The NBA (National Basketball Association) commissioner Adam Silver has banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling for life from attending or being involved with the management of his own or any other NBA team. Three months after his appointment as NBA chief, Silver took this unprecedented action against one of the league’s longest tenured owners after public exposure of a recorded conversation between Sterling and a young woman with whom he had an intimate relationship. Sterling’s contribution to the conversation was a finger-wagging, racist admonition that she steer clear of Clippers games when in the company of African-Americans such as NBA legend Magic Johnson. This shocking prejudice from a man in his position is hard to accept. I believe Silver’s decision is 100 percent correct!
Even before Sterling’s identity was confirmed, the conversation went viral, and his true characteristics were displayed for all the world to see and hear. For many, it was not a revelation. Sterling bought the Clippers and moved them from San Diego to Los Angeles in the early 1980s. He attempted to hire former Villanova basketball coach, Rollie Massimino to pull the struggling Clippers out of their dysfunctional state. Massimino terminated the interview when Sterling used racist epithets to describe his players. The plantation-owner demeanour of Sterling is well documented, both in anecdotes and lawsuits. He had mistreated his black tenants and harassed former Clippers’ players like Baron Davis. The latest episode is simply the most public of many.
There was some talk that Clippers players would walk away from the playoffs. Silver’s quick action allayed that concern. Sterling was banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million (Rs.15.6 crore). But even with the commissioner’s swift action, the unpleasant incident provides an opportunity to revisit a number of critical issues. One is the personal responsibility of every individual, and society as a whole, to maintain racial harmony and respect black and minority communities.
Racism has been a fact of life in the US for so long that it has become a cancer. In most cases it is tolerated, often it is ignored. It may go into remission, but it is never cured and always returns.
Therefore the Silver-Sterling spat on the race issue offers a rare opportunity to address it without fear of being accused of playing the race card. Secondly, while there’s much to feel good about — nationwide revulsion over crude forms of racism — we are forced to speculate why NBA moved so quickly against Sterling.
A major reason is that Sterling couldn’t survive his vitriolic racist rant because he is part of a rare institution in which African-Americans are predominant — 76 percent of the members of NBA teams are African-American. NBA players whose talent attracts huge audiences demonstrated a solidarity their employers — Sterling’s fellow owners — simply couldn’t ignore.
Moreover, the timing was propitious. The NBA playoffs are in their early stages, the number of fans watching professional games is rising and sponsorships are especially lucrative. In the circumstances, the boycott threat was particularly dangerous.
But the larger point was raised in a Time magazine article by NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Sterling’s racism had never been a secret. So why did it take so long to force the hand of the NBA commissioner and management to expel Sterling? Abdul-Jabbar notes that in 2006, the Justice department had sued Sterling, who made his fortune in real estate, alleging he discriminated against blacks, Hispanics and families with children.
The answer: His team, the Clippers were a sad-sack team in the 2008-09 season with a record of 13 wins and 63 losses. Back then, Sterling posed no danger to the playoffs. Moreover the NBA management doesn’t have — and never had — the power that star NBA players do. This time, the players united to demonstrate that they possessed the power to bring about change within a few days.
Thirdly, Silver had to do something big to head off the threat of boycott by sponsors, players, and fans. Many were expecting corporate-style hedging, waffling and finally a compromise. But while speaking softly and a bit nervously, Silver swung a big stick and struck a powerful blow against racism in sport and suggested a clear model for doing what’s right, in response to which everyone approved and fell in line. It’s the integrity of the game that’s most important, and that means there should be zero tolerance for bigoted racism in the evaluation of human beings on and off the field.
This was a rare, courageous stand taken by the commissioner, and arguably distinguishes the NBA as the most socially progressive sports league in the world. Silver’s action is even more impressive when we note that at the time when he effectively expelled Sterling from the game, he had been on the job for only three months. The NBA, its players and new chief executive have set a standard for leadership that all sports associations would do well to follow.
(Dr. George A. Selleck is a San Francisco-based advisor to EduSports, Bangalore)