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6/05/2014 12:40 pm
End of the story. Clippers sold for 2billion. 4 times their estimated worth.
Facts I didn't know. Donald Sterling lost control to the trust owning the Clippers some time ago. Though his financial stake was still there, and equal to his wife, she took control of the trust, and therefore would have probably been considered the legitimate owner. This would have really caused issues for the NBA trying to force the sale of a team based on Sterlings private conversation...
However, this fact brings the NBA a totally legitimate new venue... If the ownership transfer was not communicated to the league, that alone would have given them ample legal ground to force the sale (well that's fortuitous)...
End result, Shelly gets a huge sale, Donald and her walk away with a great deal of money. The NBA doesn't have to spent a dollar commited to an attorney getting this team to a new owner. Everyone wins.
My wish: I wish Sterling did own the team and have control of his mental capacity. This would have proved to be a very interesting case where the limits of a private club would be put into light. However, I can't even fathom a world where a private club doesn't have every legal right to collectively approve ownership. That's established, and effectively trumps anything the Sterlings would want to put forward.. It's my guess, but the Sterlings went from "fight" to "flight" very very quickly, and my guess is something like this caused that turnaround.
Anyway I think the story is closed once the NBA owners approve the new owner.
5/16/2014 12:29 pm
Looks like it's going to get real fun for the NBA.... Both Sterling and his estranged wife are going to lawyer up and not allow the NBA to do what they want. While Sterling might lose due to the agreement he signed while purchasing the team... If he's in front of a judge, he can make the argument that he could have been arrested with a pound of coccaine and four prostitutes in a stolen car, while taking the lords name in vain and running over homeless people.... He gets to keep the team. But say something in private to someone who puts it on the internet, and it's a lifetime ban.
I just don't know how a judge is going to view or value the legality of the NBA owners agreement when it comes time to force a man (and his innocent estranged wife) to sell valuable property.
It will be interesting though, always is when sports has to hit courts to get resolved. On the other hand there's talk of a lot of players boycotting the league if he's still in charge next season. This is shaping up to be utterly delightful. It's good that this happened in basketball, nothing I really care about.
5/13/2014 8:22 am
"Well the estranged wife is going to be a problem for the NBA."
Good for her. It appears her only character flaw is bad taste in men.
5/13/2014 8:21 am
"Kobe Bryant said there was no place in the NBA for Donald Sterling. The mob cheered his taking a stand and demanded blood. Evidently forgetting that Kobe Bryant allegedly raped a woman in Colorado. He played through the pre-trail hearings in that case and then bought off his accuser, apologizing to her in the process. That's a pretty serious transgression, right? It's an actual action. Yet if Donald Sterling had to choose whether to be accused of rape and buy off his alleged victim or caught on tape making a racist statement, he'd pick being accused of rape. "
Excellent.
5/12/2014 3:55 pm
Alz,
I read this earlier, thought it was really well written and thought you would enjoy.
5/12/2014 11:28 am
Well the estranged wife is going to be a problem for the NBA. The magic words were uttered.
The NBA's viewing of the constitutional agreement doesn't signify US law. Meaning if the league tries to force her to sell what she owns because of the actions of another party... That's going to court. Going to be fun to watch, but it will take a long time to settle that...
When things go to court, all kinds of fair labor practices seem to be up to an outside authority to deny or allow. Like allowing Northwestern to unionize for example.
I'm expecting a good show from this myself. It's basketball, and I could really care less, but anything done there could conceivably be used for other sports as well.
5/01/2014 12:21 pm
About race? no. Battle of the sexes? Actually I probably say something horrible every other day in that regard. Been divorced twice.
I'm just saying an NBA owner is still allowed to be a person. When he's in private conversations with people he's on a social level with, it's his business... If we hear about it... okay he's an ass... In this case? He's a major ass....
But strongarming him, fining him millions, and banning him from running his team for life???? Too much ...
4/30/2014 8:06 pm
tkihshbt wrote:
I don't necessarily agree with the forced sale, but there aren't enough cash for gold and mattress companies in the world to make up the lost revenue that would come from a Fortune 500 company pulling all their sponsorships from the Clippers.
Thats the whole thing. You cant blame the nba for thinking of its profit margin. And you cant feel sorry for a rich racist who is cheating on his wife. I think we would, have and will likely comtinue to make comments our employers may not like. Im sure none of us would want to be fired for those private comments. However i doubt any of us would say something so offensive and i doubt those comments would stand to cost our employers money.
4/30/2014 8:01 pm
Both Carmelo Anthony and Jay-Z (an owner) have been spotted at NBA events wearing a medallion symbolizing the "5 percent nation" which teaches its disciples that white people are devils..
The main difference being that in general whites (including myself) could give two shits less.
4/30/2014 3:55 pm
This is for things he said to his girlfriend while expecting privacy? I know he's an asshole, clearly... It just seems more and more that freedom of speech is thrown out the window when someone says something society doesn't like.... My two cents.
Not to make this political...but a certain political party voted to impeach a president with evidence obtained by a secret recording. If that can happen, then an NBA owner can have the league's owners and sponsors throw him out.
I don't necessarily agree with the forced sale, but there aren't enough cash for gold and mattress companies in the world to make up the lost revenue that would come from a Fortune 500 company pulling all their sponsorships from the Clippers.
4/30/2014 3:30 pm
" I was pointing out that the NFL wanted him out of football."
They may have wanted him out because they had trouble beating his team for three decades, but there was never any cause to remove him, like say, freezing the field before a conference championship game to the detriment of the opposing team's offense, blowing off the salary cap to sign the best cornerback in the league, trying to subvert the salary cap by offering an ownership piece of the team to the All-Pro quarterback, video-taping the other team's walk-through practice the day before the Super Bowl, or video-taping the other team's defensive signals.
As far as I know, the only league rule he ever broke was moving his team without permission from the other owners, which was such a bad idea another half-dozen or so of them did it later on.
4/30/2014 2:30 pm
I wasn't attempt to make out that Al Davis was racist. I was pointing out that the NFL wanted him out of football. MLB wanted Marge gone too. It takes a lot to force someone to lose something worth billions, and whether I think the man is a pig or not, I don't agree that the contents of a private conversation he had with a friend/girlfriend should be enough to do what the NBA did.
As an owner, Sterling is held to a higher standard of conduct, but the severity of the punishment opens the NBA up to a variety of potential issues down the road. Kobe Bryant was fined a couple of years ago for calling a referee a faggot. Amare Stoudamire was fined for a homophobic comment on Twitter. Both Carmelo Anthony and Jay-Z (an owner) have been spotted at NBA events wearing a medallion symbolizing the "5 percent nation" which teaches its disciples that white people are devils.
IMO, the league's reaction is absolutely fueled by the fact that this is a white owner making comments about a black men and not vice versa.
4/30/2014 1:21 pm
I wasn't attempt to make out that Al Davis was racist. I was pointing out that the NFL wanted him out of football. MLB wanted Marge gone too. It takes a lot to force someone to lose something worth billions, and whether I think the man is a pig or not, I don't agree that the contents of a private conversation he had with a friend/girlfriend should be enough to do what the NBA did.
4/30/2014 11:27 am
It's all good. Turns out the "girlfriend" is really just an "archivist."
Nehoray (the girlfriend's ... errr, the achivist's lawyer) told the Times that Stiviano and Sterling didn't have a romantic relationship."It's nothing like it's been portrayed," the lawyer said. "She's not the type of person everyone says."She was a hard-working waitress and did volunteer work helping crime victims before becoming an "archivist" for Sterling, he said."She had no association with any rich people before this," he said.The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said Stiviano was a volunteer with its Victim-Witness Assistance Program in 2010 and 2011, the Times said.
4/30/2014 9:58 am
Sterling himself has sort of an reptillian look about him, but if I'm worth a few billion, I'd like to think I could do better than either of those two.