ESPN: Sterling OKs Clippers sale.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Looks like Sterling is backing out of letting his wife sell the team, and is threatening to fight to the "bloody end".

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/10993013/donald-sterling-strongly-responds-nba-draconian-penalties

and this seems to be the slippery slope that Cuban warned about.

Sterling specifically references Orlando Magic owner Richard DeVos, who, in his words, "has made highly controversial comments against individuals with HIV/AIDS and generously supports anti-homosexual causes with impugnity."

Yeah DeVos is a creep who donates millions to things like Prop 8.

That still affects the NBA's bottom line way, way less than an owner being recorded asking his mistress/assistant/whatever not to bring black people to his games.

Also, given Cuban's recent history with incredibly shortsighted false equivocations, I'm not sure he's the best guy to be citing in a case like this.

But it still affects the NBA's bottom line.  That is the point.  Where do you draw the line?  You can't speak badly against blacks, but against the gays is ok even where you donate millions of dollars to anti-gay causes.  I mean is that really the position the NBA wants to be in.  That is the rub.

It really doesn't matter what DeVos does if it doesn't end up in the public eye. That's the rub. For better or worse, the fact that an owner is speaking out against bringing black people to games when the game's best players are all black is significantly worse for the NBA than donating to political campaigns.

He wasn't speaking out against bringing black people to games, he was speaking out against his girlfriend bringing black people to games.  To the best of my knowledge, Sterling has never denied the sale of a ticket to a black person.  His team is comprised of mostly black people, including is head coach.  He had a black GM for what 30 years.  It isn't like Sterling has gone out of his way to discriminate against blacks with respect to the Clippers.  He didn't want his half black girlfriend to attend a Clippers game with Magic Johnson.  He was in the heat of the moment in what should have been a private conversation.

He did discriminate in basketball matters, just ask Elgin Baylor.  His treatment of Baron Davis was bizarre, too.  He would also apparently bring in his rich friends and then parade them through the locker room after games and show off his players' physiques and stuff and Davis described it as someone showing off their race horses.  Then, the Beverley Hills housing scandal is a pretty telling scandal for him, as well.  When you're doing all that and then you also have one of the worst run sports franchises in history, it's going to be a problem when something like this arises.  It's like the 5th strike for him.

[Ogaju]

 I told yall that the NBA is playing checkers and DTS is playing chess.

Please hold the salt on my popcorn, this is going to be fun. I wonder if the movie will be shot in three D?

[Quetzalcoatl]

I told yall that the NBA is playing checkers and DTS is playing chess.

Please hold the salt on my popcorn, this is going to be fun. I wonder if the movie will be shot in three D?

It sucks in a way we have that Clippers pick, because I can't help but root for this to be a huge, dragged out nightmare.  On the other hand, I am having a hard time writing a sentence to accurately explain how happy I am that we have that pick that won't get me censored.  We could get a MAJOR piece from that draft without tanking and any uncertainty about the situation boosts its value in the short term, too. 

The reason that I think that DTS has a huge advantage in this though is ultimately, the league doesn't seem like they care for any reason other than the money they lose due to negative publicity.  They watched this racist piece of garbage act like a total loon for years now and they didn't bat an eye until the public cared, then they made some PR-approved statements and made a decree that they can't seem to uphold.  The public won't hold them accountable if DTS drags this out, because the public now perceives the NBA as having done the right thing.  I don't think they're going to pull out every stop they need to to get DTS to sell, because ultimately, they don't really care as long as they keep getting their money.  If they have to black out Clippers games or something like that to starve him out, but it costs them too much per game to be worth it, they're not going to do it.