There’s no shortage of opinions on what the NBA should do about Donald Sterling. But in an article written by Kareem Adbul-Jabbar and published on Time.com, the NBA hall of famer asks why something wasn’t done earlier about this owner with a well documented racist past.
What bothers me about this whole Donald Sterling affair isn’t just his racism. I’m bothered that everyone acts as if it’s a huge surprise. Now there’s all this dramatic and very public rending of clothing about whether they should keep their expensive Clippers season tickets. Really? All this other stuff I listed above has been going on for years and this ridiculous conversation with his girlfriend is what puts you over the edge? That’s the smoking gun?
He was discriminating against black and Hispanic families for years, preventing them from getting housing. It was public record. We did nothing. Suddenly he says he doesn’t want his girlfriend posing with Magic Johnson on Instagram and we bring out the torches and rope. Shouldn’t we have all called for his resignation back then?
I would suggest that you read Abdul-Jabbar’s article in its entirety because it’s very interesting take on this scandal. Although it hasn’t been a secret that Sterling is a bigot, his racist practices had no direct effect on the NBA. But now that it does punishment needs to be swift, tough and send a message to the world that views of this kind will not be accepted and have no place in the NBA.