Mutiny On The L.A. Clippers

Los Angeles Clippers (Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com)

Donald Sterling is part of the overwhelmingly white male billionaires who run professional sports teams.  He bought the San Diego Clippers in 1981, moved them to Los Angeles, and now presides over a professional basketball franchise worth several times more than the $12 million he paid for them.

Sterling has also been known to make disparaging remarks about minorities, some of whom either work for him or live in one of his housing facilities.  He has been either sued or investigated by the federal government for alleged instances of racial discrimination.

Now Sterling is in big trouble.  Because of some audio recordings containing racially insensitive comments to his then-girlfriend (who's biracial) that turned up on TMZ, he has been banned for life by the National Basketball Association and ordered to pony up $2.5 million.  The next step, according to commissioner Adam Silver, is to get Sterling to sell the Clippers.  Good luck with that.

For three decades, the Clippers have been synonymous with how not to run a pro sports franchise:  losing teams, wasted draft picks, trading away your best players, etc.  Yet Sterling has refused repeated requests to sell the franchise and/or move out of Los Angeles, where they now share an arena with the Lakers.  Why should he?   He's got his money.

The Clippers are a much better team these days, and are a contender for the NBA title in spite of Sterling.  Stars like Blake Griffin and Chris Paul have led the team into the playoffs, where they're currently facing the Golden State Warriors.

When the Sterling scandal hit, everything else was overshadowed.  Everyone from NBA legends to President Barack Obama have criticized Sterling for what he said on the tape.  Sponsors bailed.  Clippers players, most of whom are African-American and depend on Sterling's checks, reacted by wearing warmup jerseys turned inside out before their playoff game against the Warriors in Oakland.

Sterling is not the only pro sports owner, past or present, who has been called out for his racism.  There's Dan Snyder, who's under fire for not changing the name of the NFL team he owns in Washington.  Marge Schott was forced to sell the Cincinnati Reds because of her racist views, and for seemingly praising Adolf Hitler.  Calvin Griffith, the original owner of the Minnesota Twins, once told an audience (which he thought wasn't being recorded) in 1978 that the reason he moved the Washington Senators to the state in 1961 was because of the number of white people that lived there.

So what happens, now that a rookie NBA commissioner has stood up to a man the league has tolerated at their own risk for decades?  Will the Clippers players all become free agents?  Can Silver convince three-fourths of NBA owners to force a sale?  What if Sterling still refuses to sell?  If this thing drags on into next season, how will players around the league react?

At the end of this momentous day in sports history, and for all those who believe racial intolerance has no place in society, everything and nothing has changed.  Donald Sterling may no longer have anything to do with the Los Angeles Clippers, but he still owns the team.  And he'll still profit whether he sells the franchise or not.

UPDATE (5/3):  It's been reported that Sterling has prostate cancer.  If the NBA (and the rest of us) had known about this before the controversy erupted, would we have gone easier on him?

Mickey Rooney (1920-2014): Putting On a Show

English: Studio publicity portrait of Mickey Rooney. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mickey Rooney's most memorable line was "Let's put on a show!".  That he did for eight decades through the stage, the movies, TV and his personal life, until the lights went out on him at age 93.

Rooney was only five foot three, but he was the biggest movie star in Hollywood prior to World War II.  By the time he was 25, Rooney had done the "Andy Hardy" series, musicals with Judy Garland, Shakespeare, and the dramas "Boys Town" with Spencer Tracy and "National Velvet" with Elizabeth Taylor.

After the war ended, Rooney paid the price for his early fame.  His roles had shrunk to supporting status.  MGM dropped him.  His TV sitcoms were short-lived.  He had been partying a bit too much, and had money problems.  He had also been married eight times.

But Rooney always came back.  He had four Oscar nominations, a Tony for the Broadway revue "Sugar Babies" that revived his career, and an Emmy for the lead role in the TV movie "Bill".  More recently, Rooney had appeared in the films "A Night at the Museum" and "The Muppets".  He had just finished his role in a new film, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde".

Mickey Rooney had seen more of 20th century entertainment than any of us will ever see, and his life had enough ups and downs to make a great biography (indeed, he wrote two autobiographies).  What we won't see is anyone like him again.  So dim the lights.  The show's over.

David Letterman Calls It a Late Night

David Letterman during an interview on the Late Show in New York City on June 13, 2011. DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley/Released) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

David Letterman has been gracing America's bedroom TVs for over three decades.  That covers two shows, two networks and five Presidents of the United States.  He's lasted longer than Johnny Carson, who even now is still considered the benchmark for late night talk show hosts.

At age 66, the man who brought "Stupid Pet Tricks", top ten lists, Larry "Bud" Melman, Paul Shaffer and even his mother into the national spotlight is calling it a career.  Letterman announced his retirement during a taping of his CBS "Late Show" Thursday.  It won't actually take place until his contract is up in 2015, but he has now entered Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter territory.  That is, he's reached the Long Goodbye.

At least Letterman is leaving on his own terms.  Jay Leno, his former rival at NBC who famously screwed him out of being Carson's successor on the "Tonight Show" two decades earlier (which is how he ended up at CBS in the first place), also had a long goodbye when the network replaced him with Jimmy Fallon.  When the time came for Leno's final show, he looked like a man who was being bum-rushed out of a job by people who couldn't wait to see him leave.

Fallon, to the delight of NBC, has done pretty well so far as "Tonight Show" host, even though he still couldn't deliver a monologue as if his life depended on it.  Even some of Leno's old audience, who had been expected to switch to Letterman, has stuck around.

Now the speculation over who would replace Dave can begin.  Unlike NBC, CBS has no obvious candidates waiting in the wings.  Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, the two names most often mentioned, are under contract to Comedy Central.  Ellen DeGeneres may have killed it at the Oscars (or put people to sleep), but she's 56 and already has a daytime talk show.  Conan O'Brien has already tried and failed at 11:30 (no thanks to NBC and Leno).  Craig Ferguson, whose show follows Letterman on CBS, might be too subtle for an earlier audience.  Chelsea Handler might seem too raunchy for network TV.

Instead of all those guys, CBS should hire someone who's around Fallon's age and isn't currently known to the general public.  This person (regardless of race or gender) should be willing to take chances with the conventions of TV and social media, have a razor-sharp wit, connect with people from all walks of life and not be afraid to act like a jerk every once in awhile.  And this person has to be funny. In other words, CBS needs to hire someone like a David Letterman for this century.

David Letterman has been there through the good times and the bad, bantering with the likes of politicians and Lady Gaga while baring his soul during national and personal crisis.  Sure, he can be prickly at times and can still harbor a grudge over not getting the "Tonight Show" gig.  And there are some who claim he was a lot better during the "Late Night" years at NBC.  But he's been an influence in the comedy of today and in the times we live in.  Enjoy him now before he says goodbye for good.

UPDATE:  The speculation has ended, and it took less than a week.  CBS has named Colbert to replace Letterman in late night, starting sometime in 2015.  The only question is, what version of Colbert is CBS going to get?  The Bill O'Reilly-type conservative blowhard he's been playing for nearly a decade on "The Colbert Report"?  Or is he going to be himself, which carries its own set of risks for a risk-averse network?  We'll see.

Star Tribune: Taylor-Made News

Star Tribune (Photo credit: Aaron Landry)

Glen Taylor is one of Minnesota's wealthiest individuals, worth about $1.8 billion according to Forbes magazine.  His portfolio amounts to investments in more than 80 different companies, including those having to do with printing, marketing and professional basketball.

So why would Taylor want to buy the Minneapolis Star Tribune for an undisclosed amount, in an era where the newspaper is supposed to be a thing of the past?

We would assume Taylor bought the 147-year old Strib for much less than what McClatchy Newspapers paid for it in 1998.  Or Avista Capital Partners.  Or even its present owners Wayzata Investment Partners.

The Strib has been struggling to stay relevant in the age of the Internet.  They launched a companion website.  They've cut staff to the bone.  Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  Lost circulation.  But then, so has every other media outlet in America.

The Strib is also looking for a new home.  Their headquarters in downtown Minneapolis and the property around it is being sold for a reported $38.5 million and demolished to make way for an office tower, which is being connected to the new Minnesota Vikings football stadium.  No wonder the paper's editorial staff lobbied so hard for the stadium to be built.

Taylor says he won't have any managerial input into the Star Tribune, other than maybe having a family member on the board of directors.  As for what editorial direction the newspaper will take, you should know that Taylor was a Republican state senator during the 1980s, and is best known as the owner of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA Lynx.  So it might behoove the remaining staff and management to go out of their way to be nice to Mr. Taylor and his myriad businesses.

Taylor, of course, isn't the only well-known billionaire to take an interest in reviving the dying art of print journalism and taking it into the digital age.  Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, also owns the Washington Post.  Boston Red Sox owner John Henry added the Globe to his portfolio.  And doesn't Warren Buffett own a few papers, too?

Glen Taylor told the Associated Press that he bought the Star Tribune because he thought it was a good business decision, and that it was a Minnesota asset.   That's great.  Once the ink is dry on the agreement, Taylor's biggest challenge is going to be getting a nice return on his investment while the Star Tribune staves off extinction.