bases_loaded;1610496 wrote:If someone had Lebron on a secret recording calling Dan Gilbert a honkey mother fucker would Lebron get a lifetime suspension?
Love all the exploiters right now too. Mark Jackson telling fans they shouldn't show up(fans who already paid for their seats, who does that help?). Magic saying he should sell the team.....to him. Heat players wearing their jerseys inside out. Rosa Parks and MLK they are not.
1. The part I agree with: Yeah, it's funny when the coach of the Clippers' opponent is saying their fans should boycott, especially when you consider he's considered to be on the hot seat after a season where he fired multiple assistant coaches. And it's funny when one of the people demeaned by his comments suddenly "rides to the rescue" offering that his group should buy the team.
2. The part I disagree with: The first sentence, since it's so poorly construed from a logical perspective that it's more comical than anything.
Let's see:
a. NFL player Riley Cooper was caught using a racial slur towards black people and never was given a lifetime suspension. A fine and he had to attend counseling, but no actual suspension of any length.
b. There is a bit of a difference between one slur and a 15-minute rant loaded with derogatory comments/feelings about other races.
c. Sterling has a long history of racist comments and actions (unlike Cooper or your hypothetical LBJ) that mainly were ignored by the Stern and the NBA owners (if not courtrooms) due to how the Clippers have been a joke until recently and because Sterling's a lawyer who'd likely tie up anything ruled against him in court, if for no other reason than just because he can.
d. And for the biggest and most important difference: Pure Capitalism. If a player says/does something that affects the bottom line, the club can "show the people/advertisers" they're on their side by fining, trading or, if the issue is serious enough, releasing them, along with a "We will not tolerate these actions from our employees" sort of press conference. Same for a coach or front office person. But when it's a team's owner and the comments are affecting the franchise's bottom line, it's affecting the NBA's bottom line. And when those comments come during the playoffs, when more people are tuned into NBA stuff (30 teams, 16 make the playoffs, 82-game season --- I'd guess a lot of more casual fans pay more attention to the playoffs than the entire, somewhat meaningless regular season), it gets magnified a lot more because it's just so much more noticeable. If people, whether it be Clippers' employees, advertisers, etc. don't want to be associated with Sterling, it affects the NBA as a whole and if they feel that one of their 30 is looking like a potential financial sinking ship, they will step in and correct that.