Should a league be able to force an owner to sell? (MOD: NBA/Donald Sterling)

[Fugu]

^^

NBA gets their you know what handed to them on a plate?.... Love to see that happening. About time somebody put these leagues in their places. Have my doubts it'll be Sterling but like Moyes in Phoenix this could get very messy & embarrassing for in this case obviously the NBA specifically but by extension & rote all of the major leagues. Laws unto themselves. Gotta stop somewhere sometime.

Can I ask what specifically galls you about these leagues?

I think it's kinda shameful for Sterling to try to crap on the NBA.

He bought that team for $12 million and is now getting $2 billion for it, and really not for anything he's done -- that team has been garbage for 90% of its history, he's just piggybacking off the growth of the league and the popularity of the Lakers in particular to score a huge pay day. Albiet, yes by forced sale, but still.

That's a pretty incredible return on any investment, one that he's managed incompetently at that. There's been no team in the NHL run as poorly as the Clippers for the last 30+ years, yet there isn't one NHL team that would likely garner $2 billion on the open market.

In 32 years of owning the team they've missed the playoffs in 25 of those years, lol.

I agree.

Furthermore, the men responsible for making the league as popular as it is now include Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, et al.-- you know, the people his consort shouldn't be consorting with and advertising it.

 

[Killion]

Can I ask what specifically galls you about these leagues?

Im afraid Id go way over the Single Post Character Limit allowed here at hf in answer to that question.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=455186

Shelly Sterling's attorneys will ask a judge Thursday to order Donald Sterling and his attorneys to not threaten, harass or intimidate his wife's legal team and doctors who determined the Los Angeles Clippers' co-owner was mentally incapacitated.

Getting really nasty. May be a figurative bloodbath when this finally gets started.

 

[Brooklanders*]

Donald Sterling looks like a fool once again.
He fights just because he has the means.
Owner the Clippers at this point is just a losing proposition.

 

[Major4Boarding]

Well, TMZ just dropped another audio recording (entered into case)

(NSFW)

http://www.tmz.com/2014/06/19/donald-sterling-voicemail-audio-rant-incompetent-doctor/

Batten down the hatches

 

[jwhouk]

I do not wish ill on anyone, but Sterling is one of those persons of whom you root for his assumption of room temperature in an expeditious fashion.

As much as I do not care for the NBA, they do not need the manure spreading in which this fight will result.

I wonder if Silver and company have toyed with the idea of pulling what Frank Calder and company did 97 years ago?

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

I do not wish ill on anyone, but Sterling is one of those persons of whom you root for his assumption of room temperature in an expeditious fashion.

As much as I do not care for the NBA, they do not need the manure spreading in which this fight will result.

I wonder if Silver and company have toyed with the idea of pulling what Frank Calder and company did 97 years ago?

nope, Shelly's going to end that so that the NBA has no need to.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

This is gonna be so good. Hell hath no fury like a scorned racist billionaire who is going to die in a couple years.

Mark Cuban was the only one who saw it coming.

You can't have a racist owner in a league where 80% of your employees are black, but the NBA sickens me with how they think they have the moral high ground. David Stern knew Sterling was a huge racist and didn't give two ***** as long as it didn't effect the NBA's bottom line.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-sn-donald-sterling-clippers-value-20140623-story.html

Rejecting his wife’s contention that the Clippers must be sold immediately so that their value will not be diminished, Donald Sterling argued in court papers filed Monday that “it is equally or more likely that with the passage of time the Clippers will be worth more than the amount now being considered.”

Another probate court hearing.

Donald now just sounds like a greedy *******.

Donald's lawyers asking for one month delay to proposed 7/7 court trail.

 

[goalieboy82]

This is gonna be so good. Hell hath no fury like a scorned racist billionaire who is going to die in a couple years.

Mark Cuban was the only one who saw it coming.

You can't have a racist owner in a league where 80% of your employees are black, but the NBA sickens me with how they think they have the moral high ground. David Stern knew Sterling was a huge racist and didn't give two ***** as long as it didn't effect the NBA's bottom line.

and a part of me thinks that espn knew too but didn't care because they wanted to be in favor with the nba when it came to the tv contract. also didn't espn outside the lines do a story about sterling and how he was a slum lord but nothing come of it (not including the lawsuit).

 

[GuelphStormer]

This is gonna be so good. Hell hath no fury like a scorned racist billionaire who is going to die in a couple years.

Mark Cuban was the only one who saw it coming.

You can't have a racist owner in a league where 80% of your employees are black, but the NBA sickens me with how they think they have the moral high ground. David Stern knew Sterling was a huge racist and didn't give two ***** as long as it didn't effect the NBA's bottom line.

and so too did Silver. as deputy commish, he was intimately familiar with all of the allegations of racism against sterling. they all deserve each other as far as im concerned.

the most troubling part of the discussion here however is how so many people are wishing him dead. sure, he's a racist. big deal. so is half of america, likely including half the people here. the level of high-horseness here is truly astounding.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

and a part of me thinks that espn knew too but didn't care because they wanted to be in favor with the nba when it came to the tv contract. also didn't espn outside the lines do a story about sterling and how he was a slum lord but nothing come of it (not including the lawsuit).

I don't know if they did a story on his housing discrimination suit, but a lot came out of it. Every part of the trial is available to the public, and it is very clear that Donald Sterling does not like people who do not look like him.

Of course this is the same NBA that sided with Donald Sterling over Elgin Baylor in a discrimination lawsuit in 2009. Baylor is one of the greatest players of all time. Sterling's views towards blacks and other minorities was an open secret at that time, and the NBA sided with Sterling because he could potentially cost the NBA a lot more money down the road.


I honestly think Sterling's wife might be even worse than Donald Sterling. At least Sterling admits he is a racist. Shelly sits at half court during a Clippers game and says she is not a racist and is disgusted by his comments. The same woman who willingly went into Sterling's buildings to try and find ways to evict the minority tenants living there.

That woman is a horrible human being.

 

[Fugu]

and so too did Silver. as deputy commish, he was intimately familiar with all of the allegations of racism against sterling. they all deserve each other as far as im concerned.

the most troubling part of the discussion here however is how so many people are wishing him dead. sure, he's a racist. big deal. so is half of america, likely including half the people here. the level of high-horseness here is truly astounding.

It was Stern's NBA through last year. I'm not sure how much of that you can pin on Silver.

 

[Kimota]

Should have forced Charles Wang out a long time ago.

 

[GuelphStormer]

It was Stern's NBA through last year. I'm not sure how much of that you can pin on Silver.

no doubt, Stern was calling the shots and it would not have been Silver's place to take any action prior to him becoming commish himself. you are absolutely right, that's the way leagues work.

for Silver to say he was shocked by the tape however simply cannot be true. he has no claim on innocence here. Silver first joined the nba in 1992 and had been deputy commish and chief operating officer since 2006. he has openly discussed past issues with Sterling and how he personally watched the various proceedings against Sterling over the years. he knew about Sterling's behaviour and attitude long before this story exploded. and he was part of the inner mechanisms within the league that condone him by not applying sanctions then. Silver's hands are as dirty as Stern's and frankly, were it not for the tremendous media play this story got, I am not convinced that it would not have been business as usual for Sterling. the only way souls will be laid bare and the truth can come out is if Sterling continues his legal battle and drags everyone else down with him, including the other hypocritical owners now pointing their fingers at him. and in the long run, that may indeed be the best thing for the league and the country.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014...Y2T120140623?feedType=RSS&feedName=sportsNews

Sterling's lawyers claimed he was duped into taking mental test.

 

[hatterson]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014...Y2T120140623?feedType=RSS&feedName=sportsNews

Sterling's lawyers claimed he was duped into taking mental test.

Obviously this is a place where law and common sense may diverge a bit, but it seems odd that the defense against the accusation of mental impairment is that you were tricked into taking a test.

 

[mouser]

Obviously this is a place where law and common sense may diverge a bit, but it seems odd that the defense against the accusation of mental impairment is that you were tricked into taking a test.

It really all depends on what the family Trust agreement says about what constitutes impairment and how to establish a trustee is impaired.

 

[Fish on The Sand]

It really all depends on what the family Trust agreement says about what constitutes impairment and how to establish a trustee is impaired.

You'd think that by being duped into taking a test you wouldn't be competent haha.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=456109

The $2 billion sale of the Los Angeles Clippers will hinge on the technicalities of family trust law and whether Donald Sterling's estranged wife had the right to unilaterally negotiate a deal with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

The July 7 trial will look at the trust's terms alone and not focus on whether the 80-year-old Sterling is mentally incapacitated, Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas said Monday.

Attorneys will argue about whether Shelly Sterling properly followed the terms of the trust in declaring Donald Sterling to be mentally incapacitated.

I guess the issue of mental incapacitation will "live to fight another day"?


MOD: Part II