I don't really care a lot about this whole thing with Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling getting fined and banned and humiliated by and for his racist comments. Okay, the guy's an asshole. I'm kind of amazed at the defenses being made of him by alleged friends, saying it's okay because he's always been like this…he may be suffering from dementia…he can be forgiven because his mistress was cheating on him…
Please, folks. If I'm ever in that much trouble over something I say, don't "defend" me like that.
The hatred directed by some at the mistress isn't much more noble than the sentiments Sterling expressed. And the excuse that she "set him up" and tricked him into saying those things is another example of damning Sterling while taking his side. People say things they don't mean all the time but someone oughta ask Donald Trump if anyone could trick him into saying, "Don't let blacks stay at my hotels."
This whole story sounds weird to me. Read this section of one news story…
"We can't have people like that representing the NBA," Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who once worked for Sterling and the Clippers, told CBS News. Abdul-Jabbar said the voice on the recording sounded like Sterling.
"It sounded like him to me, it really did," he said. "I wasn't surprised, because I just was aware of his track record, the discrimination suits against minority people trying to rent some of his properties." In 2009, Sterling paid a record $2.7 million to settle a housing lawsuit claiming he discriminated against African-American and Hispanic renters.
On Monday, the NAACP rescinded a lifetime achievement award it was planning to give to Sterling next month. "His organization gave more money to the minority community than others," Los Angeles chapter President Leon Jenkins said, explaining why Sterling was initially picked. Jenkins said Monday that the NAACP would return all donations from Sterling.
Aren't there a number of things wrong there? Just five years ago, the guy paid a record fine for discriminating against minorities…but he gave so much money to them — since then, I suppose — that the NAACP decided to give him a lifetime achievement award? Not a "most improved" award but a lifetime one…for the way he's lived his entire life. And a guy like Kareem who worked for the man wasn't the least bit surprised to hear racist garbage from him. What is with the NAACP on this?
Why are they giving that money back? Shouldn't he just give them more? He bought respectability once from them, after all. Sell him some more, get a lot more dough from the guy — he's going to have a lot of liquid assets if he's forced to sell the team — and put that cash to work helping more minorities.
I'm about half-kidding with this but really…if the guy was a racist and lots of people knew he was a racist, it's fine to take donations from him. That's how billionaires apologize — with money. But you shouldn't even think of giving him a "you are not a racist" award. Not until the day Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is surprised at what the guy is still saying.