So, The Owner Of The L.A. Clippers Is A Racist
The National Basketball Association is dealing with a bit of an embarrassment thanks to the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers:
An audio recording purportedly of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is sending shockwaves around the sports world. On the tape, Sterling tells his girlfriend V. Stiviano (who is half-black and half-Mexican) not to bring black people to Clippers games or pose with them in pictures on social media.
Here are some of the lowlights of the nine-minute tape:
“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?”
And this:
“You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it … and not to bring them to my games.”
One of the people specifically mentioned on the tape by Sterling is none other than NBA legend, and Los Angeles hero, Magic Johnson, who has since vowed to never attend a Clippers game again:
TMZ reported this morning that Clippers owner Donald Sterling doesn’t want me or other African-Americans to come to Clippers games.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) April 26, 2014
.@cjbycookie and I will never go to a Clippers game again as long as Donald Sterling is the owner.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) April 26, 2014
I feel sorry for my friends Coach Doc Rivers and Chris Paul that they have to work for a man that feels that way about African Americans.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) April 26, 2014
LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s comments about African Americans are a black eye for the NBA.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) April 26, 2014
Given the NBA’s huge appeal among African-Americans, not to mention the players, this is obviously a huge problem for the league.
Is there anyone on the planet who belongs at an NBA game as much as Magic Johnson?
Donald Stirling has been a public disgrace for at least 3 decades. Prior to purchasing the Clippers I believe he was, and still is, a prominent real estate mogul in the LA region. I also believe that his firm has been successfully sued by Black and Hispanic plaintififfs for housing discrimination.
The larger context is that this is yet another (unfortunate) very public reminder that racism is hardly behind us. There are many people out there, who, like Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling, who hold similar retrograde views on race.
Well, Justice Roberts told us that the age of racism is over, and he seems smart…
@anjin-san: Not just an NBA game, an NBA game in LA.
@anjin-san:
Well, one could argue for Larry Bird, but in this case, I’m 100% behind Magic.
It’s like saying you don’t want white people at a country music concert. I suppose he hasn’t noticed that a few NBA players are black.
There’s no way that Donald Sterling could be a racist. I mean look at all of the black folks he employs.
I mean, that’s proof, right?
(For the sarcasm impaired, this is the Snerdly/Quivers defense)
Racism and racists are hardly extinct from the earth, no…but the fact that comments such as these primarily come nowadays from angry 70-something men like Bundy and Sterling, and spark near-universal condemnation and outrage as soon as they go public, ought to be considered a sign of progress and cause for hope.
Disgusting if true. OTOH, it could be a “shiny pony” moment to draw attention away from the multimillionaire Obama supporter who beat the sh@t out of his girlfriend, and got off with 65 days community service.
This doesn’t make sense on a number of levels – most racists have no problems making money off of races they despise. In fact, making money off of them is generally considered a good thing in racist circles (wasn’t that one of the points of slavery?). Given what I’ve heard of how popular the NBA is among blacks in LA, you’d expect him to be all for anything that gives him more of their money …
If the report is true, not only is he racist, but apparently, incredibly stupid as well (the two aren’t necessarily synonomous).
http://deadspin.com/your-complete-quotable-guide-to-decades-of-donald-sterl-1568047212
For those unaware of Sterling’s history
(Blake Griffin just fell to the floor. And yes, it was very dramatic.)
I listened to the tape. It’s very sad. Sterling sounds like a very weak, unstable man in a very weird relationship that is crumbling. He also sounds like a man who has made considerable efforts NOT to be racist himself, but still bows to racist pressure from….somewhere.
There’s more to this story.
@george: If his girlfriend is bringing friends to games, presumably they’re getting in on his dime.
@Tillman:
Minor correction.
@anjin-san: “Larry Bird” – Donald Sterling
@CSK
Bird is certainly Johnson’s equal as a player, a claim few can make. As an ambassador for the game? Not even close. Johnson is a PR man’s fantasy come to life. If people call you “Magic”, and no one thinks it’s a joke, you really are something special.
@anjin-san:
This… though the less said about his late night show, the better. Cause it was “special”, but not in the way folks wanted it to be.
@lilo:
I just knew you guys would bring this back to Obama.
@lilo: Disgusting if true. OTOH, it could be a “shiny pony” moment to draw attention away from the multimillionaire Obama supporter who beat the sh@t out of his girlfriend, and got off with 65 days community service.
No, I doubt that. Some elements from the story that apparently escaped Mr. Mataconis’ notice:
1) Sterling is a long-time Democratic supporter, having backed Gray Davis and Bill Bradley.
2) Sterling has a record of racist statements in the past couple of years.
3) Sterling was slated to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles NAACP.
Those aspects will be downplayed, of course (if not outright buried) because We Must Not Harsh The Narrative — that “racism” is the single biggest issue facing us in the upcoming election, and anyone who disagrees Is Obviously A Racist Themselves. Bringing up any other issue as possibly more important than The Racist Right will be squelched.
I am shocked… SHOCKED… That a rich white man who regularly engages in the “buying and selling” of people who don’t look like him would think of them as less than human. I mean, who’da thunk it?
@Jenos Idanian #13:
Funny how I read that in several other places. If it was being “buried” it’s gone Zombie. As to his being a Dem, first I wouldn’t know one way or the other, 2nd, who cares? Nobody ever said there were no racist Dems. 3rdly, if Republicans are tired of being accused of being racist they could try not making stupid racist comments, or making heroes of people who make stupid racist comments. They could… But they don’t.
I wonder why?
@Jenos Idanian #13: Oh, and Jenos?
Donald Sterling, Los Angeles Clippers
Records show Sterling has donated just $6,000, with no activity since the early 1990s. He supported Gray Davis early in his career, as well as Bill Bradley.
That would make Sterling a long-time AGO Democratic supporter. You are going to have to do better than that.
Also, Michael Tomaskey spells it out for you:
Republicans Are Racists? No, It’s Just All a Big Coincidence
The revolting comments. The emails. The jokes. The posters. The T-shirts. The ghostwriters. It’s not like it’s a pattern or something.
How was this guy ever approved to own an NBA team?
I find it shocking that this guy has a girlfriend who looks young enough to be his grandaughter or a high school student. I haven’t seen or heard anyone say anything about that, maybe they have. How does he get away with that ?
Is there no shame anymore ?
Get away with it? He is wealthy. Since time immemorial old, rich guys have had young, attractive “girlfriends”.
Steve
@Tyrell: Have you seen Donald Trump’s wives? It’s not the hair that attracts them.
@lilo: funny how the first people to drag partisan politics into this debate have been those who refuse to denounce racism unless it’s committed by a non-white or a non-conservative.
The guy is a wealthy real estate developer. I don’t know if Sterling has ever made any of his political views known, but it’s likely that he’s conservative in his politics, not liberal.
Nevertheless, it has nothing to do with it. He’s disgusting, whether he is liberal or conservative. And that is a critical difference between today’s center-left and today’s “center” (hard)-right.
@Tyrell: the San Diego Clippers were a failing franchise and needed an owner. Sterling, being a shrewd man (one of the few good things one can say about him), bought the team some 30 years ago for the bargain-basement price of $12.5M and moved it to LA. Where they have sucked mightily for most of their tenure, both living in the long shadow of the Lakers and being cursed with an owner who saw the franchise merely as a way to profit from the league’s revenue sharing agreements.
Pretty sure that back in the early 80s when the sale was approved (and sponsored by Jerry Buss, the influential Lakers owner), the league could not have had the slightest idea he was such a jerk. Well, very wealthy people can tend to be jerks because nobody says ‘no’ to them; I guess I meant to say they had no idea he would end up being such a PR embarrassment.
@al-Ameda:
You realize that YOU are the real racist for pointing that out.
Because everyone knows it was
Bill Clinton’sJimmy Carter’s fault.@lilo: trying to wave a bright shiny object yourself, are we?
@steve: “old, rich guys have young, attractive girlfriends”: I will put that on my “Life isn’t fair” list, right under – death, taxes, wrinkles, parking meters.
I do have a “doesn’t make up for life isn’t fair, but these help” list: roller coasters, puppies, quarter pounder with fries & shake, cotton candy, and the beach.
@Tyrell: Add recordings by Beverly Sills and 15-year single Southern malts to that list of Good Things….
@anjin-san: Bill Russell, Oscar “The Big O”, John Havlicek, and Kareem Abdul – Jabaar. Others also.
@Tillman: true, and she’s half black/hispanic- and pure gold digger!
so what? i can care less. don’t like it don’t go to the games. the players don’t like it then quit and try to find a real job.
the vast majority of nba players back obama because of his skin color, hypocrites and bigots.
again so what?