Why do so many people keep treating this as a moral decision by the NBA? It's a business decision with a moral pretext. No slippery slope is necessary - if someone threatens the financial well-being of the league by drawing the degree of negative response that Sterling's comments got, they'll be out too. "But what about this other thing somebody said 10 years ago?" Didn't get the attention, didn't threaten the business, so no response.
It just happens that racist, sexist, and, increasingly, homophobic statements are a very quick way of drawing that kind of negative response in today's market, far more so than in the past.
So it's not a slippery slope, gravity is just pulling us down this remarkably slick, downward-curved surface at increasing velocity!
Even if the NBA didn't view it as a moral decision (and they've done everything to frame it as a moral decision), it doesn't mean it isn't one. Whether the sheriff gives over his prisoner to the mob because he sympathizes with their case or because he's afraid for himself, the effect is the same: the mob is validated and empowered.
Whatever you think about Sterling the man, the way his team is being taken from him stinks of Orwell. A private phone conversation recorded and leaked and a tabloid media holding him up for endless 2-minute hates. The endless piling on and self-righteous denunciations. The thrill of ganging up on a dying old ogre and trampling him. The suspicious glares trained on those who express misgivings - like Cuban.
The ends may have been a long time coming for Sterling, but the means are exposing something far more sinister.
Have you read Orwell? Because he's pretty concerned about government control, when here we have a collection of 29 rich business owners hanging a 30th out to dry (in that selling an asset for a billion dollars can possibly seen as such) for their own personal benefit.
It is nothing like Orwell. We have private entities acting in their own self-interest. Does it suck for Sterling that his bigotry was exposed to the point where others could no longer pretend it didn't exist? Sure. That's life. He's free to say what he wants, and others are free to react how they want, and the NBA is free to favor the reaction of the majority of its sponsors, employees, and customers over Donald Sterling's wishes. And Cuban is free to vote whichever way he wants. If he doesn't want to vote Sterling out on freedom of speech grounds, either due to moral conviction or personal protection as an outspoken person, that's his prerogative. If he thinks that the possible loss of sponsorship is going to hurt his own business, and wants Sterling out for that, even if he feels uncomfortable, that's his prerogative too.
This issue is not complicated. Donald Sterling said some very offensive things. The NBA is in danger of losing tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of dollars because of those things. They are taking an action to prevent the loss of money. No more, no less. Certainly some owners were truly offended. I'd bet Michael Jordan was. Probably some other owners weren't as much, but don't want to lose the money, because they're not idiots. There's no persecution of Donald Sterling. There are fans who say "I don't want my money going there." There are companies that don't want to be associated with it, so as not to lose those fans as customers. And there are players who don't want to help a man who's so willing to denigrate them. It is simply that most people find him revolting, and their dollars are talking. No laws are being passed. No one's rounding up the racists. Orwellian this is not.
Topic: Doesn't sound like Cuban agrees with kicking sterling out presently (Read 20205 times)