LA Clippers Owner Donald Sterling under fire for taped racist comments to GF

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

How long until conservatives go ape**** and completely let the fact that this is the free market in action go miles over their head? 

[afleitch]

How long until conservatives go ape**** and completely let the fact that this is the free market in action go miles over their head? 

If it was about gays it'd have started already (and some of our posters would have started too )

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The fact that this demonstrates there can be fairly adverse economic consequences for being a known racist does weaken the case for the continuation of Title II of the Civil Rights Act.  Of course implying that an NBA franchise is anything like a typical business serving the public would be idiotic, but no business that seeks to have a national presence can afford to be seen to be tolerating racism today.  Alas, we're not there yet, as the NBA was willing to tolerate Sterling as long as he wasn't widely seen.

[MaxQue]

The fact that this demonstrates there can be fairly adverse economic consequences for being a known racist does weaken the case for the continuation of Title II of the Civil Rights Act.  Of course implying that an NBA franchise is anything like a typical business serving the public would be idiotic, but no business that seeks to have a national presence can afford to be seen to be tolerating racism today.  Alas, we're not there yet, as the NBA was willing to tolerate Sterling as long as he wasn't widely seen.

Many owners hating him and wanted to get rid of him since long, but they needed 24 team owners (on 30) agreeing on that. Hard to do so without a good reason.

[Simfan34]

He's always been hated by the NBA and the owners in general and has a long history of being detrimental to the league.  He'll make out like a bandit,  of course.  He paid 12.5 million for the team in 1981 and it's estimated that he could get above $1 billion for it now.

A billion? I saw a valuation of $550 million. Quite the return.

[bedstuy]

He's always been hated by the NBA and the owners in general and has a long history of being detrimental to the league.  He'll make out like a bandit,  of course.  He paid 12.5 million for the team in 1981 and it's estimated that he could get above $1 billion for it now.

A billion? I saw a valuation of $550 million. Quite the return.

The Milwaukee Bucks were just sold for $550 million.  I guarantee that the Clippers are worth more than the Milwaukee Bucks. 

[Yank2133]

The fact that this demonstrates there can be fairly adverse economic consequences for being a known racist does weaken the case for the continuation of Title II of the Civil Rights Act.  Of course implying that an NBA franchise is anything like a typical business serving the public would be idiotic, but no business that seeks to have a national presence can afford to be seen to be tolerating racism today.  Alas, we're not there yet, as the NBA was willing to tolerate Sterling as long as he wasn't widely seen.

Many owners hating him and wanted to get rid of him since long, but they needed 24 team owners (on 30) agreeing on that. Hard to do so without a good reason.

True, but it doesn't help the leagues image that they basically gave him Chris Paul.

[MurrayBannerman]

He's always been hated by the NBA and the owners in general and has a long history of being detrimental to the league.  He'll make out like a bandit,  of course.  He paid 12.5 million for the team in 1981 and it's estimated that he could get above $1 billion for it now.

A billion? I saw a valuation of $550 million. Quite the return.

The Milwaukee Bucks were just sold for $550 million.  I guarantee that the Clippers are worth more than the Milwaukee Bucks. 

Valuation does not equate to the amount of money they'll return. The Dodgers well overshot their valuation when sold.

I still don't think they crack a billion, though.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

He's always been hated by the NBA and the owners in general and has a long history of being detrimental to the league.  He'll make out like a bandit,  of course.  He paid 12.5 million for the team in 1981 and it's estimated that he could get above $1 billion for it now.

A billion? I saw a valuation of $550 million. Quite the return.

The Milwaukee Bucks were just sold for $550 million.  I guarantee that the Clippers are worth more than the Milwaukee Bucks. 

Valuation does not equate to the amount of money they'll return. The Dodgers well overshot their valuation when sold.

I still don't think they crack a billion, though.

The Clippers may well be more valuable under new ownership, even without taking into account any loss of value from Sterling's comments.  He's been unwilling to invest in talent to make the team good, so much so that the Clippers don't have a D-League team of their own and they make minimal use of the one they share with four other teams.

I could see a new owner starting a D-League team for the Clippers and placing it in a city they might move to as an obvious test run.

[DINGO Joe]

Clippers fans don't actually exist.

Frankie Muniz wants to buy the Los Angeles Clippers

You must be logged in to read this quote.

https://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/malcolm-in-the-middle-s-frankie-muniz-wants-to-buy-the-los-angeles-clippers-224117308.html

Actually, given the current travails of the Lakers, the Clippers sans Sterling could become quite the trendy team.

[Lief 🗽]

They're gonna have to come up with a better logo first. It's just their name and a ball? Not even a picture of a ship? Do most Americans even know what a clipper is?

[DINGO Joe]

They're gonna have to come up with a better logo first. It's just their name and a ball? Not even a picture of a ship? Do most Americans even know what a clipper is?

Like the "Lakers" make any sense.  It's a perfect opportunity though to wipe the slate clean and come up with a new logo or even nickname.

[King]

The Clippers original logo was meant to look like sails.



The current Clippers logo is again part of Sterling's business plan to make the team a cheap Chinatown knockoff of the Lakers.

Still, as a name, Clippers make more sense than the Lakers, since the California coast even in LA did have giant fleets of clipper ships during the gold rush.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

He's banned for life, $2.5 million fine and will be forced to relinquish his shares.

He's banned for life and fined, but where did you hear that he will be forced to sell his shares of the team?

I see this as a bad move by the NBA.  With sponsors dropping and Sterling admitting that the words on the tape were his, it looked as if he was on his way out by his own choice.  By the NBA stepping in, they're setting a precedent here.  Are they going to ban players or anyone for life when they make inflammatory racist statements?  They've opened themselves up to a lot of problems down the road, and I think Mark Cuban made a good point that you need to be careful when dealing with the rights of owners.

IIRC, I read that they're governed by a private set of bylaws which would permit the forced sale.  It's not unheard of either, Inks.  Jimmy Haslam over in NFL-lane may have found the same fate over the Flying J debacle.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Awwwwwwww, his little putana is upset about all of this......I guess when the credit cards and cash go away, people get sad.  http://sports.yahoo.com/news/stiviano-lawyer-says-shes-sad-over-sterling-ban-100344552--spt.html 

Booooofrigginwhoooooo. 

[DINGO Joe]

Awwwwwwww, his little putana is upset about all of this......I guess when the credit cards and cash go away, people get sad.  http://sports.yahoo.com/news/stiviano-lawyer-says-shes-sad-over-sterling-ban-100344552--spt.html 

Booooofrigginwhoooooo. 

I'm sure, somehow, she'll land on her....feet.

Bill Simmons throws his two cents in and tells a story about being one row behind Sterling on a LA to San Antonio flight last year.  V. Stiviano was on the flight too but she flew in coach.

http://grantland.com/features/sterlings-fold/

Simmons thinks the Clippers will ultimately fetch somewhere between 1.5 and 1.75 Billion.

[The Free North]

They're gonna have to come up with a better logo first. It's just their name and a ball? Not even a picture of a ship? Do most Americans even know what a clipper is?

Look at who your target audience is...do you think they care?


Sports are riddled with things like that, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter at all.

If you win no one cares

[RogueBeaver]

So Anderson Cooper interviewed Sterling. It was a complete train wreck, where Sterling said Magic Johnson can blame himself for HIV, said Cooper's the real racist and implied Jews are more generous than blacks. Among other things.

[DINGO Joe]

It looks like Steve Ballmer has won the bidding for the Clippers at Two Billion.  Ballmer had tried to buy the Kings, to move them to Seattle.  I don't think that would be the plan with the Clippers, but who am I to guess how rich people use their money.  As for the now incredibly more wealthy Donald Sterling, he's an excellent case study  for why there should be an estate tax without loopholes.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/former-microsoft-ceo-ballmer-buy-la-clippers-2-232849380--nba.html

[Simfan34]

I'm not saying anything should be done about it, but it seems the moral of the story is that racism pays, and I don't know how I feel about that. Well actually I do, and it's not a good feeling.

[Cobbler]

With Ballmer's purchase of the Clippers, the hope of Seattle getting a team at all in the near future has probably died.

[King]

With Ballmer's purchase of the Clippers, the hope of Seattle getting a team at all in the near future has probably died.

Yeah, you can't just up and move a competitive team with great ticket sales. The next time the Clippers get bad and attendance wanes, though, it's probably a done deal.

[RogueBeaver]

Apparently he has Alzheimer's.

[Хahar 🤔]

With Ballmer's purchase of the Clippers, the hope of Seattle getting a team at all in the near future has probably died.

Yeah, you can't just up and move a competitive team with great ticket sales. The next time the Clippers get bad and attendance wanes, though, it's probably a done deal.

No, it's not happening. The Clippers are not going to leave Los Angeles at any point.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

It appears that Sterling's lil putana has made some racist remarks herself.  OOPS.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/06/v-stiviano-donald-sterling-racist-remarks-tmz-clippers