OT-Sterling has prostate cancer
http://nypost.com/2014/05/01/disgraced-clippers-owner-donald-sterling-is-battling-cancer/
It's apparently been know for at least 2 years. Interesting (or not) that this gets "leaked" now. He's 80 years old and has prostate cancer. I obviously don't know anything about his staging, but he's probably more likely to die WITH it than BECAUSE of it. And my vote is, "No," having cancer does not get you off the hook for being a bad person.
This sounds eerily similar to Joe Paterno. Old man in his 80's, fired in disgrace, everyone in the world (outside Happy Valley) is pissed at him and THEN he reveals he has had cancer for 2 years.
it is not a matter of him revealing he has cancer for sympathy, it is a matter of the attack being staged at a time where he can be basically destroyed without really having an opportunity to defend himself. Yes, it is eerily similar to Paterno.
Sterling is your garden variety racist, and a cheapskate slumlord. That makes him a horrible human being. Paterno, on the other hand, wasn't even worthy of being a human. Complacency with child rape? Fuck him and his PSU shrine. They should have revoked the title of university but allowed the campus to stand vacant, just because it be fitting tribute to the hollow words of a guy who preached a lot better than he practiced.
I really wonder what any of us would do - work for a racist and get paid 10% more or work for a person who likes hanging out with you and get paid 10% less. I'd personally take the former as I don't give two sh!ts if my boss likes anything about me other than how well I do my job.
Source on the hiring thing?
As far as the NBA is concerned he's a racist but, legally speaking, he's probably the most non-discriminatory racist in history (strictly NBA speaking since they didn't give a crap about any of the other stuff).
Except he hired them so that he could treat them like dog shit and vastly underpay them. It was almost fetishistic for him.
He would fire pretty much every single non-essential employee in the off season and then rehire them back right before the season started so that he didn't have to pay them.
He likened the Clippers to his plantation with himself being the big boss.
He is an unrepentant piece of shit. He should have been removed based on what a shit boss he was, sans all of the racism stuff. There was a time when the Clippers players' check would bounce if they didn't get to the bank immediately after practice on Fridays. So Donald moved the practices back until after the banks closed to fuck over his players.
Again, he is a real piece of shit.
I don't know if I totally buy that. He had Elgin Baylor as his GM for a long, long time - people around the league couldn't believe how patient he was with Baylor despite a pretty dismal record. And he did hire a lot of black coaches - more than most other owners. Many ended up getting fired, but that's not that surprising given that the franchise was consistently bad. I think people are now looking back at things through the prism of his latest comments and looking for racism in the way he ran the Clippers, but I don't know how much you can really find. (His non-basketball businesses are another story.)
I have heard about him being a tightwad, though,
How about you read anything Elgin Baylor has to say about Sterling then? Also, how about you dig up the quotes from former coaches and players. Dig up the quotes from his sales and marketing team, and other people who worked for the Clippers.
You don't have to buy anything from me. Do a little research. It's all out there at this point.
We are still talking about a guy that the local chapter of the NAACP wanted to honor not once but twice. I don't doubt that he personally is racist, and certainly the league needed to do something after these latest comments. Still, hiring lots of black employees isn't the worst thing you can do. There have been plenty of NBA owners that have never hired a black coach or GM.
if you just look at a person's actions and don't take an extra 2 milliseconds to consider their motives--especially when pretty convincing insights to their motives are a google search away--then you will be fooled by the simplest of PR tricks.
They wanted to honor him because he gave them gobs and gobs of money in an effort to quell the PR nightmare of his racist business practices within the community.
Let's not be rubes here.
I would bet that many people would love to take 90% of what they make now to work for a boss who quickly becomes a good friend.
Because having your friend for a boss is better than having a racist dickbag for a boss?
(usual disclaimer: I'm a Penn State fan, though not a Joe-Bot)
Joe Paterno probably did have a cancer diagnosis well before November 2011. But that's his and his family's business alone. Not even his employer's business.
Frankly, Penn State had plenty of reason to remove Paterno prior to November 2011 (reason #1 being he simply was not good at his job any more). But I will retroactively defend Paterno (and any cancer-stricken employee) for not wanting to reveal this while he was on the job.
he has cancer. Seriously one of the first things I thought of when this story broke was that Sterling is probably dying and therefore cannot effectively fight back or defend himself, and will not be able to effectively seek retribution against other owners etc. The NBA wants the Clippers under different ownership and they don't want the franchise to stay in the family past his death (when they presumably could not stage such a force-out).
But his wife is suing for divorce now and he may see this as an opportunity to hold off on a forced sale. Look at the McCourt situation and the Dodgers. A California judge is likely to hold off on any quick, forced sale during the discovery process, unless both parties agree and Donald Sterling could simply say no. Then a sale would have to be approved by both parties and the judge.
no pun intended, but nothing is black and white, everything is some shade of gray. Seeing the multiple different issues at play here is not the equivalent of supporting Donald Sterling. Just as not believing Joe Paterno is burning in hell right now does not make somebody a molestation supporter, seeing plainly that Sterling's ousting and nearly certain impending death has both increased interest in the NBA playoffs and stand to profit certain individuals handsomely does not equate to "poor Donald Sterling."
The NBA wants it under different ownership because players are threatening not to play and the player's association will file grievances and force Sterling to make all players free agents. They're bleeding money left and right -- they're losing sponspors and TV deals. That hurts the other 29 teams. It's not as if SIlver was sitting around in his office waiting for something like this blow up. Jesus, is Sterling your grandfather or something? You've gone way out of your way to defend this guy.
You've picked quite the test case.
you would hope that an 80 year-old billionaire who has cancer would spend his dying days trying to rectify the damage that his 30+ years of racist, hateful incompetence have caused, and find some internal peace.
instead, it's being rumored that he's going to sue the NBA.
a man with no integrity, suing the nba on principle.
god rest his soul.
He was already caught on tape showing how he wants to spend "his dying days".
Being an absolute hypocrit that has a mixed race girlfriend (who he takes to games !!!!) yelling at her for being seen with black celebrities. How dare her?
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honest I only pressed save once
This is impressive!
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because he knows his way around the legal court. I am sure he is also surrounded by some of the best attorneys in the LA area. He has shown himself, in addition to being a blatant racist, to be an arrogant, aggressive, and unpleasant person.
This is a guy who, when violating clear NBA by-laws by unilateraly moving the Clippers from SD and being subsequently fined $25 million for violating said clear rules, turned around and sued the league for $100 million, even though he was being fined purusant to clear rules. Not wanting to litigate, the NBA settled with Sterlking for a $6 million, taking it out of Sterling’s cut from expansion fees, which amounted to, essentially, not receiving$6 million.
The legal analyst for ESPN seems to think that Sterling's removal is a done deal and that the sale is foregone conclusion and will happen very quickly and that Sterling has no foot to stand on.
I have litigated my share of cases and know, from experience, that nothing in law is clear. Most is mud. The pertinent language in the constitution, pursuant to which this vote will go ahead, is open to interpretation. Was a conversation taped in private a "willful" violation of the league rules? Well, that is certainly not a clear cut answer, and is most definitely open to interpretation. However, even if the arbitration panel finds in the affirmative, Sterling can pursue other legal avenues, anti-trust for example (arguing that a forced sale of his team in this circumstance is an illegal restraint of trade that could make him accept a below-market price). Now that course of action he can pursue in a court of law, not before an arbitration panel.
When you get into the realm of the courts, the legal process all of a sudden gets a LOT longer. There are a lot of "tools" within the rules of civil procedure (all sorts of motions), that one can use to stall. There is also the discovery process. That can take ages. I have worked on cases where just discovery took years. Just deposing every single owner can take forever. Personally, I do not think the antitrust case is super strong, Sterling might not prevail in the end, but litigation could last anywhere from weeks to years, so no, this is not a done deal. I am also sure that the other owners are doing their legal homework before they vote and are preparing for the possibility of a lawsuit. Depositions can be pretty brutal and the skeletons can start marching right of the closet.
There is also the issue of his wife who, incidentally, has her own history of racism( http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/30/wife-of-do…). Assuming they do get a divorce and she gets half the team, what then? If she does decides that she does not want to sell, on what grounds can the owners vote her our?
I know people want this guy to be gone but, realistically, people need to get ready for a looooong ride. Financially, it would make sense for Sterling to sell honestly; the longer he holds to the team the more the value will fall as sponsors will bail, etc. However, I do not get the impression that he cares.
he'll have to answer for everything some day, just like the rest of us.
He'll absolutely have to answer for why he made his black head coach Doc River's the highest paid coach in the NBA and paid out millions to many blacks. He's the most disgusting vile racists I have ever read about! How dare he give millions of dollars away to blacks!
just the fact that you used the term "blacks" (my white grandma from Flint says that) proves your ignorance. Timid bigot that Sterling.
mixed, whatever you wanna call it. She reffers to her own race in a non-racist manner. I bet you feel real stupid right now.
If so, I must have missed that lecture at black studies class I am taking. And I feel pretty smart since I knew you were biracial, meaning that you are black and white but I bet you prefer to call yourself more black than white which is, sorta, racist.
P.s. The fact that you would assume someone would "claim" their black side more than the "white" side makes you sound even more racist than using the term "blacks". Go back to 1960.
My experience working with blacks in the inner city (and seeing a certain mindset among many that exposes their racism towards whites) gives me the confidence to claim that the vast majority of biracial individuals tend to lean more to their black side than white. Dealing with many blacks in the inner city also gives me confidence that many blacks don't particularly view inter racial individuals in a high manner, especially if they don't identify with themselves as blacks. That is unless those Americans that happen to black are lying to me. It would seem that your high and mighty attitude on here would leave me to believe that you would call those in the inner city liars. The problem here is that those that point the finger of racism seem to be more obsessed with the color of one's skin than those they claim as being racist most of the time.
you IGNORANT bastard! Go talk like that in your African American Studies class and get you ass beat, "blacks", thats all you have to say...
...would have made money playing for other teams too. Donald Sterling did nothing to create the modern NBA other than purchase a team and then sit on his ass while people like Michael Jordan, Magic & Bird, Jerry Colangelo, Phil Jackson, and others made the league what it is. He was a joke as an owner for years even if you put aside his bigotry.
Racism isn't just wearing a KKK outfit and saying you're for segregation. Lacking sympathy for one racial group while you have sympathy for your own is also racism. You should ask yourself whether the latter definition applies to you, though your lack of sympathy seems to border on contempt.
He didn't make anyone a millionaire.
They made themselves millionaires. You act like he's just going around handing out multi-million dollars checks to black people out of the goodness of his heart.
Every other team in the league would be more than happy to give Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and any number of guys on that team millions of dollars for their services.
After Sterling is gone the Clippers and NBA will keep chugging on like he never even existed.
"You act like he's just going around handing out multi-million dollars checks to black people out of the goodness of his heart."
That sounds familiar. You don't suppose...
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? Do I know that I have—Who makes the game? Do I make the game, or do they make the game? Is there 30 owners, that created the league?
...it's hilarious that he thinks he's been more important to the NBA than guys like Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. Sterling didn't found anything and he didn't help make the NBA grow. I would dislike him if I were another long-time owner purely for taking a free ride all these years while other owners helped spread the game/league.
they weren't self made like Sterling. Sterling paid them the money, For whatever you think about Sterling, he is a very generous racist. I don't know many racists that pays out the millions like he does. Elgin Baylor even enjoyed Sterling's racism for 20 plus years while he was the worst GM in basketball.