Seven Hours Down The Road..

It's about six in the evening now here in suburbs of LA.

Seven hours ago, Adam Silver, the commissioner of a major sports league, showed a set of fucking balls.

Take notes, Selig.

Get a clue, Goodell.

Adam Silver threw Donald Sterling, one of the precious preferred group known as "owners", out of his league.

I think we need to take a look at the last seven hours, since what I last typed:

• Several things from the Yahoo! Sports "Ball Don't Lie" blog.  The first is something that surprises even me, much less surprised the blog's Dan Devine.  I made a joke in the post this morning about the NBA being a secret handshake society, and in that the NBA constitution and by-laws are secret documents.

They are secret no more.  The NBA published them, in full, this afternoon.

A rather large .PDF document was posted today by the National Basketball Association, as part of Adam Silver's commitment to transparency as Commissioner.

• The relevant question appears to fall under Article 13 of the NBA Constitution, on page 26 by the count of the brochure.  

"The Membership of a Member [that would be a team in the NBA] or the interest of any Owner may be terminated by a vote of three fourths (3/4) of the Board of Governors if the Member or Owner shall do or suffer any of the following:"

"(a) Willfully violate any of the provisions of the Constitution and By-Laws, resolutions, or agreements of the Association."

It would appear as if this gives the power to call a meeting of the Board of Governors to expel Sterling as an Owner.

Because the Board of Governors is consisted of Owners (or designees) with the power to bind teams to their votes (one per team/Member -- Article 18), this would mean that the Commissioner could call upon the owners to force Sterling to sell, and a 3/4 vote, 22 of the other 29, would be required.

• And another note on "Ball Don't Lie" today indicates that might be a fait accompli:  Adam Wojnarowski put together a list of comments from all 29 other teams' owners, indicating either support of Silver's decision or condemnation of the remarks.  True, as Woj notes, it doesn't necessarily mean they would vote for an Article 13 Termination should it come up, but it seems they have the support to do so.
• Sterling, in response, has ominously stated that the Clippers are not for sale.

Oh, really, Donald?

First off, you've already had your business interest as an Owner terminated.  This gives the Commissioner broad powers to actually reassign those interests to whomever he so chooses (Article 14A(b) (which covers termination of all such interests, including that of ownership) seems to indicate that material control of the Clippers, right now, rests with the NBA, who can then sell/give that control to anyone they choose.  It was not completely out of the question to see Magic Johnson with material control of the Clippers in time for their Game 5 showdown with Golden State tonight!), at least with respect to the business decisions thereto.

Second, I would have to think, with the decision to ban you for life, that the process to terminate your ownership completely has been started.

1. Any owner, or the Commissioner, can file a written charge for Termination under Article 13.
2. The Commissioner has three days to deliver that charge to Sterling.
3. Sterling would have five days, from that point, to respond.
4. Within ten days of that response, Sterling would effectively be "tried" by the NBA Board of Governors, with the aforementioned 3/4 vote needed for expulsion.
5. Should he remain belligerent, there is always the opportunity for the NBA to change the Article 13 Termination from that of an Owner to that of the Member -- the full dissolution of the Los Angeles Clippers, according to ESPN's Lester Munson.  Munson says the step would be drastic, but if it's the only way to get Sterling to listen...

And the timing of this could be a very itchy propostion.  Obviously, Silver would like to try to get the other owners and business interests of the league to lean on Sterling to voluntarily sell.  Also, letting some time pass might keep this from completely blowing up the 2014 NBA Playoffs, which Sterling has done a fine job of doing in the first round.

But if the NBA waits too long, or if Sterling actually can get 8 votes to keep him owner of the Clippers, there, in fact, IS the ominous possibility of a player strike:

• Roger Mason Jr., vice-president of the NBA Players Association, stated that, had Silver not come down with this type of punishment, a player strike was on the table as a very real possibility.

In fact, Mason noted that a condition for the continuance of play of these playoffs by the remaining 15 teams (though Charlotte's reps were probably also involved in the discussion, they have been eliminated) was a demand for an Article 13 Termination.

Doubly scary, they were considering starting the strike with tonight's three games.  Commissioner Silver was notified of the consideration.  It appears, according to the ESPN article on the subject, Silver either announced the ban today (and didn't appear to go far enough, but seemed to convince the NBAPA he was going to), or there were no games tonight!!

So, as much as it appears it would behoove the NBA to try to allow some back-door leaning on Sterling to get him to sell voluntarily, it appears that NBA Constitution charges will probably have to be filed against Sterling all but immediately, forcing this story into the forefront over the next three weeks.

(For the record, and continuing-ly ominous:  The reason the NBAPA vice-president has had to take the forefront of this issue is that the President of the NBAPA is Chris Paul...  of the Los Angeles Clippers!)

Most all of the reaction has been positive, but there are some exceptions:

• Jason Whitlock, ESPN:  "Removing Donald Sterling from the NBA solves nothing. It sets a precedent that will likely boomerang and harm the black players and coaches who are shocked and outraged that an 80-year-old man with a documented history of bigoted actions also has bigoted private thoughts.  Let's be careful here. From the owner's box to the locker room, professional sports are overrun with wealthy men in complicated, volatile sexual relationships. If TMZ plans to make "pillow talk" public and the standard is set that "pillow talk" is actionable, it won't be long before a parade of athletes joins Sterling on Ignorance Island."

Perhaps that needs to happen, though.  Perhaps this kind of "parade" needs to occur, in all sports (consider what NFL players have probably been allowed to get away with for decades now with "fixers" and schools protecting their backs and all that crap).

And also consider what a friend of mine responded with: This isn't just one incident of "Ignorance".  This is years and years of problems with racial tensions with this scumbag.  Not only that, but that raises the question as to why this took this, and not the housing lawsuit or the lawsuits by former Clippers employees to get it done.

(And that raises the situation of Sterling deciding to "Scorched Earth" the league with the skeletons he knows about...)

Jason, I understand that you support Sterling in no way, shape, nor form.  That said, this needed to happen, and it needs to happen more in the entire sphere of sports.  We are far too corrupt, far too criminal, and far too thug-friendly in sports (at all levels!) not to force a mass house-cleaning.  We are almost certainly to the point that, on the "owner's box" end, we have enough chicanery and stupidity which has allowed a once-"sport" (if you believe football was ever one) to be turned into a player-safety farce which probably now needs to be abolished.

And, as for the players, perhaps it's time we make everybody (no matter how "economically important" you are) toe the damn line.

• ESPN New York's Ian O'Connor with a piece blasting David Stern for how long this was allowed to go on.

This is one of the major concerns I have with such a bombastic fuck like Sterling (who I just saw on the video with this article has the worst winning percentage of any owner in any major sport in this country with 15+ years as owner).

Donald Sterling, as I've said before, knows where the skeletons are.

And I think part of what you blast, Ian, could be attributed to Sterling making that known.  He was around for "The Jordan Rules", the '85 draft, the work stoppages, etc.

Sterling Banned From NBA, Fined $2.5M

Sounds like we found out this morning (the press conference is either still in progress or wrapped, as I type this) exactly what the maximum penalty under the current NBA constitution is.

Donald Sterling is, at least on an official level, banned from the National Basketball Association for life and fined $2.5 million for his comments, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has confirmed the voice on the recording is Sterling's.

OK.

But now here's the rub:  What does "banned for life" actually mean?

As of the moment, Donald Sterling is still the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.  However, Silver says he will go to the remaining members of the NBA Board of Governors and he WILL be trying to force Sterling out of his position as owner -- a position which may or may not be allowed, according to various people who have read NBA documents on the subject.

The exact words from the press conference were as follows:
"Effective immediately, I am banning Mr. Sterling -- for life -- from any association with the Clippers organization, or the NBA."

He IS banned from attending games and practices, et. al.  That basically takes away Clippers games as opportunities to kiss his foot/ring/ass, OK...  Banned from all league business.

But it appears to me that this penalty is already removal as the owner of the Clippers.

Because, as much as social media is lauding the decision (and it well should, as a function of necessity for the league to proceed, even in this year's playoffs!!), doesn't this decision already create a de facto seizure of the team by the NBA?

Maybe I'm missing something here, but wouldn't still being the putative owner of the team be an association with the team and the NBA?

Wouldn't still profiting from being the putative owner of the Clippers (even banned from the NBA as persona non grata) still be a formal association with the team and with the NBA?

Who gets control of the Clippers?  I've read one report that posits his wife gets control of the team. 

He technically has no legal voice on the team and with the league, and I get all that.  But, as much of a history as he has racked up and as much as kicking this vindictive bitch out of the league has been coming for decades, do you not think he didn't prepare for the day that it would attempt to be taken down?

Do you think that, as much of a fraud and a sham that Donald Sterling has been over the course of a good 30 years or so, that he isn't prepared to subvert this somehow?

And what, short of arrest, is going to stop him?

Silver actually did need to go further, frankly.  He needed the NBA to seize the team and take it under the league's operations on an indefinite basis, leaving all assets in material escrow until the courts can determine how they can be legally distributed, sans ongoing expenses such as salaries and what have you.

The league is getting sued over this.  The stark language given indicates that Sterling can no longer own the team, as of now.  How this gets around the current by-laws, etc., I don't know.

You know what? Before you get to my thoughts on Sterling...

Time to play fair again...

We've had a repeat incident of one of the most heart-warming sports moments of the last decade.

Maybe not as much attention as the one six years ago (and it turned out to be exactly six years ago), but, especially after all the Donald Sterling bullshit in the last few days, we need this:

ESPNW, the womens' sports division of the ESPN.com website, reported that the situation took place in Florida, in a Division II game between Florida Southern College and Eckard College.

It would end both teams' seasons, since neither was heading to the playoffs.

However, the first game was marred with a significant injury to the knee of Kara Oberer of Eckard (diving for a grounder, she jammed her knee into the area between infield and outfield, locking it).

Softball does allow for re-entry after being removed from the game, so, Oberer being the best hitter Eckard has, the coach asked her to face a very good Florida Southern pitcher in the last inning, down a run with two on.

Oberer jacked a three-run home run to not only win the game, but also to clinch the first winning season in Eckard's history -- 30 years of it.

There was only one problem.  Oberer couldn't move much at all, and someone (the rule was changed after the original incident six years ago, to allow a substitute to touch all awarded bases in such situations -- but the players in Florida never thought of that rule) had to touch them all.

So, first two, then three, and then it appears a fourth player aided in doing this...

Just like six years ago, when a stricken home-run hitter (a Western Oregon player named Sara Tucholsky who'd only never hit a home run in four years at the university) was aided around the bases by members of the Central Washington team, Oberer was aided around the bases because she hit the home run and deserved credit for it.

Especially on a day like today, when racism and bigotry run rampant in sports, maybe we need this every once in a while...

Could This Tape Be The Unravelling of the Entire NBA Tapestry?

Wow.  A Nothing-Burger this is NOT!!

We now have fifteen minutes of racist diatribe to go through here.  Apparently, the extra five and a half minutes, which most can find for themselves, make Sterling look even worse than the first nine.

This is rapidly becoming unhinged, with the following recent developments:

• In statements which will probably make no one happy except Sterling himself, unidentified parties who have perused the secret documents (what is the NBA, a freaking secret-handshake society??) which constitute the NBA's constitution and by-laws have stated to several media outlets that Adam Silver CANNOT expel Donald Sterling from the NBA for any reason other than a payroll miss.

To say this is going to piss off all right-thinking people is probably an understatement.  To anyone with two functioning brain cells (which, once again -- and this might merit it's own post!! -- dis-includes most of the Internet, according to the commenters I and people I've talked to have read), the only discernible way to get out of this without serious damage (and, given the superiority of the NFL, perhaps TERMINAL damage) to the National Basketball Association is to rid them of the virus that is Donald Sterling.

Let's get this out of the way right now:  He's suing, whatever the punishment is.  He's going to claim "illegal wiretap" this and "the bitch is out to get me" that, and all that.  Fact is, the Los Angeles Clippers, as a competitive going concern, are finished in the NBA as long as Donald Sterling remains the owner.  He's probably s the shaved many millions off the going price of the Clippers, at the rate he's going.

Worse yet, I don't think Donald Sterling would give a shit and a half (much less two) if he fielded a 5-77 team full of 12-15 D-League level white guys.  This guy does not give a shit about the competitive balance of the NBA, much less anything else, as long as he makes money and people kiss his ring/foot/ass.

• League protests have now reached Miami, who, before their series-clinching win over Charlotte, did the same thing the Clippers did before their game in Oakland yesterday:  threw down their T-shirts, revealing that they had also turned their warmup outfits inside-out so as not to show their team name.

On the surface, and correctly, this is a great move by the two-time defending champions to make a statement.  This is on top of the additional protests registered last night before the Portland-Houston game (thanks to my continuingly-contributing anonymous friend!).

Down deeper, it could present a very real problem for the league, and it could start the moment Adam Silver gives a punishment, even if it is the maximum punishment the aforementioned NBA by-laws and constitution allow him to.

Can we say "Playoffs players' strike"?

Obviously, as an occasional reader of Robert's Rules, and also with the understanding of what by-laws and constitutions actually are, there should be a way (yes, Mark Cuban, you are right that this can lead to a slippery slope if abused) to amend the by-laws to force out Sterling in the best interests of the NBA.

But there are times when there is no other option.  I believe you are on the cusp of a players' strike, during the playoffs, if Silver's hands are tied.  And that's nothing to say about what might happen at the top of next season when it's clear that not only might no one want to play FOR Sterling, there might be a significant number of African-American players who don't want to play AGAINST him either.

• A significant number of Clippers' sponsors are either gone permanently or until Sterling is replaced.

 As of yesterday, USA Today reports:

"In rapid succession, the mass exodus included used car seller CarMax, State Farm Insurance, Kia Motors America, airline Virgin America, P. Diddy's water brand, AQUAHydrate, Red Bull, Yokohama tires and Mercedes-Benz."

This is the kind of action which can force extra-constitutional action on the part of the NBA.  That, in very short order, is eight premium sponsors out the door.

Should the NBA not commit a sufficient action to this, that could well expand beyond the Clippers.

• The coach of the Golden State Warriors has called for a fan boycott of Game 5.

Both sides.

The problem, Mark Jackson, is, if you really feel that way as an African-American, why not call for the boycott of Game 4 in your own building?

Although it did lead to at least one memorable meme from Sunday's fans:

• The coach of the Clippers, Doc Rivers, refused to speak with Sterling about the tape and believes it's his voice thereon.

I'll say this:  One thing which will come of this is, if Sterling sues, there will be a new coach of the LA Clippers (if there is an LA Clippers by the end of all this -- if the by-laws can't get rid of Sterling, could the owners vote to remove the team and place a new one in LA, if that's the only way out?).

Rivers, who is also VP of player personnel, has said he can't be sure if he can continue to coach the team.

--

And that's just a SMALL LIST...

This is becoming the single-biggest "The Show Must Go On" moment since Penn State, Joe Paterno, and Jerry Sandusky.

Like that, though, there appears to be one major question:

How was it allowed to go on for so long?

And how do you get out of it, knowing he's going to sue everybody involved?

Hell, if he reads this, he'll probably try to sue me!  :)

And the final question would be:  If he's going to go down, he almost-certainly knows a lot of skeletons in the NBA closets.  Could he go scorched-earth and nail the NBA?

This Report Could Be A Nothing-Burger, Or It Could Send The Clippers Back To Obscurity

Just when it looked like the Clippers actually were going to get on a run of being the superior team in LA, a report has surfaced on Yahoo's basketball blog, Ball Don't Lie.

Donald Sterling has basically told his girlfriend (if you believe the report and that the exchange was caught on tape) not to bring African-Americans to "my games".

Oh, really, Sterling...  That's the kind of talk that could get you eliminated in six (and only because your team already has two wins in the series...).

TMZ is the source, and here are three gems from the article that show just how in tune Donald Sterling is...

-- "It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?" (3:30) 

-- "You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want.  The little I ask you is not to promote it on that ... and not to bring them to my games." (5:15)

-- "...Don't put him [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me.  And don't bring him to my games." (9:13)

Another case for football's abolition...

The truth is beginning to come out more rapidly now.

Today, all over the Net, we're getting the news on another blood sacrifice to football.

He's alive -- for now -- but the story is so incredible and is a testament to how blood-struck the culture of football has become.

One of my friends who commonly contributes material sent me the Sports Illustrated article on Russell Allen, formerly of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

They were playing Buffalo in a late-season game that basically no one was watching.

What occurred during the game was not only frightening, but something that doctors themselves said they had never really seen before.

As a result of this injury, Allen is done in the NFL, released outright by the Jaguars last Thursday.

The fact that he actually had a stroke during the game and now has a dead spot in his brain about the size of a dime (a significant portion of the brain, when you get right down to it) is almost-completely ignored until you hear Allen's side of the story in the article linked above.

It's on his cerebellum, the area below the cerebrum responsible for motor control.

This probably means Allen, at some point, will be almost-certainly disabled and rank-unemployable in general society (even though his current aim, incredibly, is to coach high school football) -- another casualty of the game and of the nature of how helmet hits (the hit/block which created the "flash" which started all this was face to face) have raised the demand for the abolition of the sport and society of football.

Third quarter, routine block, routine (helmet) hit, flash, no biggie to Allen.  He actually finished the drive with a quarterback sack to force a Buffalo punt.

It was on the sideline that things began to go crazy inside Allen's now-damaged brain.  He was seeing double, and asking around to see if he was OK.

Allen finished the game, went home, watched the Sunday-nighter that week -- all with a headache that was an indication that he had a stroke.

It was during the week, when he told team doctors that he was seeing double on the sideline during the game, that they blew the whistle and sent Allen in for an MRI.  The results of that sent Allen to the hospital -- Allen had had a stroke, during the game...

... and no one really cared.  As manhood and power-over was the norm and the expectation, he soldiered on, in a late-season game for two teams for which it meant nothing, and any further damage could've been an on-field fatality.

For doctors later told Allen he had suffered, according to the article:

"a carotid artery dissection, a tear in the layers of the artery wall that supplies oxygen to the brain—an injury that occurs in a small percentage of high-speed motor vehicle accidents."

Think of that a second.  Football players are getting so huge and so fast and powerful that the force that some of these players are taking helmet hits is akin to that of a high-speed car or motorcycle accident!

The article goes on to say:

"None of the doctors Allen consulted could find a precedent for a pro football player suffering this kind of stroke."

Well, that's an easy one.  Steroids, HGH, PEDs, and other manners to make the players bigger, faster, stronger, less human...

It's Newton's second law:  Force = mass X acceleration.  The bigger and faster you make these football machines, the more force they apply -- often, too much force for the body to take.

Football players today are now expected to be too big, too fast, too durable (one problem:  Allen had never missed a game since he started football at age 14!), too manly...

And, for all this, he's very fortunate he's alive.

Especially because he played an entire NFL half with a dead spot on his brain.

Lots of smoke and a growing fire: Sexual Assault by the Florida State Football Team Highlighted in Two Reports

Sounds like our National Champions have been busy off the field during their championship run.

Two recent stories have surfaced to support a theory that the Florida State Seminoles are getting quite a reputation for running roughshod over everything in their path, and any woman at least some of the Seminoles want, they TAKE...

Worse yet, if these two stories are any indication, the Seminole football team has had this history for, pushing, a quarter-century now.

First, in what seems to be the worst-kept secret in college football, a report last week indicates that Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston's investigation that he raped a woman in December of 2012.

USA Today reports that two teammates were investigated for violations of student conduct rules in January of 2014.

The victim in the case has retained a powerful Title IX lawyer, and, because of Winston's belligerence on the matter, the lawyer wants Winston charged and possibly expelled from Florida State.

But USA Today also reported two weeks ago that the Federal government is now involved.  I think it not without evidence that an epidemic of sexual assaults by the football team is at least being asserted.

Deadspin, in the second recent story, gave an indication to this end when they published a very alarming statement by a Florida State woman.

Ashley Witherspoon was raped and shot with intention of murder in December of 1993 by Michael Gibson, a running-back for the Seminoles.  Miraculously, the perpetrator was caught, convicted, and is now serving five life sentences in a Florida State Prison.  A sixth life sentence was overturned on the basis that there was no crime on the Florida statutes for which he was charged, even though Bobby Bowden actually wrote letters supporting the son of a bitch.

Florida State has been referred to the Department of Education and it's Office of Civil Rights, calling under fire their handling of sexual assaults (and it would be small wonder that the implication here is that it's sexual assaults by the football team).

Witherspoon, in the article, makes other claims which would corroborate various practices alleged at a number of schools toward prospective star players:

"When I was at Florida State there were these "Bat Girls"—maybe they're still there—and they were used for recruiting purposes for the baseball team. Why do high school seniors and college freshmen need beautiful girls to show them around and take them out? What's really going on? What are we teaching them? What are we offering them? I'm not making excuses for offenders, but sex, drugs, and rock and roll is a big part of it."

Though she still supports Florida State, she's not cool with the current direction of college sports at all:

"I almost got into a fistfight with a soccer coach friend of mine who believes athletes should get paid. It offends me. I love sports, but it's ridiculous that we idolize athletes. I don't care if football raises money for other college sports. If college football is just a mini-NFL training ground, then put them in the goddamn NFL. I just wish athletics in college were clean and pure. But they're not. We're not stupid. You can't tell me these programs aren't crooked as hell. I hope there's an overhaul. If Florida State covered something up, shut them down."

Deadspin, last year, gave other indications as to how far the Florida State football program was running roughshod over everything in it's path, including actions toward instructors and other students. The link to that article is included in the quote above.

--

Let's get a couple of very uncomfortable facts straight here:

Anyone who wants to come out and say that "Rape is unacceptable in this country." needs to answer the question as to how athletes across this nation are basically given free reign to rape, pillage, and plunder, as long as they give the only value anyone in their school seems to have (especially in high school, but still exists very well at the college level):  Athletic victory to be converted to school and community fame, and, often, money in the form of advertising and contributions.

Anyone who wants to come out and still support the sport of football in this day and age (on top of dealing with all the headhunting and brain injuries and player safety issues) also has to answer the question of how the game is not a microcosm and a representation of rape unto itself.  Players attempt to power each other over, with the only apparent place for women in the equation (in most cases, not all) is to psuedo-exotic-dance on the sidelines and at halftime, exhibiting to the community that, if they were or had been "real men", this is what they were entitled to.

Anyone who wants to come out and defend a lot of this as "Boys will be boys and they will grow out of it." has to stand basically in support of rape and a culture which appears to state that school spirit and sexual arousal are, in many cases, equivalent concepts.

... but only for the "real men" who are the only reason the school realistically exists.

I made no secret then, I make less now:  ESPN, Florida State University, and Jameis Winston acted in concert to cover this up because Winston and FSU were the chosen team to be the champions last year.  And ESPN had to market Winston (especially as Johnny Manziel's reputation and stock took serious hits with off-field monetary allegations of his own) as this "Aw shucks." next Michael Vick/Cam Newton/etc. type.