Clippers owner Donald Sterling "don't bring black people to my games"

[Bruce Boudreau]

Modern slave owners yeah I think so.

He just said though what more than a handful of owners in the NFL privately think also.

He was cleary goaded into it by the gold digger.

But Donald Sterling has a history of being a bigoted, bitter, crazy rich, old white dude.

[Baka]

How completely clueless is the NAACP? The guy has a well documented history of making bigoted remarks, implementing bigoted policies and they were going to give him a Lifetime Achievement award.

His 2nd lifetime achievement award xD how do you even get 2 lifetimes? But yet it just goes to show how stupid awards are and how influenced they are by poor research or simply by media bias and personal benefit.

[canucks3322]

it's actually a good thing she recorded it, what if she came out and told tmz he made racist remarks but she didn't have proof, but they need to get this guy outta of the league f****** prick

[Tre Mac]

Senility and Racism aside, that gf isnt exactly a model of integrity herself.

[Tearloch7]

Well .. the dude goes to watch his 'boys' play B-ball with his wife sitting on one side, and his latest girlfriend sitting on the other .. something tells me his character flaws may be a lot deeper than just racism ..

[nuckin_futz]

Here are all the shockingly awful Donald Sterling stories that the NBA ignored for years

Donald Sterling's tenure as owner of the Los Angeles Clippers has been loaded with allegations of racism and generally deplorable behavior.

While the overtness and tone of the racism on the tape that leaked this weekend are shocking, it's no surprise that Donald Sterling said horrible things about black people.

The NBA, under David Stern, tolerated it for years.

In a 2009 wrongful-termination lawsuit that was eventually rejected by a jury, former Clippers general manager and NBA legend Elgin Baylor claimed that Sterling had a "plantation mentality."

From Baylor's lawsuit:

In the suit, Baylor also claimed that three top Clippers players — Sam Cassell, Elton Brand, and Corey Maggette — complained to him that Sterling was bringing women into the locker room to look at the players, and once said to one of the women, " Look at those beautiful black bodies."

“[sterling] said, 'Personally, I would like to have a white Southern coach coaching poor black players.' And I was shocked. And he looked at me and said, ‘Do you think that’s a racist statement?' I said, 'Absolutely. That’s plantation mentality.'"

In 2006, the Department of Justice brought housing-discrimination charges against Sterling for allegedly refusing to rent to African-Americans at his Los Angeles residential complexes. The suit was settled three years later for a record $2.75 million, with Sterling avoiding an admission of liability.

In sworn testimony, one of Sterling's top property supervisors Sumner Davenport claimed he made racist comments about black people living in one of the buildings he had just acquired:

Davenport also told a story about Sterling saying "just evict the b----" when a black tenant complained about water damage (via ESPN's Peter Keating):

"That's because of all the blacks in this building, they smell, they're not clean. ... And it's because of all of the Mexicans that just sit around and smoke and drink all day."

"Kandynce Jones' refrigerator dripped, her dishwasher was broken, and her apartment was always cold. Now it had flooded. Davenport reported what she saw to Sterling, and according to her testimony, he asked:

'Is she one of those black people that stink?'

When Davenport told Sterling that Jones wanted to be reimbursed for the water damage and compensated for her ruined property, he replied:

'I am not going to do that. Just evict the b****.'

"

In a 1983 incident, prospective Clippers coaching candidate Rollie Massimino says that Sterling used the N-word in an impromptu interview at LAX (via Jeff Pearlman):

“Here’s this guy, and he has this blonde bimbo with him, they have a bottle of champagne, they’re tanked. And Don looks at me and he says, ‘I wanna know why you think you can coach these n*****s.’”

Sterling also has a history of saying strange and insensitive statements about women. In a 2003 lawsuit against a former mistress, Sterling talked about paying the woman $500 every time they had sex:

"When you pay a woman for sex, you are not together with her. You're paying her for a few moments to use her body for sex. Is it clear? Is it clear?"

There's also this absurd exchange, from that same deposition (via Deadspin):

View photo

.

Deadspin

Beyond racism, Sterling has a history of gross behavior. Like the time in 2004 when he refused to pay for an assistant coach's $70,000 prostate-cancer surgery (which the Clippers players eventually paid for out of their own pockets). Or the time he heckled Baron Davis, his own player, so mercilessly that it broke his spirit.

Davis told The New York Post in 2012:

"I just stopped liking basketball. And then you dribbling down the court and having the owner like cuss at you and call you an idiot. I didn't even look forward to coming to the games, and if the owner [Donald Sterling] came to the game, I definitely was not gonna have a good game because it was just like, how do you play when the main heckler in the gym is the owner of the team, and he's telling you how much he hates you and calling out your name?"

The NBA never disciplined Sterling for these incidents. In fact, it went out of its way to establish his team as one of the league's marquee franchises by vetoing the Chris Paul trade and eventually rerouting the star point guard to the Clippers.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver pleaded ignorance when asked about Sterling's past behavior at his press conference this weekend. Silver has worked at the NBA since 1992. It's impossible to believe he doesn't know Sterling's history.

The league has ignored Sterling for decades, tolerating him in the hopes that he'd never do something to embarrass the league on a mainstream level.

Now that the bombshell has dropped and derailed the NBA playoffs, the league has only itself to blame.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/shockingly-awful-donald-sterling-stories-140632940.html

****************************************************

The NBA did not deal with this dolt years ago when they should have. Now they get a big black eye for their trouble.

The last lines from his deposition had me in stitches. What an imbecile.

[DefCon1]

This conversation occurred after his GF posted a picture of herself with Magic Johnson at the Clippers game.

"And I'm just saying that it's too bad you can't admire him privately, and during your entire ****ing life - you admire him, bring him here, feed him, ***k him, I DON'T CARE."

"You can do anything, but don't put him on Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don't bring him to my games, OK?"

Magic Johnson replied today with "It's a shame that Donald Sterling feels that way about African-Americans."

"He has a team full of amazing African-American basketball players that are working to bring a championship to clippers fans."

It reminds me of slavery days when blacks used to pick cotton for the white master. He seriously has that mentality from slavery days which is disturbing in 2014. He doesn't want to be associated with black people but as long as they work for him its okay in his mind. I wonder if fans will try to boycott the team and the players ask for trade or not re-sign. Can you imagine working for a boss that thinks you are the enemy?

[DefCon1]

Regardless of what he said, I don't think it's right that she's revealing a private conversation.she had with him.

So the big issue to you is the fact that she revealed a private conversation? Everyone from the league to the US president has problems with what that conversation was about but here you are talking about the fact that her girlfriend did wrong revealing a private conversation versus the main issue.

[DefCon1]

What I got from this is if you are an incredibly old crusty gross looking man with vintage racist values you can still bag a young ethnic model girlfriend if you have money.

Well obviously. When a girl gets showered with millions of dollars, a 1.8 million dollar home, Ferrari and Bentley. We call them gold diggers.

[DefCon1]

The whole conversation the girlfriend is just trying to get him to say contrversial things, entrap him, get a rise out of a senile old man. He's from a different time, he's allowed to think how ever he wants privately, this was not a public interview/announcement. He thought he was having a private conversation with someone he trusts.The girlfriend clearly knows his feelings, why is she with this bigot in the first place? Cause he takes her to Europe and pays for her lavish lifestyle. This is such an ugly story, just pisses me off about the state off humanity. Exploitation all around. The geriatric owner is exploiting the much younger girlfriend's desire for material things. The girl is exploiting the old man by recording private conversations, TMZ is exploiting both of them. This is some times a very crappy world. I think the bigger slimeballs are TMZ and the girlfriend, I'm sure she got a hefty sum.

No one forced him to be with the girl and no one really forced those racists remarks out of him. In fact am glad that she revealed him for what he truly is. Do you want to work for a boss that has that kind of feelings towards you without you knowing it? How about the minorities that follow and buy merchandise from that organization? Most of the black and latino people are going to the games and giving money to this racist who identifies them as the enemy. Am glad TMZ and the girl leaked out how racist Donald Sterling can be for the whole world to see. Exploitation for money or greed is less of a problem when racism is still a big issue.

[DefCon1]

Woah...hold on there...

Being paid Millions of dollars to play a game is exploitation now?

Where do I send my resume? Exploitation sounds like a damn good gig!

Well, to own an NBA team, you would need NBA players who command "millions of dollars". You wanted him to pay them in bananas and cotton? Its 2014 afterall but am sure he would pay them in nickels or dimes if he could form an NBA team. At the end of the day, this is the same guy who refused to rent his apartments to blacks and was actually sued by US department of justice for discrimination and had to pay 2.73 million to settle the claim. In fact he has been sued many times for not paying his employees who were mostly black.

More disturbing is the fact that people here seem to defend this guy.

[DefCon1]

holy crap this guy is done.

I doubt he is done. I mean the NBA could do only so much to punish him, whether its suspensions or fines. He is one of the longest owners of a basketball team and the NBA could not legally take his team away from him. Only way he would be forced to sell the team is if no one buys season tickets, people boycott buying merchandise that has Clippers logo on it and players refuse to re-sign or refuse to get traded to Clippers. It would take a lot for him to sell the team since he is the most stubborn owner in the NBA.

[DefCon1]

That's how businesses work, if I were one of his employes I would certainly hope he was making money, means I would still be receiving a pay check.

As far as working with people who aren't fans of my race, I have worked with several black musicians who aren't particularly fond of whitey.

Their checks cleared just fine.

I suggest you research more about Donald Sterling

In February 2009, Sterling was sued by former longtime Clippers executive Elgin Baylor for employment discrimination on the basis of age and race.^[19] The lawsuit alleges Sterling told Baylor that he wanted to fill his team with "poor black boys from the South and a white head coach".^[17] The suit alleges that during negotiations for Danny Manning, Sterling said "I'm offering a lot of money for a poor black kid."^[17][20] The suit noted those comments while alleging "the Caucasian head coachwas given a four-year, $22-million contract", but Baylor's salary had "been frozen at a comparatively paltry $350,000 since 2003".^[19]

In August 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Sterling for housing discrimination in using race as a factor in filling some of his apartment buildings. The suit charged that Sterling refused to rent to non-Koreans in the Koreatown neighborhood and to African Americans in Beverly Hills.^[17] The suit alleges Sterling once said he did not like to rent to Hispanics because they "smoke, drink and just hang around the building," and that "Black tenants smell and attract vermin."^[17] In November 2009, ESPN reported that Sterling agreed to pay a fine of $2.73 million to settle claims brought by the Justice Department and Davin Day of Newport Beach that he engaged in discriminatory rental practices against Hispanics, blacks, and families with children.^[18] In addition, Sterling was also ordered to pay attorneys' fees and costs in that action of $4,923,554.75. In granting the attorney's fees and costs Judge Dale S. Fischer noted "Sterling's' scorched earth' litigation tactics, some of which are described by the Plaintiffs' counsel and some of which were observed by the Court. The Court has no difficulty accepting Plaintiffs' counsel's representations that the time required to be spent on this case was increased by defendant's counsel's often unacceptable, and sometimes outrageous conduct."

[DefCon1]

Senility and Racism aside, that gf isnt exactly a model of integrity herself.

You thought gold diggers were a model of integrity?

[PlayStation]

Massive punishment!

Banned for life from the NBA, 2.5 million dollar fine.

No owners meetings, not allowed at any facilities, can have no say in how the team should run etc.

NBA will do everything they can to force him to trade the team.

[nuckin_futz]

They threw the book at him.

Kind of ironic that one of the leading contenders to purchase the team is a consortium lead by Magic Johnson.

[drdeath]

Good for the NBA although they really didn't have any choice. They'd have a race riot on their hands tonight if they let Sterling off the hook.

[etsen3]

I agree that this woman is a manipulative gold digger, but it's not about just the comments themselves. It's his whole attitude that is behind the comments. It's not like he said those things facetiously. Donald Sterling has a history of being a racist (attempting to drive out his non-Korean tenants and refusing to rent to black people or hispanics). The NBA isn't just punishing him for the comments. They are banning him because they can't be associated with the type of person he is, especially with so many black players and fans.

It's not about the comments, it's about his character.

[Brad Marchand]

I agree that this woman is a manipulative gold digger, but it's not about just the comments themselves. It's his whole attitude that is behind the comments. It's not like he said those things facetiously. Donald Sterling has a history of being a racist (attempting to drive out his non-Korean tenants and refusing to rent to black people or hispanics). The NBA isn't just punishing him for the comments. They are banning him because they can't be associated with the type of person he is, especially with so many black players and fans.

It's not about the comments, it's about his character.

Pretty much this:

‏@JSportsnet Key to the issue on Sterling, is that the man itself confirmed to the NBA that the racist remarks reflect his personal opinion.

@TSNDaveNaylor Silver on Sterling's views being private "They are now public and they represent his views."

The NBA is pretty much saying that people who have racist attitudes are not welcome. Can't say I disagree.

[TheRussianRocket.]

Excellent move. Not letting him go away free.