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?