Free Republic

Oregon State has fired men's basketball coach Craig Robinson, the brother of First Lady Michelle Obama, according to Sports Illustrated. Craig Robinson, who guided the team to a 93-104 record in six years, has three more years remaining on this contract and the university is expected to owe him more than $4 million. The magazine cited unnamed sources with knowledge of the situation.

Oregon State fired head coach Craig Robinson on Sunday night, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. In six seasons, Robinson went 93-104 with no NCAA tournament appearances. The Beavers went 16-16 last season and are losing all five starters from that team. The biggest surprise of the firing of Robinson, the brother-in-law of President Barack Obama, comes with the timing. Oregon State's season ended six weeks ago with a loss to Radford in the CBI and Robinson had reportedly received support from Oregon State's administration. Robinson has three more years remaining on this contract and the university...

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...

It's Jew Vs. Jew as Battle Over Team Heats Up.Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Sunday he expects Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling to put up a “long, protracted fight” to retain ownership of the team after being banned for life from the National Basketball Association because of racial comments. Garcetti, appearing on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” program, was asked about a potential boycott of Clippers games if Sterling balks and said, “I would certainly keep that arrow in my quiver.” Last week NBA Commissioner Adam Silver fined Sterling $2.5 million and imposed a lifetime ban after...

The owner of the Los Angeles Clippers is not the only racist in the U.S. In the North American country white families are six times richer Until her black president has suffered ridicule Banana Obama's great concern is to 'responsible men' a youth of color When he bought the Ardmore apartment block in a neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles known as Koreatown, Donald Sterling expected his tenants were Asian. But the developer and owner of Los Angeles Clippers found a home as diverse as the city. According to him, so smelly. " It's for all blacks there are in this...

"Stiviano said during the interview that Sterling only asked her not to bring black friends to Clippers games because he'd gotten pressure from others who thought the company she kept looked like “gangsters” or “thugs.” If those critics are people within the Clippers organization, investors or sponsors, or Sterling's peers in the National Basketball Association, it could indicate a deeper, systemic problem of racism and discrimination that merits investigation."

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s confidante V. Stiviano today told ABC’s Barbara Walters that she thinks the embattled NBA basketball owner should apologize for his racist remarks. "Yes. Absolutely,” Stiviano, 31, said when Walters asked her during an exclusive television interview in Los Angeles. "I think he’s highly more traumatized and hurt by the things that he said himself,” she added. “I think he can’t even believe or understand sometimes the thing he says, and I think he’s hurt by it. He’s hurting right now." Asked if she thought he would go through with a public apology, Stiviano replied:...

Ex-NBA referee Tim Donaghy recently accused the NBA of coercing referees to help the Brooklyn Nets defeat the less glamorous Toronto Raptors in their first round playoff series. This echoes previous claims by Donaghy about the NBA manipulating games. The most notorious example is Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference finals, when the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers staved off elimination by defeating the Sacramento Kings. Donaghy alleged that two referees (understood to be Dick Bavetta and Bob Delaney) fixed the game. Donaghy was convicted of betting on games so he may not seem a reliable accuser, but...

The NBA has investigated a person who sent threats to the Washington Wizards and their players during their opening round playoff series against the Chicago Bulls. The Wizards won the series in five games, taking all three games in Chicago in the series. The person under investigation didn't take too kindly to the success of the Wizards, making terrorist threats to the team, according to Marcin Gortat, and threatening the team with bombs and harm to their families.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fully supports Adam Silver’s lifetime ban of Clippers owner Donald Sterling for making racist comments to his girlfriend, but he says he also wants whoever is responsible for taping the comments “sent to prison.” Writing in a strongly-worded editorial peace for Time magazine, Abdul-Jabbar spoke out against the methods used to obtain evidence. "Shouldn't we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media?” Abdul-Jabbar wrote in Time. "Didn't we just call to task the NSA for intruding into American citizen's privacy in such an un-American way?"

If Mrs. Sterling has any intention of attending more playoff games—much less holding on to the team—she needs to explain her role in her husband’s effort to push out minority tenants.If Rochelle Sterling wants her family to retain ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers, she better first prove she was not complicit in her husband’s effort to drive black and Latino tenants from the apartment buildings he owns. As has been widely reported, one of Donald Sterling’s former property supervisors testified in a 2003 housing discrimination suit that when she remarked on an odor at a newly acquired building, her...

Usually on The Lookout I share my views on at least five stories concerning Black folks in the media but this week, all anybody is talking about is Donald Sterling — the hopefully soon-to-be former owner of the L.A. Clippers. So, I figured, my column this week had to focus on what we should really ‘Lookout’ for in Sterling’s comments. As you know NBA commissioner Adam Silver threw the book at the longest tenured owner in franchise history Tuesday following TMZ’s release of a racist recording where — like a modern-day plantation owner — Sterling can be heard talking about...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)On Tuesday, the National Basketball Association released its Constitution and By-laws – and the release of the text demonstrates clearly that despite media reports, Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling cannot be voted out of ownership of his team by colleagues for his racist statements. Yesterday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver fined Sterling $2.5 million and suspended him for life from the league. He certainly has that power under the Constitution and By-laws. Under Article 24(l), the commissioner has the power to do that which is in his best judgment with regard to remedies not covered by the Constitution or By-laws:...

MenÂ’s magazine GQ drew the ire of conservatives on Tuesday evening when it tweeted out sarcastic well-wishes for L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling in any future endeavors hosting a show on Fox News. The National Basketball Association announced earlier in the day that it would ban Sterling for life and fine him $2.5 million for racist remarks he made in a recorded phone call, particularly focusing on his dislike for black men. Commissioner Adam Silver also suggested the league would attempt to force Sterling to sell the team to new ownership. GQ collected a list of all the celebrities who...

How? Are the two reconcilable? Secondly, should (not can) an owner of a team be forced to sell his team, and/or be banned from attending any NBA game as a non-owner - attending a NBA game like any other person? Example: Is the situation of an owner saying that blacks cannot eat in his restaurant different from someone saying that now the restaurant is under new management, and the racists will no longer be allowed to eat in that same restaurant? When hunting monsters should society be careful that it doesn't become a monster when doing so? I think so....

With the lifetime ban by the NBA of despicably racist Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, the door is wide open to further sports bans on people who say offensive things in private. That, of course, is why Sterling was ousted. Everyone knew for decades that Sterling was a disgusting pig racist – he had federal lawsuits led by the Department of Justice against him for discriminating against blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in housing (one allegation in the 2006 DOJ lawsuit: he said black people “smell”). That would have been an excellent reason for ousting Sterling years ago. The NBA...

Larry Johnson was a junior college transfer who became the top star of the 1989-1991 Running Rebels of UNLV, leading them to two final four appearances and one championship. He later had a successful ten year NBA career with the Charlotte Hornets and the New York Knicks.  In 1993, Johnson signed what was at the time the most lucrative NBA contract in history -- $84 million over 12 years. Nevertheless Johnson apparently believes that  NBA players, despite their compensation levels,  are still slaves to their white masters, and wants a new all black league.  The idea for an all black...

Homeboy Sandman, regarded as one of the more gifted and brilliant rappers in the game, also moonlights as a columnist of strong opinion and thought. The Stones Throw rapper took aim at the Donald Sterling controversy in a new piece, using an attention-grabbing angle of calling Blacks cowards in response to Los Angles Clippers team response to the racist allegations. On Sunday before their contest with the Golden State Warriors, the Chris Paula and Blake Griffin-led Clippers turned their practice jerseys inside out and played without enthusiasm and allowing the best of seven series to be tied two games a...

Overt acts of obvious racism have been in the news lately. Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, Frazier Glenn Cross’s anti-semitic shootings in KC and now recent revelations of LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling prohibiting his girlfriend from publicly associating with blacks. We can count each of these as classic definitions of racism: prejudice against another based on skin color and race. This classic definition of racism has been said to be behind us, buried in the time of Jim Crow, lynchings and Bull Conner. We were wrong to ever believe they were “behind us.” But I’m less concerned about those overt...

Racist? You decide. Listen to the tape yourself. To me, he’s an old man concerned about being cuckolded by his hot, young girlfriend, complaining about the pictures that prompt his friends to call him. But watch the media — and the coverage. Is there racism in America? You bet — and there probably always will be in some pathetic pockets. But let’s be clear: A black man is now president. That says an awful lot about how far America has come, even from just 50 years ago, when Democrats on Capitol Hill were vehemently battling against the Civil Rights Act....