The Sacramento Bee Ailene Voisin column
By Ailene Voisin, The Sacramento Bee | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
If you have a heart, you want to wring his neck.
If you knew him when, you know him now.
First-year NBA Commissioner
Banning Sterling from all
The precedent for fining, suspending and publicly flogging professional sports owners is well established. Former
In a perfect world, a similar scenario transpires. Sterling sells his team and is neither seen nor heard from again, enabling his players and coaches to breathe again, to play basketball again. The tension inside
There was Johnson, a former All-Star, speaking on behalf of the players in his role as union consultant; Silver, not even three months into the job, walking briskly from one private meeting to another; the
Sterling, 80, just needs to do everyone a favor and go away. Just leave. He has been the worst owner in professional sports since he bought the team in 1981. The Maloofs were in another league by comparison. Who does this? Assembles a championship-caliber roster for the first time and then destroys the moment and the franchise?
Well, Sterling. His
Once, a hotel in
This is the same owner who counter-sued when Stern attempted to preclude the move to L.A. in 1982, who packed up the trucks and headed north in 1984, whose behavior led to ongoing litigation and tremendous angst for both his employees and the
The Clips have continued to litter courtrooms, though the damage Sterling has inflicted this time on the most progressive and inclusive sports league is staggering, unfathomable. On opening night, 75 percent of the players were African-American and 92 were born overseas. Thirty-nine countries were represented. African-American coaches are the norm, no longer anomalies. That was the story anyway.
"We're going home now," a visibly exhausted
And this is just the beginning. Just the beginning.
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