What can the NBA do about Donald Sterling?

[LosBulls]

I think the NBA needs to do something about Sterling, so what can Adam Silver do? Can he remove Sterling from ownership and have the NBA take over the team until they find a new owner like they did with New Orleans?

[miggyme1]

I think the NBA needs to do something about Sterling, so what can Adam Silver do? Can he remove Sterling from ownership and have the NBA take over the team until they find a new owner like they did with New Orleans?

Id like to see him step down and a minority owner step up or multiple minority owners. I guess we know now why the clippers have been so horrible all these years until recently....sterling never cared about winning....just owning poor black kids. They should change the clippers to the LA UNITED NEGRO FUND....the logo will be a black hand receiving money from a white hand. Everybody last name on the back of they jersey will be sterling.

[WallIn]

Clippers deserve a better owner. This ass has been hijacking them for too long

[Derka]

Any move to negate his ownership is going to spend years in courts.

[MP.Trey]

Any move to negate his ownership is going to spend years in courts.
Might as well just wait for him to die. It's coming.

[fiddy]

WHY!? he should get a pass. CP3 said publicly he wants a black coach and got away with it. Sterling went racist in a private conversation with his partner. Did he ever went publicly racist?
posted in another thread

[SilkkTheShocker]

This is on the NBA. They knew what kind of man Sterling was before he bought the team. You people that actually think he will lose his team are living in a fantasy world :oldlol:

[SilkkTheShocker]

Clippers deserve a better owner. This ass has been hijacking them for too long

They don't deserve shit. If they don't like him, than don't go to the games. If the players don't want to play for him, than turn down all those millions of dollars. You can't have your cake and eat it to.

[nathanjizzle]

ill answer you since youre not intuitive enough to figure it out yourself. The nba is owned by the NBA, not by individual owners of a team. they can take him to court to force him out of ownership if he doesnt agree to sell his shares. what the court decides is what will happen. its possible they wont decide against sterling because he was recorded privately, and is protected by freedom of speech.

The other scenerio is if the nba buys the shares from sterling for an obscene amount.

[brooks_thompson]

The best move towards forcing him out wouldve been for the Clippers to forfeit the series. Then you have the league pissed and GSW's owner over losing playoff revenues, and most importantly, the tv networks when a new deal is right around the corner. The fans are robbed of a playoff run of the best Clips team ever. That discontent and potential loss of support drives down the market value of the team (at least from the idea of the NBA buying him out BEFORE selling higher due to a potential owners' bidding war).

The essence of the idea is to set off so many potential legal disputes that the NBA is forced to take the most drastic measure to prevent a judicial mess. Public sympathy would be 100% for the players, Doc & Chris Paul would become legends without any backlash over the forfeiture.

[oh the horror]

The best move towards forcing him out wouldve been for the Clippers to forfeit the series. Then you have the league pissed and GSW's owner over losing playoff revenues. The fans are robbed of a playoff run of the best Clips team ever. That discontent and potential loss of support drives down the market value of the team (at least from the idea of the NBA buying him out BEFORE selling higher due to a potential owners' bidding war).

The public sympathy would be 100% for the players, Doc & Chris Paul would become legends without any backlash over the forfeiture.



Dude there would be a massive backlash over a forfeit. You kidding?




My guess is again the league pressures him to step down.


Either way he should sell while the stock is high. Because regardless sales and merch sales will take a hit.

[brooks_thompson]

Dude there would be a massive backlash over a forfeit. You kidding?




My guess is again the league pressures him to step down.


Either way he should sell while the stock is high. Because regardless sales and merch sales will take a hit.

The backlash is the point. The essence of the idea is to set off so many potential legal disputes that the NBA is forced to take the most drastic measure to prevent a judicial mess.

[ThePhantomCreep]

Any move to negate his ownership is going to spend years in courts.
True, but sitting on their hands makes the NBA look terrible from a PR standpoint.

[ballup]

posted in another thread
Except that CP3 isn't an employer. Being racially selective as an employer doesn't hurt yourself as bad as being a racially selective employee

[f0und]

i actually dont think anything major should be done by the nba because the backlash itself will have far reaching consequences and sterling's demise will naturally play itself out. players will stop playing hard. star players wont sign. fans will stop coming to games. the clippers org will become such a toxic failing franchise that sterling will have no choice but to resign or sell.

[SwishSquared]

Except that CP3 isn't an employer. Being racially selective as an employer doesn't hurt yourself as bad as being a racially selective employee
I kinda agree with your main point, being perceived as a racist when a public figure is obvi never good. Being in a position of power only makes it worse.

Although that story may have been true, it should be noted (as has been in the other thread) that CP3's favorite coach prior to Doc was the late Skip Prosser. I think that DTS' camp may have floated that story just to slight Chris because he would not have re-signed if Vinny was retained.

CP3 got thrown under the bus by DTS in explaining Vinny's departure and that infuriated him. I believe the more correct report was that if Doc wasn't hired, then he would have gone to Houston or Dallas with Howard to form a super team.

I don't remember CP3 getting flak in terms of the race of the coach he wanted, just that he made a power play for Clips to hire Rivers.

[MavsSuperFan]

I could be wrong but i dont see how sterling can be removed.

To the best of my knowledge no owner has ever been removed before in america pro sports.

Some owners have decided to sell the team after being pressured/shamed into doing so, but they werent forced to. they made the choice to sell their teams because everyone was calling them a racist and they couldnt take it.

I think sterling is more stubborn/shameless than that. this is a guy that used to go heckle his players publically during games.

He owns a company. Can a person be forced to sell a company he owns because he is a racist?

Also he is worth 1.9 billion so if the NBA tries to force him out he has enough money to take it to the supreme court in if necessary.

I think the only way to remove him is if some group or person who is ridiculously wealthy buys him out for an inflated price.

[MavsSuperFan]

i actually dont think anything major should be done by the nba because the backlash itself will have far reaching consequences and sterling's demise will naturally play itself out. players will stop playing hard. star players wont sign. fans will stop coming to games. the clippers org will become such a toxic failing franchise that sterling will have no choice but to resign or sell.
As long as the fans go to the games sterling will be fine.
He has owned the team since 1981. that was 33 years ago. For the vast majority of that time the clippers were a toxic failing franchise, and sterling was perfectly happy, because they were profitable.

[gts]

ill answer you since youre not intuitive enough to figure it out yourself. The nba is owned by the NBA, not by individual owners of a team. they can take him to court to force him out of ownership if he doesnt agree to sell his shares. what the court decides is what will happen. its possible they wont decide against sterling because he was recorded privately, and is protected by freedom of speech.

The other scenerio is if the nba buys the shares from sterling for an obscene amount.

There are no shares to buy.

The NBA is an association made up of the owners, it's owned by the owners not the other way around

Silver works for them, they have a constitution with bylaws that give power to Silver to act in their interests but he cannot act alone on something of this magnitude, he'll be in contact with the 29 owners. they cannot force the sale of the Clippers, they can punish Sterling, they can ask him to sell they can threaten to take away his franchise legally and or to lots of other things but there are no words in the bylaws or constitution that they can use to remove Sterling easily. It will or could become a long long battle if they go down that road and as anyone who's followed the Clippers knows Sterling loves the courtroom, he is a lawyer after all...

Freedom of speech has nothing to do with this, whether or not it was recorded without his knowledge has nothing to do with this because this is not a court of law all they have to do is make sure it is indeed Sterling on the tape.

Remember it's not illegal to be a bigot.. They'd have to prove a hostile work environment to even begin to go down that road and we all saw how that worked out for Elgin Baylor, this wouldn't be Sterlings first rodeo facing these types of charges

[TheReturn]

have him assassinated

[f0und]

As long as the fans go to the games sterling will be fine.
He has owned the team since 1981. that was 33 years ago. For the vast majority of that time the clippers were a toxic failing franchise, and sterling was perfectly happy, because they were profitable.

i thought about that too, but i think this situation is gonna be a bit more severe.

[brantonli]

Dude there would be a massive backlash over a forfeit. You kidding?




My guess is again the league pressures him to step down.


Either way he should sell while the stock is high. Because regardless sales and merch sales will take a hit.

Is there any precedent in the NBA for an owner to be pressured to sell? Ultimately, the process would be much quicker if the tide can turn, and Sterling actually wants to sell.

[oh the horror]

Is there any precedent in the NBA for an owner to be pressured to sell? Ultimately, the process would be much quicker if the tide can turn, and Sterling actually wants to sell.



If there was I'm sure we won't be made aware that they're pressuring him to sell. It won't be a public matter. But I'm sure sterlings people are telling him something in regards to stepping down before he and the franchise face further scrutiny that buries them further.

[ThePhantomCreep]

Is there any precedent in the NBA for an owner to be pressured to sell? Ultimately, the process would be much quicker if the tide can turn, and Sterling actually wants to sell.

NBA no, but Marge Schott was forced to sell 16 years ago. I'm pretty sure the NBA can legally remove a player/owner/etc if he decides to publicly channel his inner Hitler. Anything that could potentially damage the NBA brand ($) is grounds for removal.

[selrahc]

nothing will happen... by next season no one will care anymore... hes said many things like this in the past and people still play for him and go to his games

[9512]

If the NBA cannot do anything, the last resort and the ultimate one is his own death. Dude is 80+ years of age.:oldlol:

[SwishSquared]

Is there any precedent in the NBA for an owner to be pressured to sell? Ultimately, the process would be much quicker if the tide can turn, and Sterling actually wants to sell.
The NBA recently finally got George Shinn to sell New Orleans back to the league. It took years from them to get him to agree to it, but he was mostly a bad owner (and didn't have huge racism issues surrounding him I think).


vNBA no, but Marge Schott was forced to sell 16 years ago. I'm pretty sure the NBA can legally remove a player/owner/etc if he decides to publicly channel his inner Hitler. Anything that could potentially damage the NBA brand ($) is grounds for removal.
I agree that NBA should have some power here. Idk how the NBA set up its constitution, but because it's a private enterprise, I am sure there are provisions in which even owners can be harshly punished. If it's like owning a franchise business in other realms (think restaurants, etc) then the NBA can get him out. If you damage the brand/business, you face consequences. Maybe not forced to sell the team, but a perma-ban from all NBA festivities might convince him to sell.

Also this guy is super old and only starting spending $ once he saw Jerry Buss getting very sick (and he realized he has little time left). This episode may become so stressful on him that he may opt to remove himself from the situation. His history doesn't say he will, but we never know.

[Theoo]

i well go there and whop his ass

[gts]

Is there any precedent in the NBA for an owner to be pressured to sell? Ultimately, the process would be much quicker if the tide can turn, and Sterling actually wants to sell.

From all I've read the last day there is nothing in the NBA bylaws that give the owners power to take the team away or force a sale other than in the event the team isn't capable of paying it's bills or personnel...

Now they did flex their muscles with the Maloofs, by not allowing them to sell to the Seattle group and pressuring them into selling for less to the new/current owners...

They could invoke the old "In the interest of the Game" and build from there and they may very well do something like that just to get a vote from the owners to use against Sterling in negotiations should they decide to make a big push...

It may pick up steam too when Clippers sponsors or business partners start dropping them in the next couple of weeks.. the fallout hasn't even begun really because this came out on the weekend.. it's going to get louder and uglier

[Theoo]

i well go there and whop his ass

[Theoo]

i well go there and whop his ass

[RoseCity07]

Force him to watch Jermaine O'neal shoot free throws for 8 hours.

[Theoo]

i well go there and whop his ass