My Reaction to the Donald Sterling Punishment

I was pleased to see what NBA Commissioner handed out as punishment to Los Angeles Clippers Owner Donald Sterling.  A life time ban with a fine and being asked to sell the franchise is fair my mind, and his comments captured on audio is not the first time he has been known for making comments towards other races.  Back in 2006 the Department of Justice sued him over discriminatory renting practices and eventually paid a fine of over 2.5 million, he made racial comments against Blacks and Hispanics.  Sure that was not against players but he is the owner of franchise in part of a business that is the NBA.

When you are in a business and own a franchise common sense would tell you that anything you say or do can become public and be a stain on your business you are part of.

He crossed a line and his own team protested his comments on national television in the playoffs, and I LOVED IT.  Why on earth would he make any comments like he did knowing that he is an owner in a sport that is largely played by Blacks who happen to play on his team, making him millions upon millions of dollars.  Insulting your employees is Bush League type BS and also just plain arrogant.

He does not deserve to be involved in the NBA anymore, he deserves a fine and also should be forced to sell his team and then never heard from again.  Unless he can actually make a true apology instead of some half-ass crap he may spew to look like a victim I would be happy if he was never heard from again.

In my mind if you own a franchise in a business and you make a big mistake or open your mouth and say things you should not that the business has the right to terminate you.  In fact anything detrimental to a business is punishable if you are franchise owner, whether it is a food chain or national sporting league.  As previously stated the team took a stand and stood up in protest, in reality they are his employees and took a stand to their boss.

I feel the stand by the Clippers players made a statement that not even they would take his crap, it takes a lot of guts regardless of how rich you are to take a stand to any sort of discrimination.

Also I would like to go over the lawsuit of 2006, clearly Sterling has had a past of making insensitive comments in the past and yet he was still able to be an owner and run a team, it really should have taken this long for him to be punished.  So I would say this punishment fits the crime.

I am sure there will be a fair amount of debate over this decision for some time to come, and both sides will argue, but at the end of the day Sterling is gone and the Clippers will have a new owner.  It is time for the Clippers organization to move forward with a new owner....