do with a private sports league finding one of its franchisees to be harming the "brand". They can take whatever action they seem fit.
Please forgive me & no face punches for me
Crazy how often xkcd has the answer:
Rollover Text: I can't remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you're saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it's not literally illegal to express
damn it you beat me to it...
The only joke here is jobu.
Another idiot 1st amendment scholar...
I'll say exactly what I said about Eich: free markets gonna free market, yo.
I agree with the gist of what you said about not silencing those we disagree with, but I also think the NBA has a right to enforce some kind of standard of behavior if it decides the consequences (to itself) of letting him do his thing have become too much to handle. You have the right to say what you want, but everyone else also has the right to react how they want to it.
I don't really see this as silencing Sterling as much as telling him he can't talk like that while he owns an NBA franchise. The minute he sells the Clippers he could go on a 2-hour rant about anything that pleases him.
I think it sets a precedent that people with views straight out of Mississippi Burning aren't going to be owners in a league comprised mostly of black people. Nobody is silencing Sterling, they're just placing consequences on his choice not to remain silent.
The market already spoke genius. Endorsers are running left and right. It's hurts shared Basketball realted income which is shared amongst owners. He agreed by the these rules.
If you bring a fuck ton of bad PR to your company they are well within their right to fire you if it's deemed you're not worth the trouble, particularly when you have a long history of this sort of thing.
No one is silencing Sterling. He can continue to exercise his right to free speech all day and night, and I suspect that he will. He could hold a press conference tomorrow and just say the N word over and over again and no one is going to throw him in jail or stop him from speaking.
There is a difference between "going against the mainstream" and alienating all of your customers, sponsors, workers, and bosses.
If I'm one of the other 29 owners and I know for a fact that my league employs a guy like this who is now actively costing me money because of poor public perception, I'm kicking him out yesterday.
The Mozilla thing is similar in that the bulk of his employees were unhappy with his stance and made it clear they weren't happy about his hire at the start. I don't believe he is nearly the bigot as Sterling, and his stance is more nuanced than the one Sterling apparently held, but CEOs are not kings with unfettered power over their feifdoms; they have to listen to the market and their employees, and if they don't then they can and should be removed. It may be tyranny of the majority, but that's the deal in most circles.
Pass judgement if you want.
Me, you and the rest of the world would be hiding under our beds if our private conversations were recorded and made public.
Maybe, but my affinity for German Dungeon Porn isn't going to get me kicked out of the league.
Lol what in the actual fuck?
please!
There are no links. It's all underground.
Like libel/slander lawsuits, it's just one of those tradeoffs for being a public figure.
Not necessarily right, but in exchange for gobs and gobs of money, just how it works
but based on what Adam Silver announced today (plus other things he's proposed and talked about since being nominated and named as NBA Commish), I believe Silver to be the best commissioner in all of sports at this point. Yeah, I know the whole situation is fluid involving that POS Sterling and likely will continue to evolve in unforeseen ways (due to legalities and whatnot), but I give very high marks to Silver for his quick and decisive action.
Granted, the best commissioner in sports is an incredibly low bar. Who is the second best? Goodell? Selig?