I was tired of the Donald Stirling story within five seconds of first hearing it. I admit proudly that I have no idea what he said, except that it was outrageously offensive. I don’t know because I don’t care.
I will accept it as a given that he said lots of repugnant things to his mistress. So what? Why does that mean that the NBA has to strip him of his private property? Why then must he pay a multi-million dollar fine?
The only person harmed by his statement was his mistress, and all he owes her is an apology. Why do his private comments require millions of his dollars to be transferred to the racial grievance industry? What have they done to deserve this money?
Frankly, I think the NBA is making a huge mistake. If they are going to set themselves up as arbiters of the appropriateness of everything said in private moments by executives and owners of NBA teams, they are going to wind up handing down an awful lot of fines. And, of course, then they will become responsible for everything that is said. After all, if you control the speech, you are responsible for what is said.
+1
Well, said. This is about the race baiting crew building momentum to destroy any white person they can.
Sure there's the racist crap he did 30 years ago, but no, the issue now is this recording that is giving people the vapors.
For all of the howler monkeys crying about "yeah, there's free speech, but that doesn't absolve you of the consequences of your speech."
Now THAT is a false argument. This is NOT a Dixie Chicks moment, where Stirling got up in front of fans and said this.
It was a private conversation, illegally obtained, and leaked to the press. Not in any way related to his position as an NBA team owner.
The one analogy I can think of is grandpa getting drunk at Thanksgiving and going on some rant about "the Jews".
Offensive, sure.
But the point is he didn't make it in public. Nor as part of any public function.
This is thoughtcrime.
I don't care either.
I don't follow the Clippers (or NBA at all) but I did see that the team won a playoff game last night. Must be an exciting series, I didn't see any empty seats in whatever stadium they were playing.
Now just think about that for a second - the Clippers, like all NBA teams are mostly black athletes. Apparently they don't care what Sterling said either, they all showed up for work and did their best for him.
The fans obviously don't care either, they filled the stadium up, bought their overpriced concessions and cheered for their team, just like always.
So why should I care?
If the NBA wants to be fair, they are probably going to have to require that all owners submit tapes for all their phone conversations to the NBA. It is certainly unfair that Sterling gets punished simply because someone taped his conversations, when we have no idea if the other owners are saying the same or worse.
That would be true if the NBA enforced their new thought-crime policies in an even manner. But they won't.