Nalod wrote:Has a crime been commited? Vick's crime was rackateering,tax fraud and the biggie which was obstruction of justic. Roger Goodel handled Vick to manage his reentry and public image. I thought he over did it but everyone wants a piece of the action.

You guys ask and Im offering reasons why Stern has not said anything. Besides the penalty was just announced yesterday.

So "WHY?", Nalod is just throwing out some logic here, not defending Sterlings actions.

So.......

The guy got 5000 units in 19 projects. This guy is not running around showing apartments and deciding who is in and who is not. This is Los Angeles, you mean to tell me he does not have many hispanic and Black managers working for him? This is a big company. These agencies go out and look for this kind of thing and obviously got his company. Im giving a plausible reason why Sterling (who is a pig)might not be directly implicated enough for Stern to speak to. You tell your managers to make sure your rent to tenants who won't beat up the property. These managers are paid bonus based on keeping expenses down. Trashed apartments eat into this. The managers themselves would regardless of their race would have incentive enough to discirminate. If they are showing apartments and flat out discriminating across teh board vs. trying to pick out the trash, and if the trash is minority they are gonna discriminate.

The old racial profiling is rearing its ugly head here. He owns the company so the company is guilty but for all we know he don't care about who lives there but his managers do.

In any event they paid a big fine and got bad publicity. Stern works for the owners so he is gonna lay low until there is public outcry. The public barometer is going to make the call here like it did with Vick.

sad thing is though nalod that i dont expect much of a public outcry b/c the story is already dead. not much airplay other than day 1. also, i dont believe the public will try to serve as a deterent to send a message to sterling's company, b/c at the end of the day everyone needs a place to live and that unfortunately takes precedence over unjust actions like this from the real estate company you are trying to rent from. its not like blacks and hispancis in that community who were discriminated against will stop trying to rent out sterling owned property b/c the one thing more important than that to folks looking for housing is cost. and, the locations of these apts are in lowwer cost areas of downtown LA. so, the folks who need to look for low cost housing will continue to rent sterling's properties b/c they need cheap shelter....regardless if they are white, hispanic, black or asian, martian or blobmen...

Key is they paid a fine, not convicted of a felony.

Test case might be when George Steinbrenner was suspended for two years for illegal campaign contributions. Bowie Kuhn, then commish laid it on him good. He was convicted of a felony.

Whats interesting is Elgin Baylor discrimination suit against Sterling. Baylor had a 22 year reign as GM and kept that job despite the pathetic record they had.

On October 7, according to reports from various sources including the Los Angeles Times,[11][12] Orange County Register,[13] and the team's own web site (Clippers.com), Elgin Baylor ended his 22-year reign as vice president and general manager of basketball operations. It was one of the longest such tenures in professional sports history. The Clippers have indicated that Baylor had retired from his post[14], and as a result, head coach Mike Dunleavy, Sr. will also assume the role as general manager, while director of player personnel Neil Oshley is promoted to assistant general manager.

In many of those same reports, including a related article in the October 8 edition of the Times,[15] it was also indicated that Baylor had either been fired, resigned, or retired, depending on the source. According to similar reports, Baylor had been offered a different position in the organization, with the same salary, but with little to none decision-making power; Baylor refused. In fact, when pressed about his stauts with the franchise, Baylor had been advised by his attorneys not to say anything, indicating that the team and Baylor are in negotiations to work out a settlement agreement based on his departure. According to the above-mentioned article, Baylor had been working without a formal contract since the early 1990s.

Sterling paid 20 mil for the team back in the early 1980's. He is gonna make a fortune on this team. I think he is debt free and has run it like a business which is for it to make money. Who knows, one day they might even win!

joec32033 wrote:

TMS wrote:ey, oh... don't get fresh!

Best Scene ever. Extremely NSFW.

that's what's gonna happen to Phillies fans tonight

Sterling suit seems to fit NBA just fine
By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports 11 hours, 5 minutes ago

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling agreed to pay $2.73 million this week to settle a federal case alleging he discriminated in the rental of apartments he owns with his wife in Southern California.

The settlement is “the largest monetary payment ever obtained” in this kind of case by the U.S. Justice Department, according to a news release from the organization.

It stems from allegations Sterling’s company targeted and discriminated against blacks, Hispanics and families with children in renting apartments in greater Los Angeles. The settlement must still be approved by a federal judge but should also resolve two additional tenant-filed suits alleging racial discrimination.

“The magnitude of this settlement should send a message to all landlords that we will vigorously pursue violations of the Fair Housing Act,” said Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

What the magnitude of this settlement should have done is create a wave of questions and condemnations of Donald Sterling from across the NBA.

Instead, most incredibly, there hasn’t been a lick of public discussion.

The NBA said it has no plans to investigate or comment, according to a spokesman. Other owners have been silent. The NBA Player’s Association has had no reaction and did not respond to messages. The players themselves have, best I can find, said nothing.

The media, which just last month went full force on the story of Rush Limbaugh becoming part of a potential NFL ownership group, has mostly ignored the deal.

So, where’s the outrage?

This also isn’t a new issue for Sterling. Four years ago his company agreed to settle a similar 2003 racial discrimination suit for an undisclosed sum – “one of the largest ever obtained in this type of case,” according to the judge – and a reported $5 million in plaintiff legal fees.

Sterling’s attorney Robert Platt said in a statement that the Sterlings “vehemently and unequivocally deny that anyone was discriminated.” The company, Platt claimed, only settled because “the cost of continuing litigation far exceeded the cost of settlement.”

Apparently, Sterling is so cheap he won’t even spend money to defend his reputation against a racial discrimination charge. If you’re innocent (and rich), you’d think squashing the possible assumption that you’re a despicable racist is a project worth dropping some cash on, but hey, this is Donald Sterling. You also wouldn’t think someone could run the Clippers like he has.

Since Sterling made no admission of guilt or liability in the settlement, the NBA’s ability to take official action was greatly reduced. This isn’t league business and there are no criminal charges.

Still, NBA commissioner David Stern could’ve stated he doesn’t approve of an owner repeatedly being involved in these ugly cases. If he’s so concerned with his player’s off-court attire, why not his owners’ off-court business? He could demand the Clippers raise funds and awareness for fair-housing advocacy groups.

In no way does the settlement prevent another owner – perhaps one of the few without his own checkered past – from wondering why he continues to do business with someone who keeps finding himself awash in these allegations.

The terms certainly have no impact on the NBPA or individual players speaking out about it.

There’s no telling how many players were subject, as children, to discriminatory housing practices that forced their families to stay in dangerous, blighted neighborhoods with poor school districts.

If there was ever an issue that should strike a cord of protest, this is it.

It’s two different leagues, two different groups of people, two different circumstances, but the parallels with the firestorm that enveloped Limbaugh’s potential bid to become a minority owner of the St. Louis Rams immediately spring to mind.

Limbaugh was engulfed from all directions. Players, owners, union officials – even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell – all voiced opinions, almost all negative. There was an avalanche of media coverage; in part, because Limbaugh delivers the ratings and page views. (Sterling is merely famous for being one of the worst owners in professional sports.)

Still, Limbaugh was attacked for expressing political views that some people find offensive. You may hate every word he says, but he wasn’t repeatedly settling multimillion dollar racial-discrimination lawsuits.

You’d think Sterling was worth something.

The NBA has an admirable track record of hiring minority coaches and executives. It markets to literally every person on earth (from China to Croatia to Cleveland). Coincidentally, long before Stern became commissioner, he was a young lawyer who worked for the good guys on housing discrimination cases in New Jersey.

It’s even more reason why the league shouldn’t let such astounding settlements pass without comment.

The Justice Department, in its 2006 lawsuit, alleged, among other things, that Sterling’s employees “prepared internal reports that identified the race of tenants” and “made statements to [other] employees … indicating that African-Americans and Hispanics were not desirable tenants.”

According to the Associated Press story, the 2003 lawsuit alleged “Sterling tried to drive out non-Korean tenants at apartments he owned in [Los Angeles’] Koreatown neighborhood.”

The NBA, its fans and players deserve a better explanation from Sterling than he simply didn’t want to spend money defending himself. He may have enough millions to make the lawsuits go away, but not the lingering questions about how he runs his businesses and just what kind of person he is.

If only someone in the NBA cared enough to demand them.

TMS wrote:

According to the Associated Press story, the 2003 lawsuit alleged “Sterling tried to drive out non-Korean tenants at apartments he owned in [Los Angeles’] Koreatown neighborhood.”

how would something like this be actually proven i'm wondering?

i know, cause they all look alike right? Should I ban myself now?

kam77 wrote:

Bippity10 wrote:
I can understand not getting along with the Greeks, their passion often times gets in the way of any substantial relationship development. But the blacks???? We blacks are cool as hell!!! And I mean all of us. It's in our blood.

Black people drive like this

White people drive like this

That's all I'm saying