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Saturday, May 3, 2014

Calm in the NBA After the Sterling Storm - New York Times

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Pro Basketball |Calm in the N.B.A. After the Sterling Storm



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Sports of The Times


By







By the weekend, the elation surrounding the lifetime ban issued Tuesday to the Los Angeles Clippers’ owner, Donald Sterling, had given way to pragmatism.


Gushing declarations of support and full-throated praise for Commissioner Adam Silver’s decision had faded, the white noise broken only briefly on Thursday by a sterile news release noting that the N.B.A.’s advisory/finance committee had held its first meeting to discuss Sterling’s expulsion and “agreed to move forward.”


As the week progressed, it appeared that the initial sense of satisfaction and self-congratulation inside the league was being rethought. The Dallas Mavericks’ owner, Mark Cuban was among the first to support Silver’s decision via Twitter. On Monday, he told ESPN that he still found Sterling’s comments despicable.



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“But at the same time, that’s a decision I make,” Cuban said , referring to his reaction to the comments. “I think you’ve got to be very, very careful when you start making blanket statements about what people say and think, as opposed to what they do. It’s a very, very slippery slope.”


N.B.A. owners got a glimpse of what a nightmare looks like last week, when players turned their shirts inside out in protest; when icons of the sport denounced Sterling, a longtime member of their exclusive club; and when sponsors pulled out and players threatened a leaguewide boycott of playoff games.


I have little doubt that Sterling will eventually lose his team, but first, the 29 other owners must decide what a vote to oust him could mean. Has the bar for expulsion from the league been raised — or lowered? Is it set by the merits of the deed itself, or also subject to player outrage, fan reaction and sponsor commitments?


An element of hypocrisy hovers over this scandal. The N.B.A. more or less turned a blind eye to Sterling until his words blew up in everyone’s face.


During Tuesday’s news conference, the normally shrewd Silver, making the point that he could recognize Sterling’s voice on audiotapes of his racist comments, said he had known Sterling for more than 20 years.


If you’ve known Sterling for 20 years, someone asked, why has no previous action been initiated against him? Silver backpedaled, saying that he had “not been that close to him over the years” and that “there’s nothing I’ve ever seen firsthand that would indicate that he held the views that were expressed on these audio recordings.”


Silver dribbled and passed. But it wasn’t just the commissioner’s office. Players played for the Clippers, coaches coached them and executives drank from the Sterling trough. The Los Angeles N.A.A.C.P. chapter had honored Sterling and was to present him with another award when his public image came apart. Now it won’t, and on Thursday, the chapter’s executive director resigned.


Silver will have more complicated matters to decide as his tenure continues, including labor issues, television contracts and player discipline. But Tuesday was a feel-good moment for everyone involved in the league. A bad guy was outed and will probably be kicked out of the owners’ club.


But let’s not get carried away. Silver’s barring Sterling was not a milestone moment akin to Joe Louis’s victory over Max Schmeling, or Jackie Robinson’s breaking baseball’s color barrier, or President Obama’s winning his first term in the White House.


Silver was administering justice in a racially charged atmosphere in a league made up primarily of black players.



That was an easy call, but it’s not enough, and the hard part is to come. Last week was a high-profile step forward. The N.B.A. looks good, Adam Silver looks good, and the players can pat themselves on the back for successfully threatening to huff and puff and blow the house down.


Until Friday, I felt that there were only winners in the Sterling affair. Even Sterling, when he is eventually forced to sell his team, will probably receive a record return on his investment in the Clippers, and that will mean that the value of his fellow owners’ franchises will increase as well. On top of all that, the league may get Oprah as an owner.


But there can be big losers. Silver loses if the owners balk at ousting Sterling, and the players lose if they don’t keep the pressure on owners to make sure they follow through. Digging out from the rubble of racism continues to be a long, arduous, uncomfortable process.


The process must be poked, pushed and prodded along with threats and, if necessary, by action. N.B.A. players discovered last week what Frederick Douglass said in the 19th century: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”



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