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The punishment didn't fit the crime he conveyed to his black girlfriend he didn't want her to bring blacks with her to basketball games in a private conversation. Is everybody just over sensitive or what?
If the NBA would have given him a "slap on the wrist", Al Sharpton and the rest of the black population would have caused all kinds of problems. I'm sick and tired of having to walk on eggshells so I don't offend blacks and (or) gays.
Gf is half black, half Mexican btw. Not that it really matters. She is just as scummy as him for setting him up.
Lifetime ban is excessive. Forces him to sell his team. And the 2.5 million dollar fine? Wtf? Fined for free speech? I don't agree with his views, but this is blown out of proposition.
I believe even people I disagree with have the right to say what they want without being fined. That's fucked up.
It would have worked it's self out. He would have been boycotted and sold the team and crawled under a rock and died.
I guess life time ban isn't so bad, when you only have 2 months left to live.
What about banning that piece of shit Stuart Scott for saying that you can't be considered racist if you're black or hispanic?
Sterling is a truly ugly person, inside and out! His girlfriend is not much better. I doubt she'd be with his ugly, racist ass if it weren't for the dough.
Blacks oversensitive? You think?
But you know, just when I think the noxious plague of political correctness can't possibly get any worse, I catch wind of a story like this. It was a PRIVATE conversation. We have something called FREE SPEECH. And just compare cases like this to those in which Black celebrities spew racial abuse at Whites - no one complains; no one cares. A Black rapper can openly advocate violence against Whites; it won't even get in the way of his next Grammy.
It's also interesting to note that the actual conversation in question is much more ambiguous and open to interpretation than many would like for you to believe. Furthermore, the Jewish media apparently EDITED THE RECORDING TO REMOVE MENTION OF RACISM THAT BLACKS EXPERIENCE IN ISRAEL.
http://deadspin.com/exclusive-the-extended-donald-sterling-tape-1568291249
By the way, Sterling is Jewish.
It was private until one of the parties involved made it public.
Our Constitutional right to free speech involves freedom from government censorship. You are free to say what you want. It doesn't mean you won't face repercussions in the market place.
The NBA made a financial decision in banning him. Welcome to corporate America. If your words make a corporation money, you get a record deal. If your words cost them, then you get shit canned.
America, love it or leave it.
Why do you open your reply with Blacks oversensative, then go on to make disparities along racial lines. How could you be so clueless in your own doings.
First "Blacks" are not majority owners in the NBA. His colleagues clearly set him up with the aid of his girlfriend.
Second this man stands to make a killing off of that team he is selling. The bidding war has already hit billions. I smell a serious conspiracy here. They were already set up to sell. He mentions that his friends called him to tell him the info about his girlfriend that is what started his rant. What group of adult billionaires are so concerned with another mans mistress? He is upset about what his "friends" presented him with.
smh...
All that info and you decide to open your tirade attacking "blacks" instead of acknowledging the true issues here.
Guess B.I.'s see what they want to see and everything must be made about the amount of pigment in someones skin. It must be made an attack. Such evil in this world..smh
Can you precisely address which of my points you take issue with, and why?
The bottom line is that this is a guy who assists Black males in making an untold (and largely unearned) amount of money, who then he gets canned - AND ORDERED TO PAY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, FOR FUCK'S SAKE - because of a private conversation that was and is the business of no one but him and his multiracial gold-digger.
This society is corrupt to the damned core and I don't know how much more of it I can take.
Completely and totally in agreement with you. Jay-z recently wore a medallion representative of a group called "five Percenter's" to Brooklyn Nets basketball game (a team in which he is part owner). The group adheres to a viewpoint that whites are inferior and black man are basically "gods", they also hold black women in lower regard than black men, but higher than all whites.
Barely a mention of this was made in the media.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH DOES NOT MEAN FREEDOM FROM CONSEQUENCES.
Perhaps it was excessive. But perhaps he got what he deserved.
Is there any other reasonable punishment? After the comments he made, he can't ever possibly be allowed back in the NBA. There's no amount of explaining or apologies he could make for players or fans to accept what he said.
He was recorded in private, which is terribly rude, and also I thought the first amendment was "freedom of speech". Why should someone be prosecuted for something they said in their own home? I don't agree with what he said, but I don't believe there is a basis for the lifetime ban.
It's not about what he said per-se. It's about it revealing the kind of person that he is. He has shown himself to be a racist in the purest sense, and that he looks down on the black players that he has on his team.
Also, he isn't being "prosecuted". It's the NBA as a private organization that is expelling him from the league. The law has nothing to do with this. He's not being charged with a crime.
He didn't "show himself". He was recorded illegally from the privacy of his house, where he should be able to say what he wants and think what he wants as long as he is not causing considerable harm to anyone else.
It doesn't matter how he was recorded. It doesn't matter who he intended to hear them. The cat's out of the bag now. You can't go back in time and pretend that you didn't hear him say those words. Once trust is lost, there's nothing that can be done except remove that person.
And these words absolutely did cause harm. They caused harm to the players and caused harm to the fans and caused harm to the NBA.
I know we cannot go back into the past, but we can learn from this for the future. If he were not recorded, then the fans, the players, and the NBA would never have known and never have been hurt. He would be able to keep his job for the last years of his life and there would never be a scandal in the first place. His racism is something he and his girlfriend need to work on, he doesn't need the rest of the world hating him.
i could imagine colored folk saying this also, a life time ban attending public games?thats crazy
His comments show that he sees black people as an inherently inferior race, but this view is somehow morally justified because he does them this great favor by paying them so much to play basketball. You might say he is taking on the role of the "benevolent slave-owner".
How fucked up is that?
It's not just that he made offensive comments, but it's that those comments call into question his motives for taking on the position of owner.
Those players make a choice to play for him, if they don't want to, they can quit and dig ditches.
Freedom of speech wasn't written as "You have freedom of speech but only to say things that are politically correct".
Either we have freedom of speech or we don't.
The NBA doesn't want those players to "quit and dig ditches". They don't want fans to become outraged and stop watching games.
This has nothing to do with "freedom of speech". The first amendment only protects from the government coming down and punishing speech. It doesn't apply to private organizations like the NBA who have their own interests to protect. It doesn't mean that you can just say whatever you want without any consequence and everyone is just supposed to ignore you instead of be offended.
What do you think working itself out naturally means? Of course those players won't dig ditches, they're all millionaires thanks to Donald Sterling paying them, of course again if they don't like what he says they can quit and dig ditches, but they won't. What you're saying is that an organization has the ability to trample someone's rights instead? That makes a lot of sense. Donald Sterling didn't enter into a contractual agreement with the NBA as an owner which effectively revoked his right to free speech. If you don't like what he said than disagree with it. It doesn't mean he doesn't have a right to his opinion and to express it.
"Donald Sterling didn't enter into a contractual agreement with the NBA as an owner which effectively revoked his right to free speech."
He absolutely is under contract with the NBA, which is likely thousands and thousands of pages of rules that he must follow at all times or face fines, including what can and cannot be said, but that's besides the point.
Like I said, there's no right to be free of consequence for boneheaded things that you say - only a right that the government can't throw you in jail for it.
Let me illustrate with an example. Say you invite me to a party that you are hosting at your home. At the party, I go around and tell all of the guests that your wife is a sleazy whore who sleeps with all of the men in town. When you catch wind of this, you immediately kick my ass out and never invite me back. Does that violate my first amendment rights? Can I go to court and sue you to re-invite me back to your parties? Hell no.
The only thing the first amendment guarantees is that congress can't pass a law that makes it illegal for me to call your wife a sleazy whore. The police can't arrest me for that, but you are free to kick me out of your home.
You own the house, how does that possibly compare to this scenario at all?? And yes you have every right to kick me out of your house whether I say anything or not!
What he said was in his own privately held conversation, that someone secretly recorded. He didn't call a press conference, he said it to one other person. And if the NBA has a contractual obligation to regulate what owners say, in their own privacy, than I wana read that with my own eyes.
You people with political correctness, where does it end?
So you obviously believe Jay-Z should be banned right? He wore a medallion representative of the "five Percenter's". And when asked if he subscribes to their beliefs said and I quote " A little bit"
But black people can't be racist.
I don't think he should have been punished at all. Like Counterfeit said, it would have worked itself out.
The dude has to eat fried chicken and taco's for dinner every night and the only thing in the refrigerator is malt liquor and grape soda, cut the man some slack.