First of all how can a phone conversation be made public and broadcast all over the Internet without the consent of the two people involved agreeing to it? I understand that V. Stiviano agreed because she’s the one who most believe put it out there. But I thought taping phone conversations and playing them back in public was illegal.
After watching part of the interviews V gave, especially the Barbara Walters interview, she indicated that she wasn’t the one who released the tape, and that she has a collection of tapes of the two, that she indicated Sterling knew about and had no problem with her taping their conversations. And the tapes were part of some Internet thing she’s involved in. I don’t have a clue what this is, and does this exempt the privacy laws? The Barbara Walters interview should be very interesting; I only saw a clip from it on Face the Nation. Maybe it will clarify some things.
I know some smart person is going to help me with this one.
I agree 100 percent with the punishment. And for those of you who don’t think the league can force Sterling to sell, well just wait until after the playoffs and the owners vote. He’s out of there. Twenty-two of the 30 owners have to vote yes to force him to sell his shares in the team. I don’t think any owner in his right mind would vote no with 75 to 90 percent of his employees being Black.
Oh, by the way, Sterling said it was his voice and he did not apologize for the statements.
But don’t feel sorry for Sterling. He purchased the team for $12 million, and it is now worth around $600 million or more, which is a very juicy profit. There’s already a line of people wanting to bid.
I was proud of the players. They stood united together in their views that there’s no place in professional sports for this kind of person. And if you are going to have these views, which I’m sure others have, you had better not voice it publicly.
Considering this woman has been reported to be part Black, she’s definitely not White, what was Sterling thinking? Even a complete airhead would have problems with you talking about their mother or fathers’ race.
She’s an extremely beautiful woman so maybe whatever she was putting on him had him completely blind, because he was showering her with all kinds of expensive gifts. She was living the life. And in the Walters’ clip she said she was his right hand man, and he shared everything with her.
And to tell her not to hang out with or take pictures with Magic Johnson, come on, he’s a celebrity and the second greatest point guard to ever play the game. What fan wouldn’t want a picture with Magic? I guess he was jealous.
But what I don’t understand is why wasn’t he brought to task before? He has a history of racism, which is far worse than what he said on tape.
•2006: U.S. Dept. of Justice sued Sterling for housing discrimination. Allegedly, he said, “Black tenants smell and attract vermin.”
•2009: He reportedly paid $2.73 million in a Justice Dept. suit alleging he discriminated against Blacks, Hispanics, and families with children in his rentals. He also had to pay an additional nearly $5 million in attorneys’ fees and costs due to his counsel’s sometimes outrageous conduct.
•2009: Clippers executive, Elgin Baylor, sued for employment discrimination based on age and race.
The main reasons I think the other owners will act quickly and severely against Sterling is they don’t want their own houses to be probed, because if you take a good look at the NBA and professional and college sports, even though the players are majority Black there’s a lot of work that needs to be done when it comes to coaches, both head and assistant, as well as front office personnel.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Rhoden, a long time New York Times Black sports writer both stated that once you leave the field or court of these major league teams and into the offices you enter a sea of White faces, from the secretary to the president.
As racist as Sterling appears to be he had a better record of hiring Blacks than most of the teams in the NBA. He has a Black head coach and head of basketball operations in Doc Rivers, and he paid him mega bucks. And for years Elgin Baylor was in charge of basketball operations, where as many teams have yet to hire their first Black head coach or Black General Manager or any front office personnel.
Former basketball great Abdul-Jabbar did a great commentary online asking the same questions I’m asking. Why are the players and the media just now getting mad? Something should have been done about him years ago.
Here’s part of Abdul-Jabbar release online in which I totally agree.
“What bothers me about this whole Donald Sterling affair isn’t just his racism. I’m bothered that everyone acts as if it’s a huge surprise. Really? All this other stuff has been going on for years and this ridiculous conversation with his girlfriend is what puts you over the edge? That’s the smoking gun?
“He was discriminating against Black and Hispanic families for years, preventing them from getting housing. It was public record. We did nothing. Suddenly he says he doesn’t want his girlfriend posing with Magic Johnson on Instagram and we bring out the torches and rope.
“Shouldn’t we have all called for his resignation back then? Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media?
“Make no mistake: Donald Sterling is the villain of this story. But he’s just a handmaiden to the bigger evil. In our quest for social justice, we shouldn’t lose sight that racism is the true enemy. He’s just another jerk with more money than brains.
“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.
“I hope Sterling loses his franchise. I hope whoever made this illegal tape is sent to prison.”
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
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