Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling may be one of the most miserable human beings out there, but he’s still protected by the same laws and rights that all of us are…
Which include freedom of speech, private conversation and his own opinion.
This guy is probably on Cloud 9 because he’s center stage in the media glare and with his high-priced LA attorneys will likely win his case against the NBA. Remember NBA by-laws, which are a bit thin in this case, do not supersede the U.S. Constitution let alone the rights granted to all Americans.
First of all, his taped-conversation was private and inadmissible in a court of law.
Secondly, they may decide to play the tape anyway because in many ways it defends Sterling.
His lawyers can argue that this is the case of an 80 year old billionaire who was simply jealous that his mistress might be sleeping around with NBA players who may or may not be of color. Regarding Magic Johnson, he’s is a well-known carrier of the HIV virus. Sterling may have worried or assumed that his girlfriend might be sleeping with Johnson, thus she might get HIV and pass it along to Sterling.
Still, clearly, his rant was aimed at black athletes in general.
V. Stiviano
Now lets look at discrimination issue with the Clippers.
Sterling now owns a playoff team so they’re a good team. And he’s paying his predominately black players the same type of salaries they would likely make with any other NBA team. Here’s the kicker, his head coach is black and one of the highest paid coaches in the League.
So why did commissioner Adam Silver rush out and announce that the NBA was banning Sterling from all NBA activities and may force him to sell the team? Simple. Because the commissioner was forced by the media to make a rush to judgment knowing that not all his decrees would stick.
I don’t see U.S. courts making an exception in this case. That would be a dangerous precedent, whereby the owner of a major franchise is held to a higher standard than anyone else.
Look, the government gives out permits for Nazi’s to march and have public displays of hatred towards Jews and Blacks, airing stating their disgusting opinions publicly all the time. That’s America, we enjoy free speech, especially in a private conversation.
Donald Sterling is going to be on 60 Minutes and everything else.
He’s going to end his days in the limelight. He’s got $1.9 billion, so fining him and forcing him to sell his team are not going to faze him one bit or diminish his enjoyment of life in the rich lane.
This man is going to get just what he wanted, notoriety fame and attention.
His mistress already has agents lined up to get her a reality show, etc. Just like B movie actresses who leak porno videos, this was probably a set up to get both of them what they want – attention for him, fame and money for her.
Look, there are a lot of 80 plus year old billionaires who think the same way he does.
They came up in a different time and look down on almost everyone. They are elitists who only want to spend time around one another. Remember, Sterling committed no criminal act.
I realize the NBA legal department is saying he doesn’t have a claim against them, but anyone can file a grievance in civil court and I believe Sterling will.
And there’s a pretty good chance that he’ll prevail.
Nice piece, Craig, but lets try this on.
His girlfriend doesn’t look too white to me, he’s loaded with black players, but yes, he’s still a major, racist dirt bag. No doubt.
Lets reverse the story line?
Black Dude owns a convenient store, 20th and Troost. Lets say he even did it to serve, primarily, his own community. I’m cool with that, we have BET, FUBU, Negro College League, NAACP, I get it.
An uppity JoCo soccer mom pulls in one day to fill up at his station. While he’s being taped by his skanky, white girlfriend he says, “I wish all those snooty white chicks would but their gas at 135th and Roe, I don’t like them or their money down here and stop bring your white friends down here too.” Suzie Skank leaks the tape to a local talk show host who plays it.
All us uppity whites get all bent out of shape over it. Mayor of Olathe, OP, Leawood call Sly and DEMANDS Gas Dude has to give up with store because he’s said that.
Same shoe, different foot. What have we come to?
I can buy if every player wants to quit, even though they won’t. I’m all for sponsors leaving him. I’m all for fans staying home and boycotting games. But we can take his business away?
I hate the term slippery slope….but…..
Good point, but why would I care what the Black convenience store owner and his skank think of me? Words are words, if I got pissed off and bothered every time someone said something stupid I would be a very unhappy person. Actions speak louder than words
Mr. Wilson, I hate the term false equivalency….but…the difference in the fantasy you describe ( a JoCo soccer mom getting gas on Troost? Yeah, right.) and what is reality is a prime example. That being said, I agree with you; let the marketplace and public opinion do its job. I don’t believe he should be forced to sell by decree.
rckal, sorry, best example I could come up with in a short period of time while trying to drive, text and finish my beer.
wislon….pleasedon’t text and drive…very dangerous…
we need you at kcc!!!!!
be safe!
P.S. I understand he is 80 not 70 sorry.
Guys you don’t have to like this man, but we can’t change our beliefs in freedom and free speech cause he is a dick. It’s a dangerous path to government taking other big interests for verbal bad behavior or political thoughts they don’t like. I say he can be fined, banned for a long time and so on, but sell the team no, that’s too much. In the end I don’t think he will be forced to sell his team. He might do it to move on at some point. This guy will never say ‘sorry’ never.
Again he committed no crime and it was an illegally taped private conversation. I think that’s that.
“Which include freedom of speech, private conversation and his own opinion.”
This has nothing to do with Freedom of Speech. Go crack open a high school civics book.
Say I own a McDonald’s. I’m a franchise owner. I don’t OWN McDonald’s. I own A McDonald’s. When I buy my McDonald’s franchise, I sign all KINDS of paperwork telling me what I can and can’t do… I can’t charge $75 for a quarter pounder, I can’t say that kids aren’t allowed… I can’t call customers n*ggers. If I do, the McDonald’s corporation has every right to fine me, ban me and force me to sell my franchise. I’m detrimental to the McDonald’s brand.
This is no different.
You’re exactly right, Brandon. This is a contractual issue. Sterling signed a contract along with every other owner. Certain things they can’t do and one of them relates to actions that detrimentally affect the league. The loss of the sponsorship money from companies bailing on the Clippers impacts the league as a whole. That’s what Silver is hanging his hat on. Should be fun to watch all this play out, however. If it does get into the court system and moves up the ladder, I can’t wait to see which way Clarence Thomas votes.
What you are talking about is haw a hypothetical McDonalds owner runs his business that would be detrimental to the brand and violate a franchise agreement. Donald Sterling did nothing in the operation of his business to violate his franchise agreement. He had a private conversation illegally recorded and made public. What he said was repugnant for sure, but does saying something stupid or revolting in a private conversation violate his franchise agreement?
“Donald Sterling did nothing in the operation of his business to violate his franchise agreement.”
So you know specifically that engaging in behaviour or conduct detrimental to the league wasn’t part of his franchise agreement? That seems unlikely. And while it wasn’t done in the “operation” of his business, you can certainly expect to be held to standards outside of working hours.
I see what you’re saying here with this, I think… this wasn’t DURING business hours, so it doesn’t count? And in MY example, I specifically stated that the McD franchise owner wants to charge blah blah blah, which obviously falls under the umbrella of “doing business.”
So this is a McDonald’s franchise owner who also happens to lead a local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. It’s in his off-hours, he never preaches to his workers about it, etc. The thing is, someone finds out. (And we can all agree, I think, that the recorded convo piece sucks.) They don’t like that the dude who owns their local McDonald’s is in the KKK. So they contact a local TV station. Top story on the news? “LOCAL McDONALD’S OWNER IS McRACIST.” He had an obligation– likely contractual– to his overlords to NOT let this kind of information get public. But it did, so he suffers the consequences.
You cited an imaginary McDonalds owner calling customers the n word, overcharging for a product, not allowing kids, etc. That is not analogous to saying something in private and having it illegally recorded. This is not to say I feel sorry for Mr. Sterling in any way. He is an absolute jerk. I just don’t know if the NBA can legally pull his team for it.
Every franchise contract has a morality clause. And the franchiser decides how and when to exorcise it.
VP at our company was stopped and refused to take the test for DUI. Company policy was you could be fired. He wasn’t.
But shortly after his conviction and months of free limo rides, he expressed a desire to follow other interests.
I don’t understand your overall point. As others have implied, he is not being forced out by the government. He is being forced out by the NBA who do have certain standards and who have a large fan base that are African American. This isn’t really an issue of freedom of speech so much as it is a business decision.
To your other point about him being “the happiest man on the planet” well, so what? He is a very wealthy man who so happens to be a racist and misogynist asshole. I’m sure plenty of awful people are also very satisfied individuals. If he is a very happy person then that means his overall character is even worse than most people imagine.
This was the logical end result of political correctness and today’s hyper-grievance culture run amok, and guess what? It’s only going to get worse.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/30/opinion/randazza-sterling-privacy/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
No offense funnyman but you dont really know what you speak of here.
This lawsuit will be over the termination clause of a franchise agreejent. The US constitution is not applicable.
The NBA is not required to follow either the federal rules of evidence or the California rules of evidence which would have excluded the tape. As a multiple felon, this situation is similar to your criminal grand juries which were allowed to consider illegally gathered evidence.
The court review of the nba decision is limited to an examination of whether the punishment was arbitrary or capricious.
Sterlings best option is to sue the NBA for antitrust alleging owner collusion. He would be suing for injunctive relief. The fact that the tapes are re Magic who has tried to steal the team out from under him with these well timed releases help him a bit I guess.
California is also a community property state and Mrs. Sterling owns half that team by law so I dont know how the NBA can force a full sale of her share considering she didnt violate any NBA rules herself.
“The court review of the nba decision is limited to an examination of whether the punishment was arbitrary or capricious.”
This is obviously a light year outta my blue collar pay grade, but does the court, when it reviews the arbitrary or capricious nature of the decision take into consideration the genesis of the claim, which, again, would be the illegal recording?
If he was hit by a car and was found unconcious with material relating to his positive views on Adolf Hitler (Sterling is Jewish and his real name, is Tokowitz. He is on record with some negativity towards the State of Israel. A living breathing conundrum, this Tokowitz dude.), removed illegally from his person and released by an Hospital employee, would he be subject to the same penalities?
Does the manner of the aquisition of ANY information, which could be damaging to Tokowitz, have ANY effect during that process?
???
>when it reviews the arbitrary or capricious nature of the decision take into consideration the genesis of the claim, which, again, would be the illegal recording?
No, the NBA is not required to follow either the federal rules of evidence or the California rule of evidence. When reviewing the case under the arbitrary and capricious standard, the court would examine the rules of evidence used by the league to make sure they followed their own rules.
An example of arbitrary and capricious: The NBA owners agreement specifically sets the maximum fine at 2.5 million (the fine they handed out). If they were to deviate from their own rules and say, for example, that he had a 10 million dollar fine that would be considered arbitrary and capricious.
As for your second issue, yes the NBA appears to follow the wide-open rules of evidence often used by University Discipline boards, HR investigations, or Grand Juries.
Thanks Chuck, good comments. Lots of Jews have issues with Israel just as lots of Catholics have issues with the Vatican. Criticizing Israel is not per se evidence that one is an anti-semite. Now a Jew with positive views on Hitler might hit the nail.
I think Balbo answered your question but with the huge amounts of money on both sides here, I’m pretty confident this will find its’ way into the legal system. Also confident that Hearne, Harley, and Paul might also address this with future offerings.
What he said was terrible and it affects how I feel about him. What I don’t like is that his players and employees may be forced to have to work with him Legally, he may have an out.. But draft picks can tell agents to stay away from the team… fans can not show up.. etc… Silver is trying to scare him off and he should. I hope it works because I feel sorry for the people are stuck with him to retain a paycheck they deserve.
Gee Wally, an 80 something rich white guy with a racist perspective that doesn’t conform to todays society. Shocker. Oprah making comparisons to Slavery ..Bigger shock . Now Magic, Oprah, and even Floyd slap a ho Mayweather are interested in buying the team. The other older white owners are probably quaking in their Florsheim shoes and Sans-a-belt slacks. If it happens to Sterling, it can happen to one of them next. In a court of law the phone recording would be inadmissible. Recording someone without their knowledge, absent a court order, is illegal. Anything gleaned from the conversation falls under the Fruit of the poison tree doctrine. That said, Im sure there are NBA bylaws that allow him to be forced to sell. The media and PC police are going to flog this story like Hearne doing a Jardines expose. The truth is, people aren’t surprised that an octogenarian holds views no longer accepted by mainstream society. It also isn’t surprising that the usual suspects will rise up with self righteous indignation , making remarks about the evil racists who still threaten to return us to the horrors of Jim Crow. We’ve all seen this movie, and it always ends the same.
Well put Mark. Yes its a media circus, but as I stated the old dude wins, he loves it, you can’t hurt him, he’s got 2 billion dollars and his life is nearing the end. He’s a major player on the world stage at 80 winner, winner, chicken dinner. The little mistress well she’s likely more a 15 minutes of fame, reality show type. At best. She’s a bit nutty from what I see.
I agree trying to turn this into a major racial story with deep importance is major b.s. An older rich white guy said hey I don’t like being around black people much, basically, nothing shocking there. This story is way, way, way over the top to battle the anger the urban core has for all the media on arrested and troubled NBA and NFL stars who are black. This is the payback. Clearly.
nice article glaze. At the office someone said “do you know any 80 year olds
who aren’t prejudiced? ” never thought about that.
But remember mr. sterling got naacp award after donating tons of cash.
Even after he lost a 3 million dollar discrimination lawsuit. Hello naacp!
But these comments…which were only part of a one hour conversation and
definitely were selected quotes….are probably norm for other WHITE owners
of nba team.
STerling kept black elgin Baylor getting paid millions for decades while the team was the
laughing stock of the nba. Even leno made jokes about them.
He made many young black playersvery very very very rich…and if they
knew he was a racist I’m sure none of them were lined up to leave the team
or give him back their paychekcs.
The comment about his wife bring me to the conclusion that someone had
to record this conversation…it was a clear recording…someone had to
let it out to the public. The girlfriend/hooker said she didn’t do it and we
all know strippers/hookers/gold diggers are nothing but filth (a quote from
someone in that industry tells). I wouldn’t be surprised if the wife let the
recording out. She’s estranged…she get half the property….and the nba
can’t get her to sell her part of the team if divorce occurs.
No doubt this sterling guy got hooked up with the wrong girl. Stripper/hookers
are trouble. Filth is just a lesser adjective.
He bought her Ferraris/Bentleys/cash…so we can “assume” she was
truly in love with this old guy. WRONG. She claims to have been his
activist (should have been ASSKISS!) for his money.
What he saidwas wrong…no doubt…but what about the white racists
who say much worse stuff. They don’t have to give up their companies
or jobs. Chucks comments make sterling look like al Sharpton.
This will drag on and on…theclippers players willget their million
dollar checks….doc rivers will be hard pressed to find a better
head coaching job where people acorss the nation know his name
and he can write a book…appear on oprah etc.
NO denying the comments were crude. But in the end..like all these
media generated stories will fill space/time on talk shows/and make
a lot of people a lot of money.
The comment about the owner suing the nba for anti trust action is
really interesintg because of the status the league carries.
I’m sure nfl/nhl owners are also worried about the legalstatus also..
This goes beyond some old rich dude and his stripper/hooker/filthy
girl.
Again proves : YOU GET IN BED WITH DOGS…YOU GET FLEAS.
And having spent time in the south…ican’t believe these players hadn’t
heard racist comments that made sterlings look very pale.
another circus….and again its fun and entertainment for the public.
Who’s next. ??????????????????
Glaze: stay away from the strippers/hookers….theyre trouble!!!!!
We have the right to believe whatever the hell we want. However, if those views become public and it turns out that you are a racist who owns an NBA team then you don’t have the right to be immune from criticism from the public. I don’t understand this belief that if you are a wealthy white man and act like a shitty person then you are somehow entitled to be left alone. Call out Al Sharpton and Oprah and Floyd (who all have dubious characters) but god forbid that someone tells the rich white guy to stop being a racist asshole.
Players are jumping on this because it takes the light off of them. How many have been arrested for Domestic Abuse, Drugs, Assault, and even Murder. Whoever buys the team, still needs approval of the other owners (I think). You think they will approve Floyd Mayweather? No. By the way his Skank has been acting, this is looking more and more like a set up. He is a racist, but she meant to record him. If she did not release the tape, then she knows who did. Also, if it is illegal to tape without consent, why are not the police investigating her? A crime was committed.
TOTAL SETUP.
Fun to see Aids Magic backpedaling like a crackhead with a newly stolen Huffy from his ‘I want to own the clippahs owner’ statement when people started smelling a rat in this case.
Now you see what’s up. Again he is a jerk, but broke no law. Again I say he wins in the end. Guess what lots of his pals are patting him on the back, they are all looking down on all of us…way it is.
Since we can now ban for life from the NBA, based upon outrage, I propose the following:
1. Shaq for posting the selfie making fun of the disabled fan and getting over 10,000 twitter likes. http://nypost.com/2014/04/30/shaq-apologizes-for-mocking-disabled-fans-selfie/
2. The owner of the Brooklyn Nets, a Russian oligarch who stole hundreds of millions of dollar equivalents from the workers of the former Soviet Union. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/brooklyn-nets-owner-wants-move-team-control-russia-protest-u-s-sanctions/
That is just off the top of my head. Its all fun and games when Robespierre starts the committee of public safety, until things get out of control.
Couldn’t have said it better myself; in fact, I didn’t!
new headline on cbs online:
OWNERS AFRAID OF WHATS IN THEIR CLOSETS!!!!!!
sterlings got 2 billion dollars and 10-15 years to live.
so he don’t care.
get him his hookers/strippers/gold diggers/the money
is there and this dude loves to sue.
take away his play toy team and see what unloads.
FIRST VICTIM: MARK CUBANO ….dallas mav owner..
his closet may be filled (hell yes it is)….
NEXT VICTIM: Majic “cure the aids” JOHNSON….oh boy…
he doesn’t want to tangle with sterling.
OH….THE BUSS FAMILY…..uh…wait til they hear
about jerry (although he’s dead)…
slap the old mans hands…let him give 50 million to the
naacp…and move on.
Really need to ban all hoookers /strippers from the games…
but then theyd have to sell another 1000 tickets.
These ball players aren’t saints.
Saw what they do at maloufs hotel in vegas…makes
sterling look like the pope.
he who drives an expensive car needs to careful driving
in demolition derby!!!!!!!!!
this is going to be one sweet circus.
And I was getting the popcorn ready for the clown car
election in 2016!
geesh…well lets the games begin.
nice comment SLIM JIMBO!
Kareem said it best, the hypocrisy of the NBA and the Right Reverends Sharpton and Jackson are worse.
http://toprightnews.com/?p=2777
In some states whomever released the tape would be prosecuted as a felon for no having all parties permission to record.
The failure of the NBA or anyone commenting on the statement the players should all quit and form a black-only league (NBA person, it is in the link above) just shows how dishonest the whole spiel of harmony and equality is in the real world of Race Relations Economics.
KAREEMS COMMENTS WERE FANTASTIC…
maybe they need to listen to him.
sterling was a bigot in 1990’s…I’m sure elgin and the
other young black millionaire game boys hated taking those
million dollar checks… cough cough
Now New York Times says, “Sterling is fighting Cancer” What next. May change the situation a bit. Stay tuned.
Who says the recording was illegal? In Missouri, it’s legal to record a private conversation as long as just one of those conversing knows it’s being recorded.
It is illegal in California, which is where it took place.