Posted on 05/04/2014 9:33:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
As the Donald Sterling mess was going down earlier this week, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made an interesting and prescient point. He said he’d rather that Sterling—who said that he didn’t want his mistress to bring black fellers to his basketball team’s games—was not a NBA owner but that he felt uncomfortable forcing a sale of the team for what amounted to the man’s thoughts. Here’s Cuban in the New York Daily News:
“In this country, people are allowed to be morons,” Cuban said. “They’re allowed to be stupid. They’re allowed to think idiotic thoughts. … Within an organization like the NBA, we try to do what’s in the best interest of the league and that’s why we have a commissioner and a constitution and I think Adam will be smart and deal with Donald with the full extent available. But, again, if you’re saying a blanket, ‘Let’s kick him out?’ I don’t want to go that far because it’s not about Donald, it’s not about his position, it’s about his mess—and what are we going to make a decision on?”
As I noted in my initial post that touched on the Sterling fiasco, I wouldn’t really consider it a part of the “politicized life” if fans decided to boycott a business owner who said that he didn’t want members of a certain race patronizing his business. That’s just bad business! An actor saying he votes Democratic or an author saying he doesn’t support gay marriage in their private life or when asked by an interviewer doesn’t have any impact on their work on the screen or the words on the page. But if that actor said “I don’t want conservatives coming to my movies!” or that author said “Gay people shouldn’t be allowed to buy my book!” well, all bets are off.
Cuban’s point, though, is a valid one. It is, as he says, a “slippery slope” for NBA owners—or the owners of any sports franchise—to decide who should be able to enter their club based on the righteousness of their thinking, because who is to determine what is righteous?
As if to prove Cuban’s point, Esquire’s four-eyed, multi-chinned, monomaniacal hack in residence, Charles P. Pierce, took to the digital pages of his glorified lad mag to call for Adam Silver to enact similar sanctions on the owner of the Orlando Magic. His thought crime? Opposing same sex marriage. Note: The owners of the Magic have not been accused of, say, banning gay people from the arena or making them uncomfortable at games. Simply engaging in the political process in a wholly legal manner is enough for Pierce to call for their defenestration.
Similarly, Washington, D.C.’s fake congresswoman, Eleanor Holmes Norton, issued a call for Roger Goodell to sanction the owner of the Washington Redskins for profiting off of racism. Ace has handled the idiocy of referring to the name “Redskins” as racism better than I can; allow me to simply note that this only helps prove the NBA owners are setting a dangerous precedent if they vote to strip Donald Sterling of his property for saying offensive things and holding offensive thoughts. Every nut job with the ability to send out a press release and a desire to see their name in headlines for a day will be calling for owners to pay for something or other. Is that a headache the leagues really want?
How exactly did Sterling discriminate against anyone?
Did he deny them a job? Did he pay less than others due to race? Did he physically abuse them? Did he publicly call for minorities to be treated differently? Did he lie to, cheat, or steal something from a black person due to their race?
Well if he is allowed to keep the team I bet there will be a new roster soon...
Exactly. I think they are referring to his not wanting to rent to some people a case that was already settled but they lump all of his perceived wrongs into this episode or private conversation that was taped.
I do not think any ot the tings he said was bad or racist.
I find the things that people such as out “leaders” say about conervatives rude. Obama called people Tea Baggers, he
made a joke regarding special olympics. Bill Maher says nasty stuff all the time.
Yeah, what about Rush???
Sooner or later anyone espousing non-leftist ideas won’t get a job flipping burgers
And what do you do with a player, say LeBron James, if he is caught on tape saying something like:
"Hitler had a good idea, all the Jews should have been exterminated in WWII ..."
Based on the Sterling example - he should be banned for life ...
Slippery slope, indeed ...
We had an ex part owner, Jay-Z, who wore/wears a racist medallion to games. Nothing has been done or said about Jay-Z by the libs in the media now dumping on Sterling. Nothing will be said or done. Because Jay-Z is black. Now if some white celebrity wore a swastika or some white power medallion to a game, then he should be ostracized and probably imprisoned and executed. See how that works?
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