Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, for like the 20th time, is in the papers, AGAIN, for being a bigot but this time he got caught on tape by his, by now, Mexican and Black Ex-girlfriend. I mean this guy...I cannot even explain it, you have to listen for yourself here. Just in case you need to be convinced he is a repeat offender:
- 2006: U.S. Dept. of Justice sued Sterling for housing discrimination. Allegedly, he said, “Black tenants smell and attract vermin.”
- 2009: He reportedly paid $2.73 million in a Justice Dept. suit alleging he discriminated against blacks, Hispanics, and families with children in his rentals. (He also had to pay an additional nearly $5 million in attorneys fees and costs due to his counsel’s “sometimes outrageous conduct.”)
- 2009: Clippers executive (and one of the greatest NBA players in history) sued for employment discrimination based on age and race.
Needless to say, Black folks are very, very upset. The day the tape was released, the Clippers had a playoff game against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland. Sterling was instructed by the NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, not to attend the game. The players decided to play the game but in protest, they decided to not wear their warm-ups with the Clippers name on the front and wear black socks. Other teams followed suit in solidarity during their playoff match ups; both the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls rocked black socks and headbands in support of their Clipper Brothers!
Tons of opinions have been flying and there has not been five minutes where something does not pop up on the Internet about this shameless debacle. I have had very spirited conversations about this topic with very good friends of mine and needless to say, we all have differing views and opinions on what should be done, when it should be done, and how it should be done.
The biggest opinion I have heard thus far involves the players not playing; a lot of people feel that Chris Paul and his teammates should have sat out that playoff game Saturday. The Clippers had a team meeting along with Head Coach Doc Rivers and they decided they were going to play. They were not playing for Sterling, they were playing for themselves, their coaches, their fans, for the city of L.A. Because they took the court, the players have been compared and likened to slaves on the plantation playing for the old white slave master.
There are some issues with this comparison and some questions that need to be asked and addressed. First, the concept of slavery does not exist today and it is a slap in the face to our ancestors to even dare say that multi-million dollar basketball players are slaves. The slaves, from what I understand, were beaten, never paid for their work, and were considered property that was bought and sold by slave masters. Now in defense of the comparison, the mentality of the slave master still exist. The institutional manifestation of slavery still takes form not just in professional sports but in all arenas. But to call professional athletes slaves is taking it a step too far.
Next, I love my Black people and the raw emotion and passion we exhibit especially during times like this. It makes me proud to know that people still do care and are willing to fight for what is right. It is very important to know and understand that it is okay to be emotional and to have an opinion; your opinion is not about being right or wrong, it is just important to have one. A good friend of mine passionately gave me his opinion yesterday morning on why they should have sat out Saturday. He used examples like Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown to show that today's professional athletes have no backbone and do not stand for anything. Is that a fair comparison? Are today's athletes as strong-minded, Pro-Black, and opinionated as the athletes from the 60s and 70s?
The average age of an NBA player is around 26 which means they were born in 1988. Anybody remember what it was like in 1988 and all through the 90s? For most of these kids, the most they had to worry about was the speed of their computer and how much bandwidth they could get to watch videos on their cellphones! None of these kids had to deal with real struggle like our grandparents did or have to know what it was like to play in arenas where you had "objects" thrown at you by the fans while they spit and screamed at you calling you the N-word. I would not be surprised if there were some athletes in any professional sport that have never been called the N-word! How can we compare an NBA player today to the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's of yesterday; two different times, two different NBAs, two different struggles. I would not expect Chris Paul to know or to understand how to think in a situation like this because he probably has never bee in a situation like this! But I do give these young men kudos for keeping their cool and being composed.
Which takes me to my next point, why is it that every time a white man says or does something to Black folks, we go off and want to hurt ourselves? Let's take a look at the Rodney King case back in 1991 (by the way, there are some NBA players who were not even born when this happened) when LAPD were caught on tape beating a helpless Rodney King. After the police officers caught on tape beating Rodney were acquitted, Black folks rioted and tore up their own neighborhood. They did not take to the streets of Beverly Hills and loot the very people that actually committed the beating, no, they looted their own people? Was this suppose to stop police officers from beating Black folks in the future? No, because it still seems to happen!
I look at it like someone coming to me, looking me straight in the eyes and calling me a "nigger" and then I proceed to punch myself in the face!!! That's exactly what we do; sometimes, someone does something to us, ala Rodney King, and then we go and beat up each other? Does this make any sense? Why should the players sit out a game they love for a man who, in the grand scheme of things, cuts the checks? I understand that would show solidarity, it would show unity, it would show, maybe, that this generation stands for something. But, again, I do not think I want them to punish themselves for the ignorant words and thoughts of another man. FYI, if they did sit out, they would also not get paid their hard-earned playoff money (click here). In addition, according to the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), a player is docked 1/110th of their salary for missing an Exhibition, Regular Season, or Playoff Game. No, it is not about the money, but again, why should I hurt my pockets for what another man has said? That just does not make any sense.
So what should be done, what can be done? First, we have to establish what the goal is, what do we want to see as the end result? A lot of times we react off of emotion and do things that do not make any sense and do not change the behavior or thoughts of the people who actually sparked the controversy in the first place. My goal is to not punish the players, but to punish Donald Sterling? How do we go about punishing a billionaire?
You hit them where it hurts? In the pockets! You take away what they love which is the game of basketball; you take away the Los Angeles Clippers.
Suggestion #1 (a personal favorite)
Head Coach Mark Jackson of the Golden State Warriors suggested that the fans should boycott game 5 at the Staples Center. He then went on to say, "I have an idea that's even better...If I was a white person in LA holding a ticket to game 5, I would find any and every black person I could find and sell my ticket to...Fill every seat in the arena with African Americans while Sterling sits in the front row and they all stare at him. Homies for days in the arena!!!" I love this suggestion by Coach Jackson. If the fans boycott the games, this cuts off ticket revenue. An arena full of Black people would just be CLASSIC!
Suggestion #2
Donald Sterling is removed as an owner. Now this is a very, very slippery slope and if you have been following the comments of Dallas Mavs owner, Mark Cuban, he makes some great points. The NBA Constitution is confidential and not available to the public but some who have access to it have leaked and commented on what the NBA Commish, Adam Silver, and the rest of the league owners can do. Article 35 allegedly gives Adam Silver the power to levy a sanction that would require Donald Sterling to sell the team. Other lawyers are arguing that the "broad powers" of Article 35 do not apply to Sterling's situation. Here is Article 35, you be the judge.
Michael McCann of SI.com reports that "The NBA's constitution reportedly contains language permitting owners to authorize the league to sell a team without an owner's consent. The language only covers very limited circumstances and these circumstances concern league finances--namely, when an owner can't pay his bills. There is reportedly no language authorizing the NBA to sell a team because of an owner's hurtful remarks or embarrassing behavior. Even if conditional language could be construed to authorize a forced sale of the Clippers, NBA owners would likely be reluctant to do so given the precedent it would set."
I am sure you are asking why would ANY NBA owner be reluctant to push another owner out like Donald Sterling? This is the slippery slope I am referring to; at the very core of this whole controversy, we have a woman who secretly recorded a conversation that went viral. Did we not just go nuts over the NSA and how they were spying on American citizens illegally? What is the difference between what the girlfriend did and what the NSA did? At least the NSA can say they were doing it to protect Americans, the girlfriend just wants money! If the NBA team owners all got together and removed another owner, their brother (because it is a fraternity), for essentially voicing his own thoughts that he did not know were being recorded, we are tinkering on privacy rights while stomping on major parts of the United States Constitution. Regardless of what he said, Donald Sterling has every right to be a bigot, it is not a crime to be racist in America. But we do have laws that protect the privacy of every citizen. As an owner, they have to think about how this could be turned and use on them one day.
Suggestion #3
There is a way the owners can be taken off the hook for the removal of Donald Sterling. It would require all the players of the NBA to get together and demand their respective owners to vote to get rid of Sterling and if they don't, they will not play next year. That would mean that there would not be an NBA next season and that would affect the pockets of all the NBA owners. Right now, just about every NBA owner has come out and voiced their position and all have said they do not support the Sterling in any way, shape, or form. If that is the case, the players should make the owners put their money where their mouth is; they should go on strike for the 2014-2015 NBA season until Donald Sterling is forced to sell the team. You can take it a step further and demand that the NBA sell to a Black man, preferably Magic Johnson. Not one NBA team is owned by a Black man and maybe it is about time, well, the perfect time, for that to change.
Sometimes I dream...sometimes I do dream that one day we will use the power that we do have and use it in a manner that does not hurt ourselves but hurts those that trespass against us!!!
