An Open Letter to Donald Sterling
Mr. Sterling,
There's a recording of a conversation that allegedly shows you saying things that are incredibly racist. In the recently released, expanded version of this recording your response upon hearing that you own a team of black players say, "I support them and give them food, and clothes, and cars and houses. Who gives it to them? Does someone else give it to them? Do they know that I have...Who makes the game? Do I make the game or do they make the game? Is there 30 owners who created the league?"
Let me respond to those questions you pose.
"Who gives it to them?" You don't give them a damn thing. You pay them for their labor. Just like you pay every other employee of yours in any of your various businesses. You may be writing larger checks to your players, but you aren't giving them a damn thing. You are profiting from what you pay them to do.
"Does someone else give it to them?" Yes. The fans. The fans who watch the games at Staples Center and when your team is on the road. The fans who watch the games on television and drive broadcast rights revenue into your wallet. The fans of the NBA put every dime earned by every owner into their pockets. Don't you forget that. I suspect that if the 2014/15 season begins with you still owning the Clippers, there will be a lot fewer fans at your team's games.
"Do they know I have...Who makes the game? Do I make the game or do they make the game?" The players. Without them, the rest has little of value to offer to anyone. No one is going to pay money to sit in a chair at the Staples Center and listen to your racists views, unless of course you decided to host Tom Metzger, David Duke, Cliven Bundy and others in a Festival of Hatred. Then you'd get a bunch of bigots to pay to hear you. The owners do put up the investment that allows the game to be played, but without the ability of the players to generate interest and a willingness within the audience to pay to see this game, there wouldn't have been anything for you and other owners to invest in.
"Is there 30 owners who created the league?" No. There were 11 owners in 1946 who got together to form the Basketball Association of America. They weren't interested in benefiting the players. They wanted to fill the ice hockey arenas they owned on nights the arena would otherwise be empty. That is the origins of the league and you didn't buy into it as an owner until 35 years later. Don't you dare credit yourself as an architect of what the league is today. For years your choice to spend sparingly on your team kept it foundering.
You want to remain owner of the Clippers? The answer is simple. Create a trust to operate the team. Ask the NBA Board of Governors to give you a list of five people from which you will choose someone to oversee this trust. You will continue to own the team, but will exercise absolutely no control over how it operates.
Then announce you will never attend another NBA basketball game for the rest of your natural life.
Oh, and you have some serious apologizing and making up for your transgressions to do after you do these things. Building that site you promised to build would be a good starting point. A public commitment to managing your vast apartment empire in a completely nondiscriminatory way is also a good idea.
But most importantly, you need to step up to a microphone and announce that these were your words. Acknowledge that you are a racist. The first step is always admitting the problem exists.
Good Luck.
There's a recording of a conversation that allegedly shows you saying things that are incredibly racist. In the recently released, expanded version of this recording your response upon hearing that you own a team of black players say, "I support them and give them food, and clothes, and cars and houses. Who gives it to them? Does someone else give it to them? Do they know that I have...Who makes the game? Do I make the game or do they make the game? Is there 30 owners who created the league?"
Let me respond to those questions you pose.
"Who gives it to them?" You don't give them a damn thing. You pay them for their labor. Just like you pay every other employee of yours in any of your various businesses. You may be writing larger checks to your players, but you aren't giving them a damn thing. You are profiting from what you pay them to do.
"Does someone else give it to them?" Yes. The fans. The fans who watch the games at Staples Center and when your team is on the road. The fans who watch the games on television and drive broadcast rights revenue into your wallet. The fans of the NBA put every dime earned by every owner into their pockets. Don't you forget that. I suspect that if the 2014/15 season begins with you still owning the Clippers, there will be a lot fewer fans at your team's games.
"Do they know I have...Who makes the game? Do I make the game or do they make the game?" The players. Without them, the rest has little of value to offer to anyone. No one is going to pay money to sit in a chair at the Staples Center and listen to your racists views, unless of course you decided to host Tom Metzger, David Duke, Cliven Bundy and others in a Festival of Hatred. Then you'd get a bunch of bigots to pay to hear you. The owners do put up the investment that allows the game to be played, but without the ability of the players to generate interest and a willingness within the audience to pay to see this game, there wouldn't have been anything for you and other owners to invest in.
"Is there 30 owners who created the league?" No. There were 11 owners in 1946 who got together to form the Basketball Association of America. They weren't interested in benefiting the players. They wanted to fill the ice hockey arenas they owned on nights the arena would otherwise be empty. That is the origins of the league and you didn't buy into it as an owner until 35 years later. Don't you dare credit yourself as an architect of what the league is today. For years your choice to spend sparingly on your team kept it foundering.
You want to remain owner of the Clippers? The answer is simple. Create a trust to operate the team. Ask the NBA Board of Governors to give you a list of five people from which you will choose someone to oversee this trust. You will continue to own the team, but will exercise absolutely no control over how it operates.
Then announce you will never attend another NBA basketball game for the rest of your natural life.
Oh, and you have some serious apologizing and making up for your transgressions to do after you do these things. Building that site you promised to build would be a good starting point. A public commitment to managing your vast apartment empire in a completely nondiscriminatory way is also a good idea.
But most importantly, you need to step up to a microphone and announce that these were your words. Acknowledge that you are a racist. The first step is always admitting the problem exists.
Good Luck.
posted by me at 2:33 PM
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