What do you get when you try to remove a transcendentally litigious NBA owner from the league because he did something that many other people in the NBA have also done, usually with no punishment at all?
Or, put another way, what is Los Angeles Clippers owner donald sterling doing, now that he – at least as of this moment, with all things in this ridiculous saga always subject to change at any time – has decided not to sell his team to Steve Ballmer for four times its worth?
Excerpted from article in the Los Angeles Times:
Clippersowner Donald Sterling has hired four firms to dig up embarrassinginformation about NBA executives and fellow team owners, according toa person familiar with the latest escalation in Sterling\’s seven-weekbattle to maintain control of his team.
Sterling\’sconfidant claims the firms already have uncovered allegations ofracial discrimination by NBA officials that are as bad as commentsSterling made suggesting he did not want to see blacks at Clippersgames. The Sterling ally, who declined to be named when discussingDonald\’s legal strategy, said he was not ready to reveal the earlyfindings.
Theleague has repeatedly suggested it has done nothing wrong and thatSterling is trying to distract from his own failures. Sterling plansto use the investigators\’ findings to bolster a lawsuit that seeks upto $1 billion in damages, alleging the NBA has treated himmoreharshly than others affiliated with the league.
Sterlingalso hopes the “dirt” will cause embarrassment for the NBAand Commissioner Adam Silver, his confidant said. Silver issued alifetime ban and $2.5-million fine against the Clippers owner in lateApril after Sterling\’s remarks about blacks became public.
I don\’t know much about Adam Silver, the current NBA Commissioner. But now that I know what he looks like, if I saw him on the street, I\’d think he might be an accountant, a bookkeeper*, something like that – not the most dynamic guy in the world.
Tell you what, though: Silver better be dynamic and then some, if he intends to see his decision through. Because the NBA is loaded with exactly the kind of stuff that sterling\’s hirees are looking for….and sterling, being Mr. “You wanted a fight, you got one”, is just the guy to make it all public.
My gut feeling? sterling will push this as far as he can, litigation-wise, hoping to embarrass Silver and the NBA into a reversal of some kind…and then sell it to Ballmer anyway. I also suspect that if Silver doesn\’t yield, sterling is the guy who will cave….not because he wants to duck the fight, but because it is hard – very hard – to turn down a $2 billion windfall, $1.5 of it above and beyond what the item you are selling is worth.
The NBA\’s problem, however, is that in both of those scenarios its dirty linen will be aired and publicized, and the organization will be indelibly stained as a bunch of racist, homophobic hypocrites.
Is that what Adam Silver wants? Is that what he would like his legacy to be? Silver tarnished by Sterling?
Stay tuned……
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*Apropos of nothing important, you might be interested to know that “bookkeeper” is the only word in the English language with three consecutive double letters. How\’s that for useless information?
