Clippers: Donald Sterling Banned For Life!!!

[ChumpDumper]

It would also be remarkably short-sighted of the owners to not include a method for expelling an owner from the association in at least some cir stances. For instance, if an owner is bribing game officials or engaged in horrible criminal activity of some other sort or endangering the best interests of the league, it would be unimaginable that his peers couldn't expel the owner and that the league might have to just live with that sort of conduct from a team owner.

I haven't read the bylaws or cons ution of the NBA, but I think the question with respect to the forced sale aspect of the Sterling case is less about whether the league can expel and owner and force a sale in general and more about whether these cir stances give rise to a basis to take that action.

I think all the stuff for the owners is secret FWIW.

[FromWayDowntown]

Especially when it affects the league negatively monetarily. You have a case here where the league is damaged monetarily due to the loss of sponsorship among other things.

Exactly. And for that reason, my surmise would be that the expulsion provision of the bylaws is pretty broadly stated.

Silver basically alluded to the fact that expulsion is proper (at least in some cir stances) on the vote of 75% of the owners (here, it would take 22 owners, assuming no abstentions from a vote). That the vote has such a high threshold for action suggests to me that there's fairly broad authority for expulsion -- something like it is proper when deemed to be in the best interests of the league or for conduct detrimental to the league -- and that the protection against overreach lies in requiring such a substantial number of votes for action. In other words, my guess would be that the expulsion provision doesn't expressly limit the justifications for expulsion to some checklist of actions but to ensure that there's no overreach or actions based on personal animus, the vote to take that drastic action requires more than a supermajority of the ownership, which would likely be hard to get except in the most obvious situations.

[ElNono]

I wonder if there is a clause that would allow the league to contract, getting rid of the Clippers, and then immediately grant Seattle with a team? This version would have to involve the Sonics getting the current Clippers roster rather than the normal expansion draft.

I thought about that. Provided proper and fair compensation, I suspect they could do it. The problem is that if the owner doesn't want to let go, it can take a while.

[hater]

Chris Paul dictated terms of where he could be traded by who he would sign an extension with.

If he was such a known racist and biggot. Why did cp3 choose to work for him?

This goes deeper. Its a carefully orchestrated operation to destroy Sterling executed by his enemies. Sure he is a racist and an asshole but you do not become a billionaire by being a nice fella

He pissed off the wrong person and is being destroyed a la 666 park avenue style

[Seventyniner]

I thought about that. Provided proper and fair compensation, I suspect they could do it. The problem is that if the owner doesn't want to let go, it can take a while.

Yes, whatever money Ballmer and company pay to get the Sonics/Clippers would mostly go to Sterling.

Under a normal contraction, does the contracted owner have to consent?

[FromWayDowntown]

I wonder if there is a clause that would allow the league to contract, getting rid of the Clippers, and then immediately grant Seattle with a team? This version would have to involve the Sonics getting the current Clippers roster rather than the normal expansion draft.

I think Silver made it pretty clear today that the league would be excited to have Magic Johnson lead an ownership group to buy the Clippers and I would imagine that is with the intention that the Clips would stay in LA. Even if the Clippers are, for now at least, at an economic disadvantage in that market -- and they are for a variety of reasons -- one would think that the league would prefer to have 2 strong franchises in LA than to have one strong one in LA and another potentially strong one in Seattle. Just a guess, though.

I'd also doubt that contraction would be in the plan, since that would presumably require a buy-out from the league, while a sale would bring outside money in to obtain the ownership interest in that team. I suppose that the league could make up the buy-out money from the fee it would charge for obtaining an expansion franchise in Seattle. But I think there are probably very specific rules in the CBA, the Cons ution, or the Bylaws concerning expansion and those wouldn't contemplate moving an entire roster to an expansion franchise's roster.

[ElNono]

Yes, whatever money Ballmer and company pay to get the Sonics/Clippers would mostly go to Sterling.

Under a normal contraction, does the contracted owner have to consent?

Let me first say, I don't think the league has any intentions of moving the Clippers out of LA. I think that's a terrible business decision.

But to your point, the problem I see is that even if the owner doesn't want to consent, he can always battle it in court, and we're talking about owners with a lot of money, so they can extend the litigation for a long time, which is not what you want when you have a buyer lined up.

[baseline bum]

If he was such a known racist and biggot. Why did cp3 choose to work for him?

This goes deeper. Its a carefully orchestrated operation to destroy Sterling executed by his enemies. Sure he is a racist and an asshole but you do not become a billionaire by being a nice fella

He pissed off the wrong person and is being destroyed a la 666 park avenue style

Because he wanted to be in a big market with a guy projected to be a HOF big man.

[Seventyniner]

I think Silver made it pretty clear today that the league would be excited to have Magic Johnson lead an ownership group to buy the Clippers and I would imagine that is with the intention that the Clips would stay in LA. Even if the Clippers are, for now at least, at an economic disadvantage in that market -- and they are for a variety of reasons -- one would think that the league would prefer to have 2 strong franchises in LA than to have one strong one in LA and another potentially strong one in Seattle. Just a guess, though.

Given that the Clippers name has such a negative stigma attached, even if the league wanted to keep 2 teams in LA they might consider changing the team name and colors.

Hard to tell if 2 LA teams or 1 LA and 1 Seattle is better for the league. Adding Seattle broadens the fan base more, though the fact that the Clippers are pretty good and the Lakers suck complicates things.

[baseline bum]

Given that the Clippers name has such a negative stigma attached, even if the league wanted to keep 2 teams in LA they might consider changing the team name and colors.

Hard to tell if 2 LA teams or 1 LA and 1 Seattle is better for the league. Adding Seattle broadens the fan base more, though the fact that the Clippers are pretty good and the Lakers suck complicates things.

Indeed, that Clippers name will be gone soon after Magic buys.

[Seventyniner]

Let me first say, I don't think the league has any intentions of moving the Clippers out of LA. I think that's a terrible business decision.

But to your point, the problem I see is that even if the owner doesn't want to consent, he can always battle it in court, and we're talking about owners with a lot of money, so they can extend the litigation for a long time, which is not what you want when you have a buyer lined up.

I was thinking the league could do the contraction/expansion dance, take the $1 billion or whatever from Ballmer, and play like normal while the case went through court channels. But the league would be up creek if they somehow lost the lawsuit along the way.

Doing the same thing but keeping the Clippers in LA (with a rename/rebrand) is easier because if Sterling were to win, the league could just give him that team back.

[Thebesteva]

Don't feel bad bruhs...he still owns a load of real estate in the SoCal and NorCal areas. He's in the sunset of his bigoted life and he's going to probably still bang Mexican and Black chicks until his heart stops. The billions he is going to make off the sale of the Clips will also buy him a nice ride into the sunset.

Dude that guy, hes a got tbh. But this entire thing has opened a slippery slope as mark cuban says. Oh well, Im not an NBA owner so I can care less about being paranoid over phone calls.

[FromWayDowntown]

Hard to tell if 2 LA teams or 1 LA and 1 Seattle is better for the league. Adding Seattle broadens the fan base more, though the fact that the Clippers are pretty good and the Lakers suck complicates things.

If you have 2 strong franchises in LA, Silver can honestly answer that his dream matchup for the Finals would be Lakers v. Clippers (as opposed to Stern's famous "Lakers vs. Lakers" response years and years ago) -- particularly if the league finds its way to real seeding and not conference-based seeding.

[ElNono]

I was thinking the league could do the contraction/expansion dance, take the $1 billion or whatever from Ballmer, and play like normal while the case went through court channels. But the league would be up creek if they somehow lost the lawsuit along the way.

Yeah, that's not going to happen also because the first move would probably involve enjoining the league to stop proceedings until the case is over.

[jimbo]

That it's unprecedented doesn't make it legally questionable.

Your points 2 and 3 conflate the issues, and even the article you reference makes that clear. Silver has absolute authority to suspend and fine Sterling under the NBA's Bylaws and Cons ution and technically that's all he did today. He has suspended/banned Sterling for life and fined him $2.5 million. Sterling still owns the team at this moment and continues to benefit in most of the financial ways that owners benefit from ownership of a team. He can only do it from a distance.

You're probably right about the legality of a forced sale of the franchise, and those issues will be sorted out in the months and years to come. Silver said that he will work on convincing the owners that they should expel Sterling and force a sale of the team; but the suspension that Silver validly levied does not require sale at this point.

Two very separate issues.

Okay, I misunderstood what you meant by "boot his ass out."

I took it as "kick him out of the league" which as you've pointed out is entirely different from what happened today.

Ofcourse he's not going to spell a case, he's simply stating that there's likely no legal impediment to get it done. The article you linked is complete speculation too, as the author admits the NBA cons ution is confidential.

From the fact that the NBA can contract the league (or expand it), you can gather that they certainly have the authority to shrink or grow that ownership pool.

There's no legal impediment for what happened today, but there is for actually getting Sterling out of the league entirely.

& I'm not exactly sure how confidential it is. ESPN's legal analyst (however you may think of him) had the same idea about the cons ution regarding what it would take to get him out. I don't know where any of this information actually came from.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/...onald-sterling

[hater]

Telling u nggas. 666 park avenue style takedown. No hoodrat records hours of conversation on her own

[Seventyniner]

If you have 2 strong franchises in LA, Silver can honestly answer that his dream matchup for the Finals would be Lakers v. Clippers (as opposed to Stern's famous "Lakers vs. Lakers" response years and years ago) -- particularly if the league finds its way to real seeding and not conference-based seeding.

The Clippers could bring in more money than the Knicks or Nets?

The league is pretty unlucky that many of the big-market teams have ty ownership. Short Buss, Sterling, Dolan, Jerry "I-won't-pay-the-tax-and-you-can't-make-me" Krause...ouch.

[FromWayDowntown]

Jerry "I-won't-pay-the-tax-and-you-can't-make-me" Krause...ouch.

I think you mean Jerry Reinsdorf. Krause was the Bulls' GM during the Jordan years. Reinsdorf owns the team.

[ElNono]

There's no legal impediment for what happened today, but there is for actually getting Sterling out of the league entirely.

& I'm not exactly sure how confidential it is. ESPN's legal analyst (however you may think of him) had the same idea about the cons ution regarding what it would take to get him out. I don't know where any of this information actually came from.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/...onald-sterling

The power to terminate is limited to things like gambling and fraud in the application for ownership, but it also includes a provision for termination when an owner "fails to fulfill" a "contractual obligation" in "such a way as to affect the [NBA] or its members adversely." Silver and the owners could assert that Sterling's statements violated the cons ution's requirements to conduct business on a "reasonable" and "ethical" level.

This is basically what FWD was alluding to, and what Silver also mentioned. The fact that the Clippers (and by association, the league), lost sponsorship over his actions, would seem to fit the bill.

Obviously the threshold is high, but it doesn't look like there's a legal impediment to do it.

[vy65]

Fundamentally, the NBA is a private association of team owners and absolutely has legal standing to conclude that the conduct of one member of that association is sufficiently egregious to boot his ass out.

I'm pretty sure the NBA is a joint-venture amongst the numerous teams (but could be wrong about that) -- meaning it functions like a partnership with each team being a partner. While I could see Silver having some general partner-esque powers, the ability to functionally remove the owner of one the league's cons uent partners seems like it would have to be something that would be submitted to at least to the board of governors, if not the league as a whole.

[MeloHype]

[ElNono]

I'm pretty sure the NBA is a joint-venture amongst the numerous teams (but could be wrong about that) -- meaning it functions like a partnership with each team being a partner. While I could see Silver having some general partner-esque powers, the ability to functionally remove the owner of one the league's cons uent partners seems like it would have to be something that would be submitted to at least to the board of governors, if not the league as a whole.

That's what Silver said. He doesn't have the power, but he'll request a vote from ownership to oust him.

[Malik Hairston]

You're crazy if you think is about one racist thing said on tape or even his history of it. The NBA has wanted this guy out for years because he's cheap and costs the league and the rest of the owners money by consistently having such a laughingstock of a team in a premiere market and refusing to act in good faith as an owner in trying to put a quality product on the floor. A team that he was never interested in putting any money into until he lucked into drafting Blake Griffin and having Chris Paul handed to him when Stern voided his trade to the Lakers. Any other owner says something like what Sterling did and you're looking at a playoff ban for appearances and probably some BS sensitivity counseling. The owners will say they voted him out because of his blatant racist views, but it'll really be about money and how much more Magic's ownership group will pour into the league, being in that market.

Pretty much agree with this, tbh, it's clear that they are taking advantage of the situation and eliminating a problem owner that they've wanted to rid themselves of for years..

Everybody is all-in on it, too, as the media isn't even questioning why s like Doc Rivers and Chris Paul willingly signed with the Clippers and an owner that was known to be a bigot well before this incident..

[vy65]

That's what Silver said. He doesn't have the power, but he'll request a vote from ownership to oust him.

Oh ok. I didn't listen to anything, and am going off the headlines only.

[Seventyniner]

I think you mean Jerry Reinsdorf. Krause was the Bulls' GM during the Jordan years. Reinsdorf owns the team.

Yeah you're right. I thought Jerry and immediately went to Krause.