Evidently, Miss Stiviano/Perez/Valdez/Gallegos (she used 5 different names) is playing him for all he is worth (well, so the phrase goes). She's got her claws into him for $2M, or so, and is seeking more. The "100 hours of audio tape" her lawyer claims she has is a Free Agent right now, and they are trying to maximize Mr. Sterling's bid by sharing just a bit of it. But the way, by going the FA route they can off-set any money she may owe Sterling's wife in her lawsuit against Miss Whoever-she-is. Sterling and his wife remain married but separated.....check with the Dodger fiasco to see what would result of a divorce.
I have no idea if he's a nice guy or not, but it seems odd for an alleged racist to be dating a mixed race black/Mexican (according to her) tart (according to me). The "tart" thing is race independent, BTW. Were she green, blue or lavender....she's still a tart, or worse, for bilking a miserable old guy.
And evidently, according to reports,she's trolled for rich old guys before. I suppose he's trolled for vipers before, too......all's fair in love and basketball, after all.
I listened to this tape today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhT6d5fMhzI
To tell you the truth, she's clearly trying to extract racist statements from him. IMHO. She goes out of her way to. He doesn't quite give her the ultimate satisfaction.
He's indeed icky, a quasi-cretin and a rich old pathetic guy squiring a "hot" Gold Digger, and clearly he has some insecurities.
If the tape above is the big deal, then I think he's a weakling and an incredible "maroon" (as Bugs Bunny would say). But I don't see a guy in a white robe and hood.
I'll gladly reconsider if there is worse stuff in the other 99 hours and 50 minutes of tape (which would probably require us to take a shower after listening to) but here I see a miserable character trapped by a miserable vulture, caught in a miserable phone call. This tape mostly makes me pity him (not just for the gal pal but for his miserable weakness, even more) not despise him.
Truthfully? I hope the league reprimands him and then leaves him to his own cesspool of a life. That's more than enough punishment. That and the FA cash he sends her way to "buy" the rest of the tapes. I can't see how (without more) the league "forces" him to liquidate. Soon enough he will sell the team, anyway.
The horror, the horror.....
moe
( I would like to be excited for the Blazers, really..... man I still remember Geoff Petrie and Sid Wicks. Walton, Lucas, Gross, Hollins and Twardzik.... I loved that team and all those guys: Robin Jones, Wally "The Who" Walker, Herman "Hair"Gilliam, Lloyd "Bottoms" Neal, Corky Calhoun (the defensive whiz). Larry Steele and Johnny Davis + Red Hot and Rollin!" But I've soured on a league that allows traveling on about 2/3 of all possessions and where the b-ball has become secondary to the music video marketing. The old coach in me is still a dinosaur. BTW, Rest in Peace Dr. Jack Ramsay. Dead at 89 today)
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Here there be sports/political commentary. If that's not your cup of tea, there are handy-dandy clickthrough buttons scattered at strategic points around your monitor. Drive home safely.
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Eliyahu Rips is a gentle and well-reasoned man, very Jewish, and a world-class mathemetician. In 1994, he published Equidistant Letter Sequences In the Book of Genesis, using state-of-the-art statistical methods to assert that the Torah had 3-dimensional "coding" in it.
This is not an issue for which Dr. D is very sympathetic. But Rips said something, after the firestorm subsided a bit. He said that he was disappointed that almost all reaction to his article was from one of two points of view:
- People ready to believe that Bible Codes existed, whatever the quality of the evidence
- People unready to believe that Bible Codes existed, whatever the quality of the evidence
Rips said that he had a hard time finding even one person willing to examine his article dispassionately, and to give him interesting feedback on it. Think about it: one person.
People think of themselves as skeptics when they are actually debunkers. And when it comes to racial tensions, it's even harder to find a climate in which calm, open discussion can flow freely.
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Donald Sterling is on tape, allegedly forbidding his girlfriend from bringing black friends to his Clipper games. Sterling's attorneys respond by saying that the girlfriend is under fire for "embezzling" $1.8M from Sterling, and that she had previously made vows to "get even" with him for wanting his money back.
Sterling is, of course, a creepy man, and the relationship with the young woman is creepy. At least from this distance. (Do I respect Ms. Stiviano any more than I do Sterling?)
And personally I doubt that Sterling's relationships are the most creepy in the NBA.
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Bill James weighed in several times. $3 per month at BJOL:
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OK, yes, and I agree. If a feminist wants to get up and say "I just don't like men; deal with it," well ... this is America.
If you want to argue that all men should be forced to wear their underwear backwards, upon threat of Archipelago, then the appropriate punishment for you is for you to be humiliated in public debate.
But that is a general principle. Absolutes need not apply. It may be that Sterling, in this specific case, broaches my personal philosophy of "You can say and think what you want."
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James continues,
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Right. Who cares about the precedent?
America is going to thoroughly enjoy media-lynching Sterling. The precedents won't matter.
Sterling aside, I'd love to hear Mojician educate us as to those practical situations in which attorneys don't worry much about precedent.
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What I would hate to see, is a recoil into the culture of "If I don't like what you say, then you'd better learn to be more sensitive. Or else."
USA Today's headline gleefully chortles, "How will NBA's Adam Silver punish Donald Sterling?" Punish him? For what, exactly? For the fact that he doesn't like black people? It's left vague, in the article as well as in the headline.
But, that said, American society moved forward on race through SOME means. Donald Sterling is about to (appropriately) become the MEANS by which we put the finishing touches on social justice.
Criminal penalties (for free speech) are one thing, civil and professional penalties another. Sterling is an 80-year-old rich guy, born during the Great Depression, made his dough in divorces and personal injuries and then apartment housing .... who thinks it's still okay to hate dem folks, even while you avail yourself of their services.
In this particular case, I'm just fine with his getting a great big comeuppance for the expedient-but-dubious effect he's had on the people around him.
My $0.02,
Jeff
Comments
I was gonna write about it, but seriously, just read this: http://www.thenation.com/blog/179551/donald-sterling-slumlord-billionaire
If Sterling saying ignorant and racist things is what finally bothers some people, fine.
It's his actual discriminatory practices and extortion and harassment of low-income folks that has always bothered me. He's been doing it forever. He's lost multi-million-dollar judgments at least twice on it.
Sterling is a scumbag. He should have been punished and stripped of his team for THAT stuff. I don't think you can strip him of the team for this stuff. My guess is that at max that he'll be barred from NBA games, hit with a fine, and have to let his wife run the operations.
I dunno what the NBA by-laws are (only the owners do - it's a secret document), but I'd be very surprised if moronic, hateful speech is a reason to lose your billion-dollar investment, simply because the other owners have skeletons and wouldn't want to lose theirs that easily either.
~G
And I have no sympathy for him. Absolutely zero, none, zilch. This is a guy with three decades worth of racist behavior, not just abhorrent comments. And whatever I think of his girlfriend, it has no impact on my evaluation of him. What does she have to do with it? You can't equate the two. Surely being a "gold digger" pales in comparison to paying out $2.65M to settle a lawsuit over discriminatory housing practices, and no doubt many other instances that haven't come to light? The largest ever payout, by the way.
Racism isn't about words. It's about actions and behavior, and how deeply they are still embedded in our society. If we ever want to truly make progress, we should deal with people like Sterling firmly, by showing the world that they have no place as the face of a major sports franchise.
By the sad old man routine we hear on that tape. Eg, listen to a couple minutes of Baron Davis talking about how Sterling would heckle and abuse him during games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt45cHbudv4&feature=youtu.be
That said, there is clearly missing context from the tape released so far and to my ear it sounds edited, could be wrong. And of course many in the media will use this as an excuse to push a pre-existing political agenda, make more of it than it deserves, etc. But setting aside that culture war element, this is ultimately a business issue for the NBA. Players and owners around the league seem genuinely horrified by what he said, and I will defer to their judgment as it's their business to maintain.
Cuban's take, as usual, works for me (punish him, but let's not start talking about taking away property in America for unpleasant things said in private):
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10854381/mark-cuban-dallas-mavericks-r...
OKDan... I no way support Sterling and anything he has done. The words on the tapes are grotesque.
However, if this was a scam from the get go to get even with somebody, just so a person does not have to pay back a loan... I have a problem with the process. Plus, how many others are involved with creating, editing, and releasing of the 100+ hours of tape? I mean if this group of people took 10,000 hours of tape just to come up with the finished product of 100 hours of spliced recordings... is this a process anyone would want to reward? Now again, none of know if anything like that has happened, but when we are talking millions of dollars, and a woman scorned... I am not ruling it out either.
Lastly,I know I am not a racist or an anarchist, but if the NSA spliced together recordings for a year of mine or anyone else's phone calls... I am sure they could make us all out as public enemy number one with the media's help.
Here's the scouting report on Donald Sterling from Wikipedia:
80 years old son of Jewish Immigrants. Changed his name as an adult from "Tokowitz" to "Sterling". Married to Shelly Stein since 1955. Has three kids, one of whom is deceased in 2013 from a drug overdose or diabetes, depending on who you ask. Work: Didn't go to an elite law school, and worked at his own divorce and personal injury practice (He can't be all bad) until he became somewhat rich, then he bought an apartment complex and became a multi millionaire. Bought the Clippers in 1980 or thereabouts, for $12.5 million.
Previously sued twice for Equal Protection clause violations, both times for alleged discrimination against minorities once by the federal government, and once by a former employee. Settled the federal government suit for $2.7 million plus $4.9 million in attorney's fees.
Famous for various unsportsmanlike behaviors, including booing his own players, hoping to lose to get better draft picks, being prejudiced against black people and fielding a poor team every year. He once sued one of his concubines to rescind a house that he had given her.
So what are we to make of this guy?
1. Be thankful that you aren't filthy rich. The people that are filthy rich rarely come out very well. 2. Sterling is absolutely shameless. He has the chutzpah to publicly sue to rescind a deal with an alleged whore after she had allegedly serviced him. That was his allegation. That he paid a prostitute and wanted the court to give him her fees back. No word on whether she counter-sued for being defrauded into sleeping with a nasty old codger. Only chimpanzees show an equal level of oblivion to public displays of such gross behavior. 3. Sterling is too old to be alive, nevermind have a business and a scandal involving a twenty something mistress. 4. Sterling entered the public eye 30 years ago, and is more or less the same guy who you hear on the tape. This new stuff is par for the course of Sterling's life.
Update: Per Forbes, Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA.
Off topic: On Doc's question about precedents:
All legal briefs look to precedent. Precedent is when a lawyer wants a court to reach a decision and cites what has happened before. There are two types of precedent: Controlling authority and persuasive authority. Controlling authority is law that the court has to follow. It is always passed down from a legislature or a higher court. Persuasive authority is authority that persuades a court that a prededent should be followed. I enjoy working in Alaska, which is a young state, where many legal issues have not been decided yet by the Alaska legislature or its high courts. In those situations, persuasive authority is relied on.
Usually, persuasive authority comes in the form of the opinions of other courts that have decided a similar issue. Occasionally, books written by law professors, called treatises, are considered good persuasive authority. It is generally very labor intensive to make a motion based on persuasive authority, as the laws of many different states have to be browsed and disseminated.
The Supreme Court of the United States has no controlling authority except acts of Congress that it finds to be Constitutional. From what I understand of Supreme Court practice, a lawyer with a Supreme Court appeal researches the entire history of similar cases that each Justice has decided in the past, and does his or her best to win the vote of five or more Justices by appealing to the personal legal theories of each one.
If you want to sample some fine Supreme Court appeal arguments to see how persuasive authority is done, I recommend listening to the Jehovah Witness church. Those guys know how to put on a case, and to my knowledge, have never lost any decision in the U.S. Supreme Court.
My fave is Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York vs. Village of Stratton. Background. Jehovah Witnesses try to prosletyze an Amish town and have to register with the local Mayor's office to get a solicitation permit. The issue is whether a town can ban solicitors from knocking door to door. Audio here. Listen as Mr. Palidoro (Watchtower lawyer) is beat on and interrupted by a full Court press, and pretends to never actually disagree with any of the Justices. Plaintiff wins 8-1 and the dissent is Chief Justice Rhenquist who accuses the rest of the Court of ignoring precedent. Opinion here. Head scratcher. Since when can religious groups' be banned from door to door canvassing? It probably isn't good form to argue with Justice Rhenquist too much, as he isn't alive to defend himself.
I knew next to nothing about Sterling before writing the little post
;- )
And now know "next to, next to nothing." You guys outdid yourselves here. Six replies each of which could turn the discussion around on their own merits.
Sounds like an easy mosh article, at least :- )
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(Picking a Post of the Game is almost impossible, but Gordon's point is devastating: Why bust him for THIS, in context of his entire life of evil?, underlining once again the NBA's shameless hypocrisy. David Stern Lives.)
Thanks for being so polite Mojician, as to the point that court proceedings aren't possible without precedent ... this being "Not Cuba" we're living in.
Mo' Dawg, I didn't know about the mistress. If she was baiting him, a la Mel Gibson's arm candy, that AGAIN weaves an entirely different novelette.
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But like we say, there isn't going to be much even-handed discussion, not outside SSI. ;- ) The players are going to turn their jerseys inside out, the WWII-era grandpa is going to be gone, and the media is going to chortle "Here's what happens when you're racially insensitive."
Siiiighhhhhh ...
Bill Maher of all people is basically telling people to calm down. Paraphrasing " it's not illegal to be a in this country."
He's been fined, banned for life and will almost certainly have to sell the team or see its value plummet as sponsors leave in droves and free agents refuse to sign to play there.
As G said, this is pretty tame compared to some of the other things he has done. Let him wallow in his misery - his true reckoning is coming soon. There is nothing that we can do to him that is going to compare to what awaits.
The players were not going to tolerate Sterling's presence in the league. That's the bottom line here. I don't see this primarily as a culture war moment, honestly. It's something that clearly hit the current and ex-players extremely hard at an emotional level. IMO it was the "plantation owner" mentality that he revealed - clearly it hit a deep nerve, when you had people like Michael Jordan, who are almost never publicly outspoken on racial issues, expressing such strong outrage.
From a business standpoint the Clippers would not have been able to keep functioning as an organization with Sterling continuing to run the team.
To the question of "why now and not before"...his prior public racist episodes did not directly relate to his employees and customers in the NBA business. One could certainly have drawn implications from his behavior about his character, but it was "outside the lines." In this case OTOH, he was directly expressing racist attitudes in his role as an NBA owner. It's quite different IMO, and that is why he was punished so harshly this time.
I do believe a harsh punishment was needed... but I do not think the other owners will force Sterling to sell.
I bet there are at least a half dozen owners who go to church... and since it this incident will be long remembered ... chances are good that sometime in the future one of these Bible believers gets asked about homosexuality and the Bible.
Now-a-days there is almost no way to defend the Bible and not offend someone... especially someone in the media who is looking for revenge on one of these owners.
Thus, if the owners set the bar for losing a team based on politically incorrect speech - and the list of what is politically incorrect to talk about is rapidly expanding - be it pro Bible, to dressing like a black person for Halloween, to now the latest being Dartmouth students offending Mexicans by celebrating Cinco de Mayo by drinking Mexican beer and tequila... that would be just plain foolish to try to meet that bar in these times of intolerance towards free speech - regardless of how horrid that speech is.
Therefore the owners would be setting themselves up to have their franchises held as hostages to the media if they followed Silver's recommendations, since the media will be able to get rid of any owners that they deem politically incorrect at some point in the future.
Just imagine what one of Geoff Baker's articles put in the politically incorrect light could have done to Howard Lincoln and the rest of Mariner management.
The "pampered little *****'s" running around college campuses have gotten under his skin. Agreed - it's incredibly ironic that Bill Maher should serve as any kind of check-and-balance on PC enforcement, but he does it...