[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

Here is an article my friend showed me on Donald Sterling. If you would like to see the link, http://deadspin.com/5398936/donald-sterling-continues-to-get-away-with-being-the-most-evil-man-in-sports. I already had a low opinion of the guy, but wow. Again, sorry clippers and other clippers fans here, but as long as this guy is the owner, your team is going nowhere.

Donald Sterling Continues To Get Away With Being The Most Evil Man In Sports

Racist greedhead Donald Sterling will pay $2.73 million to settle a federal housing bias lawsuit accusing him of all kinds of sleazy and thuggish behavior, none of which matters in David Stern’s NBA if you’re an owner.

The settlement is said to be the largest of its kind. Dan Wetzel rightly wonders why more people aren’t talking about Sterling. Maybe it’s because there’s just so much to talk about that no one knows where to begin:

• In 2003, 19 tenants and the Housing Rights Center filed a housing discrimination lawsuit against Sterling, one of the biggest landowners in Los Angeles. (That case, too, was settled.) According to depositions given by one of Sterling’s property supervisors and obtained by ESPN The Magazine’s Peter Keating, Sterling didn’t like renting to black people (“they smell”), Mexican-Americans (“just sit around and smoke and drink all day”) and people with children (“brats”), though he did like Koreans because “they will take whatever conditions I give them and still pay the rent.” (The property supervisor, Sumner Davenport, sued Sterling for sexual harassment. She lost.)

• When a tenant asked to be compensated for water damage in her flooded apartment, Sterling allegedly told Davenport, “Just evict the bitch.”

• According to former general manger Elgin Baylor, Sterling envisioned a “Southern Plantation type structure” for the Clippers, one in which, as he allegedly put it to Baylor, “poor black boys from the South” played for a white head coach.

• Sterling bought the Clippers in 1981 for $13 million. The franchise is now valued at $300 million. On his watch, the Clippers have lost 50 games in a season 20 times. Long ago, Sterling realized — correctly — that an owner could turn a tidy and effortless profit under the NBA’s revenue-sharing system merely by losing cheaply and relying on the league’s ever-fattening coffers.

• The NBA once fined Sterling $10,000 for suggesting the Clippers tank to help their draft position.

• As reported here, Sterling’s scorekeepers in the late 1990s routinely and dramatically undercounted the Clippers’ assist totals. Deliberate or not, the effect was to depress the value of the team’s own players.

• According to Franz Lidz in Sports Illustrated, Sterling would refuse to add players even after injuries left the roster at the league minimum of eight. “The Clippers came close to forfeiting a game after forward Michael Brooks had oral surgery,” Lidz wrote. “Brooks had to suit up, and he actually played, though his jaw was as swollen as Sterling’s ego.”

• Sterling once welshed on a $1,000 prize for a free-throw shooting contest, forcing the winner, a lawyer and season ticketholder named Michael Spilger, to sue. More than a year later, according to Lidz, Spilger got his money.

• During his first season as owner, according to Sports Illustrated, Sterling reportedly wanted to save money by jettisoning the team trainer. He asked coach Paul Silas if he would mind taping up players before games.

• According to Sports Illustrated: “Sterling is also said to have proposed to trim the team budget for his second season by slashing training-camp expenses from more than $50,000 to about $100, scouting from more than $20,000 to about $1,000, advertising from more than $200,000 to less than $9,000 and medical expenses from about $10,000 to $100.”

• Sterling would solicit “hostesses” for private parties and Clippers events, one of whom told ESPN The Magazine: “Working for Donald Sterling was the most demoralizing, dehumanizing experience of my life. He asked me for seminude photos and made it clear he wanted more.”

• A former employee sued Sterling for sexual harassment in 1996. According to testimony obtained by ESPN The Magazine, Sterling would order her to find massage therapists, saying, “I want someone who will, you know, let me put it in or who [will] suck on it.” The case was settled.

• In 2003, Sterling acknowledged paying a woman named Alexandra Castro $500 every time “she provided sex.” He testified: “It was purely sex for money, money for sex, sex for money, money for sex.” He would call her honey, but for decidedly unromantic reasons. “I’m a very flowery man,” he said. “If you are having sex with a woman you are paying for, you always call her honey because you can’t remember her name.”

And that’s just a partial list. Remember Sterling the next time someone projects his private demographic terrors on all the “thugs” in the NBA. In his time as the Clippers’ owner, he has behaved far more repulsively than any wayward player ever suspended by David Stern; if Sterling were a small forward, he’d be looking for a run in Minsk right about now. But he’s an owner and a wealthy real-estate magnate, and for those reasons and no other, a league so concerned about its public image that it tells its players how to dress will happily overlook the fact that Donald T. Sterling is a cheap, whoring bigot.

[FT33Participant]

The reason we are so bad is because of him. Its not all his fault, but the main reasons why we don’t attract the big time players is because of this “cancerous” person. Whenever he leaves(or dies, whichever comes first) is the day everyone will be happy(especially the Clippers fans).

[bobbybParticipant]

Its all about the benjamins, The players could care less.If the roster doesnt care , why shouldthe fans. I saw an interview with stephen a smith where he said he wanted rush limbaugh to buy the rams so he could see the hypocrits come out. People are about the money. Case closed

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

Bobby, it is true that money is extremely important. But, I think what you missed in this article, and obviously in Donald Sterling, is that he is unwilling to spend money to keep his players, and also to keep his players happy. It is true that money talks, but so does being a cheapskate. Why do you think the Clippers lose all of their players after a few years? His signing of Baron Davis just meant that he was not willing to put up the money to keep Elton Brand, which is pretty much the only way that Davis signing would have kept them competitive. Bottom line is, the guy spends no money, and when he finally has forked it out it has been incredibly poorly. If you want to argue, read the part about his discovery of the revenue sharing, he just wants to keep his ass in the league to make money off a horrible team. He is a horrible owner for doing this, and his fans honestly should just not keep their hopes up, because this guy will always crush them. Honestly, Rush Limbaugh would be the same way, no way that guy would fork out money to make the Rams competitive. I think the reason he wanted to buy them is because they are so awful. Also, if you are listening to what Stephen A. Smith says about being a hypocrite, or pretty much anything else for that matter, than, you’re in trouble 🙂

[marcusfizer21Participant]

No wonder the Clippers are so bad… LOL…

[quincey hodges]

he is a big reason but hes not the only reason..he shares blame wit the coach and the players who are out there actually playing the games

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

While I agree with you that the coaches and players should take some blame, I look at it this way with the Sterling Clippers. He has always surrounded himself with terrible basketball personnel. Elgin Baylor was an incredible player, a legend, and indeed was a hard person to probably let go, but I think he made the play-offs about twice in 13 years. Not to mentioned, Elgin was mistreated by him as well. The thing I noticed though, is look at all the players they passed up in past drafts. Mike Dunleavy was never a coach I liked, and on any competitive team, due would have been canned a couple years ago. He got canned from the Blazers I believe just for losing in the first round. The thing with the guy, is he gives chances to his personnel that do not deserve it, and they just build teams that do not compete. Than, he refuses to pay his players, who than proceed to give some other team their best years. I mean, my example of Elton Brand leaving is not the only one. With the Clippers, it is not a curse, it is just a routine of failure under the watch of Donald Sterling.

[bobbybParticipant]

I think it has to more with management not picking the right players. baylor should have been out of there a long time ago. he was a great player but a loser of a GM. He gives a bad name to people who are legitimate victims of racism. all of a sudden this guy is a racist but baylor was collecting his checks all these years. Most of the owners are racists/elitiests and believes everyone is below them. Look at the blazers, low payroll good time. Look at the Knicks high payroll sucky team. of course money helps but it isnt the end all be all. As for sterling making a profit , he should. He invested his money to buy the team, he is takin the risk. what about when a player leaves to make more money. Isnt that greed also?

[mikeyvthedonParticipant]

My point is, look at who this guy constantly brings in. He brings in people who have a messed up concept of the game, mismanage the team and he lets them run wild. Also, the Blazers are a horrible example, because Paul Allen is the richest owner in the league and has no problem spending money to give his team a chance of winning. In a year or so, the Blazers will be back to have a very high pay-roll, as they have re-signed Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge and still have a plethora of other young players on their rookie contracts. Bobby, you have to read into the entire article. I too thought the Baylor racism suit was ridiculous, but Baylor also was making very little money compared to other people in his position. Mike Dunleavy on the other hand. Also, James Dolan is an awful owner. I get the money talks part of your argument, but I think you are just not analyzing it based on situation and just universally applying it to the league, which of course it does not, because some of these franchises stay bad for a reason. The Clippers being patient zero.

[rtbtParticipant]

mikeyvthedon, I read all of your posts on this subject and couldn’t agree with you more. It’s just like Dan Snyder with the Washington Redskins, who is the Isiah Thomas of DC. Leadership starts at the top of any organization, and while I agree guys like Elgin Baylor and Mike Dunleavy were horrible, they were hired by and signed off by Donald Sterling who set the tone and direction of the franchise since he’s been the owner.

I’m not going into all of the excellent points you raised, but I’m with you all the way.

[quincey hodges]

big redskins fan here and i gotta say synder has been killing my team for years now..with that said just liek the clippers i have to put some of the blame out there ont he players because they are still nfl players and some of them are pretty good..just like wit the clippers there are pretty good players out there and management is a part of winning the biggest part is the players out there doing there job because reguardless of who is put on the floor you are still nba players and gotta work hard…you look at houston and they dont have the individual talent that other teams have but they go out there and play hard and they have a player (ariza) he is new on the team but he goes out there and say imma try to lead this team even though just about everyone has been here longer then me. thats another thing the clippers need someone to do..step up and say imma lead and ya’ll follow…kaman has been doing that pretty well actually

[Author]

Posts