AREN’T you surprised of the deafening silence being put up by Donald Sterling, the banned-for-life owner of the Los Angeles Clippers?
I am. Either he is made of stone-cold stuff or that is his nature?
If that happened here, you would most probably, incredibly, hear Sterling yakking here and there to reporters of radio, TV and newspapers, his bone of contention being that his right to freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Constitution.
“I am just expressing an opinion,” he might have argued if he were Filipino. “What’s wrong with giving advice to my girl friend? Did I break the Constitution?”
Palusot? Umm.
For the record, Sterling told his girl friend in a taped conversation to avoid being in the company of blacks, to not publicly broadcast his association with blacks.
When Sterling’s conversation was leaked and aired by TMZ, his girl friend was seen being with Magic Johnson, whom Sterling has an avowed hatred of, watching a Clipper game from ringside.
Sterling’s racist remarks got himself banned from the NBA. Meaning, he couldn’t watch NBA games anymore and would henceforth be off-limits to everything that the NBA is involved in. He was reduced to being a non-existent NBA member. Ugh!
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has also imposed a $2.5 million penalty on Sterling, the maximum fine the league could mete an erring NBA member, whether that member is a team owner, a coach or a player.
Sterling has not appealed or gone to court to question the twin blows against him.
And if you think you’ve seen the end of the wrath of the seething Silver, think again. He also wants to force Sterling to sell the Clippers, a wish that could only come true if 3/4 of the 29 NBA owners would vote to oust Sterling. The magic number is 23 members.
Already, there are reports Floyd Mayweather Jr., Magic Johnson and Oprah Winfrey are interested, with Sterling possibly getting as much as $1 billion from an investment of only $12 million in 1981 to purchase the Clippers. And who knows MVP might join the fray? Hasn’t MVP once tried to purchase an NBA team?
The plot thickens.
(alsol47@yahoo.com)