-No Mr. Sterling, Black History Month is not in March, nor does "underprivileged" imply "black." (and for good measure, couldn't you have chosen any other black player on your team, not an albino ginger?)
This past weekend, the sports world was given a serious dose of realism and controversy set off by unfathomably inappropriate comments by Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Now that the storm has settled, the punishment has been handed out, and every important figure has had their say, here are some of my favorite quotes regarding the matter.
1) People want to Boycott Clippers because of one man? My house has been burned to the ground, animals tortured and burned as well. Along with anything we ever loved, and held treasured, because of the color of my dads skin. We lost everything and had to start over. Did we hate the collective people, culture, and race who's skin was responsible for our hardship? No. One man cannot have the power to make me feel hate towards a group, race, or another persons skin color. Nor would I allow them to have the power over me to not support the players and coaches that have done nothing wrong...
-Jeremiah Rivers, son of Doc (Head Coach of the Clippers)
2) "There's no place for racism in the NBA, any business I'm associated with. But at the same time, that's a decision I make. I think you've got to be very, very careful when you start making blanket statements about what people say and think, as opposed to what they do. It's a very, very slippery slope."
-Mark Cuban, Mavericks Owner, Resident Loudmouth (albeit a highly intelligent one)
3) "I agree 100% with Commissioner Silvers findings and the actions taken against Donald Sterling."
-Mark Cuban once again, making sure his voice is heard.
4) “So, if we’re all going to be outraged, let’s be outraged that we weren’t more outraged when his racism was first evident. Let’s be outraged that private conversations between people in an intimate relationship are recorded and publicly played. Let’s be outraged that whoever did the betraying will probably get a book deal, a sitcom, trade recipes with Hoda and Kathie Lee, and soon appear on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ and ‘Dancing with the Stars."
-Kareem Abdul Jabbar, NBA Hall-of-Famer, Voice of Reason
5) "Mob rule is dangerous. Well-intentioned, TV-baited mobs are the most dangerous. They do not consider the consequences of their actions, and they're prone to take a simple-minded, instant-gratification approach to justice rather than a strategic one.
Removing Donald Sterling from the NBA solves nothing. It sets a precedent that will likely boomerang and harm the black players and coaches who are shocked and outraged that an 80-year-old man with a documented history of bigoted actions also has bigoted private thoughts."
-Jason Whitlock, sportswriter for ESPN
6) In American sports, issues of race are unavoidable. But when we turn our attention to those issues, we tend to do so in discussion of sensational topics. And we do so with little more than passing interest. We're more concerned with people saying stupid things, transgressions that even undeniable racists could criticize. People from every walk of life are entitled to slam someone for talking too much. In Sterling's case, we're confronted with racism in its most problematic form. And up until now, we've said very little. Many of us lent thousands of words to lambaste the Vikings' stripper party last season, but we've been silent on this? That doesn't mean we should campaign for Sterling to lose his team. But we should wonder what David Stern thinks of there being an owner in his league who seems to have disturbing views about most of his players. We should ask Sterling what he thinks of his players. More than just talking about racism and debating whether it exists in a few situations, we should attack it directly, especially when it's so destructive and glaring.
-Bomani Jones, Sportswriter for ESPN, in a 2006 Article
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