I would have actually banned him for gross stupidity bearing in mind the catalogue of complaints filed against him, so the comments were just the latest of Sterling's transgressions - and an awesome way to torpedo the franchises image and merchandizing. This IS the guy that paid off his victims in sexual harassment suits, and this IS the guy that
did crap like this:
Quite frankly, Magic Johnson's locker room excesses put those of Mr. Sterling's to shame. In fact Magic's antics earned him a big plus ++, in the HIV column.
While Magic Johnson is a viral, oops I mean "virile" stud, Sterling is for all intents and purposes, a dirty, old, and most likely senile, impotent, man.
And yes, I agree that because you sign the paychecks that doesn't give you carte blanche to sexually harass the help, but you certainly shouldn't have to like them, their race, creed , national origin, or have them over for dinner, just to get them to do their jobs either.
If Sterling's opinion were as far as it went, then he shouldn't be punished.
I'm judging the matter solely on the last issue If that was "the last straw", in a series of events in his fall from power, then the press should have cast a wider net in their coverage. TBH, professional basketball doesn't interest me in the least, and that precipitates my lack of background information with respect to Sterling's prior acts. Which BTW, I certainly don't condone
All I know is, people were suggesting that Magic Johnson be given the team. Since Johnson is an HIV positive serial adulterer, and a sexual predator, I'm thinking his image, got cleaned up quite a bit by virtue of his ability to dunk a basketball, and nothing more. Which makes the public's perception of him as a "victim", patently ludicrous.
As far as a longing for the Antebellum South goes, you should spend a few months here in my neighborhood. That would ramp that yearning for the old south up in you as well. At least if you could abide the women's hoop skirts and petticoats.
As to the guns and drugs point you bring up, I'll answer that with a story about HIV. Once upon a time "AIDS", was called, "GRIDS",
(Gay
Related
Immune
Deficiency
Syndrome). Well, political correctness dictated that as soon as one case showed up in the straight population, they were forced to change the name. Through the decades, white teens have admired and emulated black teens. The underlying belief being that blacks were simply "cooler" than the uptight, white, very inhibited Caucasian crowd. In the same way that AIDS fanned out from the zero patient gay community to the population at large, the hip hop culture has fanned out from the ghetto to middle class suburban America, and brought the perverse preoccupation with guns,drugs, and constant vulgarity in music, along with it If that weren't at least substantially true, laws wouldn't have been modified to confiscate daddy's car, when junior comes to the hood to cop.
I realize that crime and decadence transcends racial boundaries, but some theories of crime have our worst social issues fanning out from a central point, namely from predominantly black, large cities. I'm sure I could go on for pages, but suffice to say that more violence is exported from the ghetto, than middle class America imports back into it. And no, I don't consider affluent drug and arms dealers who import such things back to the ghetto, "middle class" in any reasonable sense of the status.
The same things could be observed and attached to any number of populations, minority or otherwise, in that poverty and the resentment of it, being a spawning ground for violence and drug addition.
So, Sterling's son's behavior would have been "overlooked", had it been undertaken by a ghetto youth, and also quite a bit more prevalent crime in the ghetto as well. Trust me, here in the hood, very few take the full ride for murder, and a fair number get away with it as well.
Keep in mind we had some of the same issues with Buddy Ryan's kid (s?). Maybe it's the pervasive atmosphere of violence and competition surrounding pro sports that triggers the drugs and gun play. I'm not exactly sure where he (they?) were getting their narcotics. I doubt it was the team doctor. Or perhaps, these "sport brats", are grossly ignored and overindulged while daddy gives all his love and affection to his team.