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

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Complains about black people.....owns a basketball team.



Its incredible how stupid people are sometimes

Why?  These days, being a team owner is the only legal way to own people you regularly buy and sell.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Off-topic, but I do hope if they are able to push Sterling out that the new ownership moves this team to Seattle, because that is the city that deserves to have a team.

I didn't think Seattle was such an awful town that it needed to be punished by having a primo uomo team owner inflicted upon it. That said, I think Seattle gaining an NBA team is contingent upon it first getting a new arena which in turn is contingent upon it gaining an NHL team.  Seattle would be a leading candidate if the NHL were to expand, but I don't see an NHL team that would be likely to move there.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The franchise was created for San Diego and nobody wanted it to be in LA, but Sterling managed to sue his way into the city.

Actually, they started off as the Buffalo Braves, tho the Clippers name does date from the team's move to San Diego.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Like any suspension, but without an end. It would be like a ban from NBA events.

EDIT: And, more significant, team players seem very angry. They threw the team sweatshirts on the ground during warm-up (doing the warm-up in plain clothes without any words written on) and they wore black socks and armbands during the match.

So he can still own the team, he just can't attend games?  That doesn't seem very harsh.

Presumably such a ban would mean he wouldn't be able to vote on anything decided by the owners and would probably limit how much control he has over the day to day management of the club.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Regardless of what the NBA may do, sponsors are dropping the Clippers like a rotten egg.  Not certain that is a good idea tho.  They really stink when you crack the shell.  Probably would be better to toss it like a hot potato.

[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.

[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.