By Les Slater From Caribbean Life

Donald Sterling has come to dominate the national space in a way that should be quite vexing to any of us who hold certain values dear. Ever since Sterling’s “girlfriend,” or in whatever capacity that young woman served, spilled the beans about his racist core, news of one kind or another relative to this guy seems to have secured a permanent spot on the media menu. And to individuals long hip to the Sterling saga, the hoopla — even when it accentuates the negative, like instances of his oafish conduct – rubs them very much the wrong way. It’s perfectly understandable if among us are folks jarred by a character, whose off-color behavior is nothing new, being given non-stop visibility.

To Sterling’s name, those folks rightly say, is attached a dossier that should have long ago short-circuited his ownership of any NBA franchise. Enough was known of Sterling’s slumlord practices in the real estate empire he built in Los Angeles, for his fitness for ownership to have become an issue. On the contrary, the team owner’s hat he wore probably offered a veneer of respectability his tainted track record in real estate did not.

Some keen media people who had been on to the Sterling model well before it became a national cause célèbre in late April, saw the explosion of media interest in pretty near pseudo-event terms. One sports writer who had chronicled some of the Sterling misdeeds years ago was fit to be tied because of this inexcusably late frenzy of media curiosity. A Daily Beast contributor recounted for readers some newsreel-worthy slumlord Sterling action, where he evicted from a flooded apartment a blind tenant, an African American woman who was a punctual rent payer (Sterling arbitrarily refused to accept the payments), whose sole transgression allegedly was her color not being “right.”

There are those who have known Sterling to be that kind of guy. And while they appreciate this class A bigot being no longer left unscathed, at least as far as ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers is concerned, they remain none too thrilled that dispatching Sterling to the sidelines, where he deserves to be (NBA players’ no-nonsense intentions having clearly been a major influence), was so long in coming. Whether or not justifiably, there was no shortage of talk from persons supposedly in the know, that the handling of Sterling with kid gloves by former NBA commissioner David Stern played large in the Clippers owner being allowed to keep on stepping.

The rest of us tardy arrivals at the Sterling show have watched its real-time unfolding, soap opera trappings and all. He’s not a racist. His privacy was violated. He’s okay with the team being sold. He’s not okay with the team being sold. The wife is the one legally authorized to deal. He’s suing the NBA for a billion dollars. Etc, etc. On the privacy violation bit, by the way, good luck with that. If it comes to pass, some attorney, or maybe a whole gang of them, will presumably be handsomely paid to argue that those racially toxic remarks Sterling made on tape don’t mean squat.

As if all of this weren’t enough, already, there’s recently been a new dynamic thrown into the narrative, threatening yet again to scramble our good-and-evil sensibilities. Entering the Sterling/Clippers orbit as a duly accredited player, filthy rich former Microsoft CEO and team owner wannabe Steve Ballmer, offering to buy the Clippers for two billion dollars! It’s the Clippers, folks. Simply because they now have a fine coach in Doc Rivers and personnel that make them a fairly respectable team doesn’t warrant dispensing with reality to this extent. It’s the Clippers, bought by Sterling for a reported $12.5 million in 1981 and languishing as the NBA’s doormat for most of their existence. So, whither this $2 billion abomination?

It sets us to thinking about the whole morality thing. If that outrageous Ballmer deal is where the Clippers’ fate is headed, how’s that for just deserts for the bad guy here? Are we about to be given perhaps the ultimate free-market object lesson in how absolutely rotten behavior gets rewarded? For all the Sterlings’ (the wife reportedly was no innocent bystander) grungy slumlord tactics in which persons of color were targeted; for Donald Sterling’s reputed perception of team ownership as a white guy giving employment to some mostly black and brown young men; the Sterling brand may wind up on the sweet side of its biggest payoff ever. Go figure.

“Class warfare” gets tossed around for the most part on the conservative side conceivably to gin up backlash against vehement protestation by the “other” class that in fact doesn’t exist. Not in the pretty much orderly democracy we share within these borders. It takes episodes like the Sterling drama to remind us sometimes that we aren’t, here, a society that’s likely to go hog wild upon learning of a guy’s deplorable mistreatment of our fellows in the course of amassing more millions than he knows how to spend. That, like in ’74 when one president resigned, another replaced him and, as one commentator observed, “not one soldier left the garrison,” a high roller laying out two billion for a team not worth it, elicits from us a mere shrug and, back to business as usual.

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbeanlifenews.com/stories/2014/6/2014_06_03_slater_viewpoint.html

PHOTO: www.northsacbeat.com

 

Related story:

Donald Sterling sued by alleged former mistress Maiko Maya King over ‘racist and sexist taunts’

From National Post

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling is being sued by a woman who alleges that while she was employed by him, they had a romantic relationship and that he subjected her to racially and sexually offensive comments.

The complaint filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleges that Maiko Maya King’s resistance to Sterling’s “stream of racist and sexist taunts” caused him to retaliate against her and terminate her employment as his personal assistant and caretaker in May.

King, who is represented by high-profile attorney Gloria Allred, alleges discrimination, retaliation and “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and demands a jury trial.

Sterling’s attorney, Bobby Samini, said the suit was “baseless and ridiculous.” He added: “She was never employed by Donald Sterling. Her claim was obviously prompted by opportunistic motives.”

The lawsuit comes after Sterling was banned for life and fined $2.5 million by the NBA for publicized racist remarks. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver worked to oust him as owner of the team until his wife, Shelly Sterling, concluded a deal last week to sell it to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The $2 billion deal still needs to be approved by NBA owners.

King was romantically involved with Donald Sterling from 2005 through 2011 while she worked for him and his foundation, but they often “argued about his racist views,” the suit states.

King was previously married to a black man and had two children. According to the lawsuit, Sterling allegedly asked her: “How could you be married to a black man?” and “Why would you bring black people into the world?” He allegedly also told her “I want to take you out of the black world and put you into the white world.”

Because of the racist comments, Sterling and King broke up in 2011, the suit states. But when King’s father died in 2013 she returned to work for Sterling knowing V. Stiviano was his girlfriend now.

King said she accompanied him to doctor appointments, made sure he took his medications on time, took walks with him and accompanied him to business meetings.

The suit states that contrary to his agreement to pay her $10,000 a month, “Sterling dangled money only if she would have sex with him” and told her he was “bored with V.”

She also alleges that he would humiliate her in public by groping her, and relates multiple other incidents of alleged sexual harassment.

Sterling “created an intimidating oppressive, hostile and offensive work environment based upon sex,” the complaint states.

For more on this story go to: http://sports.nationalpost.com/2014/06/03/donald-sterling-sued-by-alleged-former-mistress-maiko-maya-king-over-racist-and-sexist-taunts/