“NBA Suspends Clippers’ Owner Donald Sterling For Life, Imposes $2.5 Million Fine,” CBS’s L.A. affiliate reports:
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced Tuesday Clippers owner Donald Sterling will be suspended for life and fined $2.5 million in response to the racist remarks he allegedly made in a recorded audio clip.
Silver spoke to the press at 11 a.m. news conference from New York, stating he will “do everything in my power” to force the sale of the Clippers.
“The hateful opinions voiced by that man are those of Mr. Sterling. The views expressed by Mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful. That they came from an NBA owner only heightens the damage and my personal outrage,” Silver said. “I am banning Mr. Sterling for life from any association with the Clippers association or the NBA. Mr. Sterling may not attend any NBA games or practices, he may not be present at any Clippers facility, and he may not participate in any business or decisions involving the team.”
Ace adds:
My guess is that this is a ban on his day-to-day participation in the club. He won’t be permitted to make decisions for his own business. He’s being forced into a completely passive ownership role. He’ll still own the team, technically, but someone else will run it, and he’ll be banned fro interfering.
Who the heck gets to pick the new team caretaker is beyond me.
In a related story, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar asks, as Jazz Shaw paraphrases at Hot Air, “Why aren’t we also outraged that Donald Sterling was secretly recorded?”But in any case, as Sarah Hofmann writes at the Daily Caller, “The NBA’s investigators determined that the tape had not been altered, and it was Sterling.” Donald Douglas of the American Power blog has more on Sterling’s political dealings.
Also at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey notes that the NBA’s corporate sponsorship risks cratering in response to Sterling’s disgusting outburst:
State Farm started the exodus. Even Amtrak — whose sponsorship run finished a few weeks ago but had considered re-engaging — says those plans are now derailed. The problem for the league is that two teams play in every game, and it may not just be the Clippers’ sponsors who want to keep their distance from Sterling and Clipper games. This could create a league-wide meltdown, and the NBA needs to act quickly to prevent it.
Ed speculates that Sterling could take the league to court to fight the suspension, and they might not relish the idea of that much public scrutiny. “Given how much Sterling stands to gain in a sale, though, he may be already angling for a quick exit now,” he adds.
More as it comes in.
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