Although I do commend NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for making the decision to ban Donald Sterling, I hate to say it, the decision to ban Sterling had everything to do with money and very little to do with racism.
Some people will say that I am being cynical. At what point is it okay to think that people are motivated by self interest? We have reached a point in our society where the rich continue to get richer while the wage gap widens. We are praising the NBA instead of questioning why it took them so long. In 2009, Mr. Sterling settled a lawsuit with the Department of Justice in which he was alleged to have discriminated against Latinos, and blacks. According to the lawsuit, Mr. Sterling said “black tenants smell and attract vermin”. Why did it take a private conversation when Donald Sterling had a very public record of being a racist.
Some writers are excusing the NBAs lack of action on the fact that the Clippers up til recently were traditionally a very bad team that fans paid little attention too. Although fans may not have known, the fact that the NBA had that knowledge further leads me to believe that they took action to protect the NBA’s image, and cared very little about race relations.
Although they have dealt with a racist, they have not dealt with racism in the NBA.