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The NBA Owners are going to vote on whether to force Donald Sterling to sell the LA Clippers because of the racist comments he made on that tape that was secretly recorded by his wife.
If you had a vote in that situation, would you vote "Yes" to force him to sell the team, or do you think he shouldn't be forced to see his team and vote "no".
After you vote, please explain your position.
Which says...
The NBA Owners are going to vote on whether to force Donald Sterling to sell the LA Clippers because of the racist comments he made on that tape that was secretly recorded by his wife.
If you had a vote in that situation, would you vote "Yes" to force him to sell the team, or do you think he shouldn't be forced to see his team and vote "no".
After you vote, please explain your position.
The vast majority of the NBA players are racist.
1. Dennis Rodman -> Made racist comments against Larry Bird and got away with it. If a white player were have made the same comments about black players, there would have been outrage and demanding that he sell all of his persoanal assesses..
2. Kobe Bryant -> Committing flagrant fouls only to foreigners and minorities.
3. Shaq -> Racist against Asians.
4. Isiah Thomas -> Made racist comments against Larry Bird, making stupid statements about white people in court during his legal troubles.
5. KG -> Sucker punching white people.
Sterling was stripped by the government from his rights and freedoms? No? Then he wasn't stripped of his rights and freedoms.
I think I'd probably vote that he should be forced to sell it. Doesn't make me happy. Apparently, though, those are the rules. I think it's reasonable to expect that there's a price to be paid for voicing one's prejudice as a public figure. Yes! Yes, I know! He didn't do it in public. But it became public. End of story.
Paying a hefty price for inappropriate comments/conduct is certainly not without precedent. Think Dog The Bounty Hunter; Alec Baldwin; professional sports players who've lost their endorsements because of their conduct.
How can you expect to stay as owner of a basketball team when you've as much as said you're racist? Was he tricked into it? Absolutely. And she even covered herself from a charge of illegal recording by saying he'd asked her to keep recordings of his conversations. The man's an idiot.
I do think it should be a fair sale and not a fire sale, though. With him putting the team into his wife's sole name, perhaps he's bought some time...
For you race hustlers out there who are chomping at the bit to pounce on me, play the race card and accuse me wanting a racist to get a free pass, you couldn't be farther from the truth. Allowing Sterling to keep his team is anything but a free pass. If he is allowed to keep the team, the free market will punish him to a far greater degree financially, than forcing him to sell the team now would, and assure that the public backlash doesn't fade away anytime soon.
If you force him to sell the team now, he will get a good price because the true financial backlash from his comments have not diminished the teams value as of yet. Allowing him to keep the team and to continue to manage it, will result in every decent, marketable player on the team to flee after the season ends and contracts expire, and no player of any quality will ever sign a contract to play with the Clippers. Meaning they are guaranteed to be losing, last place team for as long as he is owner, and season tickets, which is a huge revenue stream for NBA teams, would virtually vanish next season. Then there's the issue of TV revenue, sponsors and endorsements. No company in their right mind would want to associate, much less sponsor the Clippers, meaning that local TV will not be able to sell advertising for games and the clippers games will not be televised. The same would likely happen with radio also and would in effect, cut off every major revenue stream and in a very short amount of time, totally bankrupt the organisation... Sterling will then be stuck with a worthless franchise that's costing him millions, that nobody will be interested in buying, and even if he did manage to find a buyer, would only get a small fraction of what he would get if he is forced to sell the team now, while it's still marketable.
There is one more bright spot in letting him keep the team... If he is forced out now, this whole issue disappears in a few years and Sterling's life on a personal level, a comfort level, will return to normal and he won't suffer any more grief publicly over his words. Keeping the team however, will keep him in the spotlight, keep his name in the newspapers, keep him in the publics eye, and guarantee that this issue will not go away so easily. He'll have to deal with the public backlash for many years and possibly, for the rest of his life.
I dissagree... You don't take away a persons legally owned business because they're an idiot, or because of something they said.... That's not the America I know.
Just let the free market punish him, and believe me, it will. Here's what I said earlier:
Heya 29A. :2wave: Yeah......but what do the Athletes do now. Since people are out to catch them now making racial remarks. Anywhere and with Any Sport? NBA specifically and then the NFL.
Heya Apache.I was just thinking about some of the stuff Rodman has said.....still think if someone like Lebron is caught on a Cellphone in some rant and they catch him using racial language.....my my my, just think how things are going to get ugly about Forcing one such as him out......in shame.
The NBA Owners are going to vote on whether to force Donald Sterling to sell the LA Clippers because of the racist comments he made on that tape that was secretly recorded by his wife.
If you had a vote in that situation, would you vote "Yes" to force him to sell the team, or do you think he shouldn't be forced to see his team and vote "no".
After you vote, please explain your position.
Hey, MMC.Not sure of the NFL's player contract, but the NBA players are at least bound by Article 35 of the NBA's constitution, hopefully they've read it, as it does prohibit remarks of a prejudicial nature.
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION UNIFORM PLAYER CONTRACT
http://www.nbpa.org/sites/default/files/EXHIBIT A.pdf
Hey, MMC.Not sure of the NFL's player contract, but the NBA players are at least bound by Article 35 of the NBA's constitution, hopefully they've read it, as it does prohibit remarks of a prejudicial nature.
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION UNIFORM PLAYER CONTRACT
http://www.nbpa.org/sites/default/files/EXHIBIT A.pdf
Some years ago a sports reporter for the Los Angeles Times wrote an article about NBA fans in particular with Laker fans, white laker fans on how they always talk in the "first person" as if they were on the court playing with the Lakers. It's alway "We won." or "We lost." Never "the lakers won," or "the lakers lost."
Listen to NFL fans or baseball, ice hockey, America's Cup, horse racing, etc. It's rarely in the first person, it's usually the Packers won, the Bears won, Dodgers lost, Kings won, Seattle Slew won by a nose. But when it comes to NBA basketball, it's always in the first person "we won" or "we lost."
Then the reporter went on in reference to all of these white NBA Laker fans who talk as if they were on the team and asking if they knew that the majority of the Lakers probably personally wouldn't like them and likely refer to them as honkies or crackers..
The NBA Owners are going to vote on whether to force Donald Sterling to sell the LA Clippers because of the racist comments he made on that tape that was secretly recorded by his wife.
If you had a vote in that situation, would you vote "Yes" to force him to sell the team, or do you think he shouldn't be forced to see his team and vote "no".
After you vote, please explain your position.
Losing endorsements is more appropriate than having something which you own taken from you. I don't equate the two in terms of severity.I think I'd probably vote that he should be forced to sell it. Doesn't make me happy. Apparently, though, those are the rules. I think it's reasonable to expect that there's a price to be paid for voicing one's prejudice as a public figure. Yes! Yes, I know! He didn't do it in public. But it became public. End of story.
Paying a hefty price for inappropriate comments/conduct is certainly not without precedent. Think Dog The Bounty Hunter; Alec Baldwin; professional sports players who've lost their endorsements because of their conduct.
How can you expect to stay as owner of a basketball team when you've as much as said you're racist? Was he tricked into it? Absolutely. And she even covered herself from a charge of illegal recording by saying he'd asked her to keep recordings of his conversations. The man's an idiot.
I do think it should be a fair sale and not a fire sale, though. With him putting the team into his wife's sole name, perhaps he's bought some time...
Losing endorsements is more appropriate than having something which you own taken from you. I don't equate the two in terms of severity.
If a CEO of a corporation says something really, really stupid, and the thing that he said will so damage the brand of that corporation that they will lose a great deal of money, the DUTY of the board of directors will be to replace him ASAP, that they can protect the brand and not lose a great deal of money.
I agree. People sign their rights away every day when they sign contracts. That's the ONLY way it's going to happen. He signed the contract. That's what the contract says.
The NBA Owners are going to vote on whether to force Donald Sterling to sell the LA Clippers because of the racist comments he made on that tape that was secretly recorded by his wife.
If you had a vote in that situation, would you vote "Yes" to force him to sell the team, or do you think he shouldn't be forced to see his team and vote "no".
After you vote, please explain your position.
If a CEO of a corporation says something really, really stupid, and the thing that he said will so damage the brand of that corporation that they will lose a great deal of money, the DUTY of the board of directors will be to replace him ASAP, that they can protect the brand and not lose a great deal of money.
Sterling said something that would cost the NBA a minimum of tens of millions of dollars in revenue - if they did not act quickly and decisively, then the public would have perceived their inaction as tacit tolerance of (if not agreement with) Sterling and his comments...and perception is everything.
In other words, the reason the other owners had to vote to take away the Clippers for him was to protect the revenue stream of all owners, because they all would have suffered significant losses as a direct result. Their actions, then, were their fiduciary DUTY as part of the group of owners of NBA teams.
Let's just remember, for all those who cite that Sterling signed an ownership agreement, that Al Davis signed a similar ownership agreement as owner of the Oakland, sometimes Los Angeles, Raiders. Part of his agreement was that he couldn't relocate his team without the consent of the other owners in the league - he signed that agreement - and yet, a court of law sided with him when he moved his team from Oakland to LA and then back again to Oakland. There was a similar occurrence, if I'm not mistaken, when Art Model moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore. In those cases, and others, the financial interests of the owners of the teams prevailed over arbitrary decisions made by the league's commissioner and other owners in the league. The same could easily be said for the NBA and its commissioner in this case.
I wish Sterling would take the league to court just so we could see what would happen.
I don’t know. Did he do anything illegal? Did he break any laws? Has he discriminated against anyone? There is an old saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” Perhaps not in this case though. It does seem that Sterling has done everything in his power to make the Clippers a very competitive team and has rewarded his players regardless of race handsomely.
I really don’t know, I suppose if one places words over and above actions, yes. If not, then no. But as Brett Butler told Scarlet O’Hara, “Frankly my dear…..
I don’t know. Did he do anything illegal? Did he break any laws? Has he discriminated against anyone? There is an old saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” Perhaps not in this case though. It does seem that Sterling has done everything in his power to make the Clippers a very competitive team and has rewarded his players regardless of race handsomely.
I really don’t know, I suppose if one places words over and above actions, yes. If not, then no. But as Brett Butler told Scarlet O’Hara, “Frankly my dear…..
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