Sterling surrenders control of Clippers to Shelly (pg 35)

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

I'm just looking for something other than that, because I truly want to think there's something else here I'm not seeing.

But seriously...I challenge the board to convince me that, based on the NBA's treatment of Sterling just a few days ago, that Shaq shouldn't be fined, banned and forced to sell his ownership of the team? If there's no room for a racist in the league, why are they able to clear so much space for a public bully of deformed people?

Maybe a lifetime achievement award to Sterling for having a long history of racism? Like he's been in the ignorant scumbag game a lot longer than Shaq?

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

Jermaine Ali said:

What? Just stop man.

Shaq didn't know he was disabled. In his mind he was just making fun of a guy who took a bad selfie. I don't see a problem with that apart from the fact that he's too old to be acting so immature.

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I don't buy it. The dude is very clearly deformed. I will say that Shaq was wise to apologize and call the guy because it makes the situation look a hell of a lot better and leaves him some benefit of the doubt. No way in hell Sterling is apologizing to anyone for his stupid worldview.

But even so...do you disagree that the right thing to do would be for the NBA to punish him severely?

I really don't need to hear people saying Shaq deserves to be banned. I just would like to see people agreeing that not treating Shaq harshly is severely hypocritical.

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

eh devils advocate, Shaq is a personality, always has been. different situation.. Sterling is supposed to be professional, Shaq isn't really the Nba's obligation/liability.. moreso tnt's. Simply wont turn as many fans away or paint the nba in such a bad light, again, more black people watch/play in the nba than disabled people And this one's easier to say 'he just didn't know'. Sterling, not so much.

Although, looking at STerlings comments (and I could be missing some), Sterling looks like actually explicitly tried to steer away from that chick's bait of saying racist shit

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

David. said:

eh devils advocate, Shaq is a personality, always has been. different situation.. Sterling is supposed to be professional, Shaq isn't really the Nba's obligation/liability.. moreso tnt's. Simply wont turn as many fans away or paint the nba in such a bad light, again, more black people watch/play in the nba than disabled people And this one's easier to say 'he just didn't know'. Sterling, not so much.

Although, looking at STerlings comments (and I could be missing some), Sterling looks like actually explicitly tried to steer away from that chick's bait of saying racist shit

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I agree with everything you said except one very key part. The part you left out is whether you feel it's justifiable given the NBA's actions against Sterling, that Shaq not be punished at all.

And he IS the NBA's business because he has ownership of one of their team's.

I will say that watching the interview with the guy that Shaq ridiculed, made me feel awful about making fun of anyone's appearance. He seems like a really nice dude who has spent his life time being extremely hurt by ignorant assholes like Shaq that abused him for the way he looks. I did like that he said he'll rise above it, because otherwise the interview was really sad.

Hopefully, the good that'll come out of Shaq's bullying is others like myself will be reminded that just because you say or do something over the internet at someone else's expense, doesn't mean there's nor someone else out there that's been hearing and seeing the same shit their whole lives and it hurts. I'm even more guilty than Shaq of doing that and in a way I'm glad that I watched the interview with that guy, because it really impacted me.

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

But technically Shaq is an owner as well. He was even on the court during the dunk contest.

By letting this slide unpunished, the NBA is dismissing the belittling of disabled people by its owners.

You can say it wasn't Shaq's intent because he didn't know of the disability, but Sterling definitely didn't intend for his comments to be taped and plastered on the evening news.

Like some others have said, Cuban was kind of right when saying this could be a slippery slope.

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

Cuban backing off of his initial comments really made me lose some respect for him.

If you're going to say something like that and talk about your principles...then back off them a day later? I mean...I get it. His comments were bad for business, bad for company morale. It was self-preservation and I get it.

But if he wasn't going to be honest in the first place, he never should have said publicly what he really believed.

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

Trey Burke of the Jazz also made fun of the guy. No punishment for the players either?

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

SuperSurge said:

Trey Burke of the Jazz also made fun of the guy. No punishment for the players either?

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I saw that too.

Kinda makes you feel a little bit different about posting memes knowing that they're real people out there that are in those pics.

I'm becoming such a pussy. It's the kid on the way I know it...

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

Little Seizer said:

I don't buy it. The dude is very clearly deformed. I will say that Shaq was wise to apologize and call the guy because it makes the situation look a hell of a lot better and leaves him some benefit of the doubt.

But even so...do you disagree that the right thing to do would be for the NBA to punish him severely?

I really don't need to hear people saying Shaq deserves to be banned. I just would like to see people agreeing that not treating Shaq harshly is severely hypocritical.

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I'm telling you. The way that picture was getting retweeted and reposted on the social media sites, very few knew he was actually deformed.

For comparisons sake, imagine you see a picture of someone with down syndrome making a "funny face". No one would joke about that and it wouldn't get posted on social media sites because people don't make fun of disabled people. It's not the right thing to do. Even if the person was making a "funny face" people wouldn't perpetuate that joke because you don't make fun of disabled people.

But if it's a guy whom people think is just a regular guy making a funny face, then it's ok to laugh. People can laugh at him and they will because it's socially acceptable. The picture will get plenty of retweets and will get posted everywhere because people will just think it's a bad picture.

I really don't think Shaq knew the guy was disabled. Him being disabled didn't even cross my mind the first time I saw the picture. I only found out after the news reports came out.

I think punishing him severely would be dumb. The only thing Shaq is guilty of is being unprofessional and immature. Now if Shaq knew beforehand that the guy was disabled then I would think that a severe punishment would be warranted but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt because I think it was just an honest misunderstanding.

At the end of the day though, Shaq is still immature and a clown. Grow up.

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

Shaq apologized to the guy. He didn't know he was disabled. He apologized and took blame on himself, and that is still not good enough?

Oh, Shaq isn't even an owner, owner. He' s a minority owner.

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

Simon said:

Oh, Shaq isn't even an owner, owner. He' s a minority owner.

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Racist! :chuckles:

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

Simon said:

Oh, Shaq isn't even an owner, owner. He' s a minority owner.

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It wasn't "rape rape."

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

Jermaine Ali said:

I'm telling you. The way that picture was getting retweeted and reposted on the social media sites, very few knew he was actually deformed.

For comparisons sake, imagine you see a picture of someone with down syndrome making a "funny face". No one would joke about that and it wouldn't get posted on social media sites because people don't make fun of disabled people. It's not the right thing to do. Even if the person was making a "funny face" people wouldn't perpetuate that joke because you don't make fun of disabled people.

But if it's a guy whom people think is just a regular guy making a funny face, then it's ok to laugh. People can laugh at him and they will because it's socially acceptable. The picture will get plenty of retweets and will get posted everywhere because people will just think it's a bad picture.

I really don't think Shaq knew the guy was disabled. Him being disabled didn't even cross my mind the first time I saw the picture. I only found out after the news reports came out.

I think punishing him severely would be dumb. The only thing Shaq is guilty of is being unprofessional and immature. Now if Shaq knew beforehand that the guy was disabled then I would think that a severe punishment would be warranted but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt because I think it was just an honest misunderstanding.

At the end of the day though, Shaq is still immature and a clown. Grow up.

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You make some fair points, no doubt.

But regardless of Shaq's knowledge before posting the pic, he bullied a man and made a fool out of him on a huge stage. The results are obviously some serious pain for the dude.

When it comes to punishing people, I like any kind of different treatment of individuals committing similar crimes (these are obvi not crimes) to be objectively very explainable.

If you believe firmly that these are two entirely different actions because Shaq didn't know exactly what he was mocking...I respect that. Makes some level of sense.

Apologizing directly to the guy was good.

But Silver made an example of Sterling. Make an example of Shaq too.

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

Little Seizer said:

You make some fair points, no doubt.

But regardless of Shaq's knowledge before posting the pic, he bullied a man and made a fool out of him on a huge stage. The results are obviously some serious pain for the dude.

When it comes to punishing people, I like any kind of different treatment of individuals committing similar crimes (these are obvi not crimes) to be objectively very explainable.

If you believe firmly that these are two entirely different actions because Shaq didn't know exactly what he was mocking...I respect that. Makes some level of sense.

Apologizing directly to the guy was good.

But Silver made an example of Sterling. Make an example of Shaq too.

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Regardless of whether he knew the guy was disabled or not, the action was wrong. Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt, like I am, and assume he was just making fun of some guy because he was ugly, that's still wrong. I don't think the NBA should be the ones punishing him though.

I could see an argument for him to be punished in some capacity. Regardless, what he did was very unprofessional and brought/is bringing negative attention to his workplace. I think an appropriate punishment, if any, would be for TNT to fine Shaq and make him take a sensitivity course on bullying or something.

That would be ok. I'd actually kinda be happy with that decision. I just don't agree with "fining him 2.5 million dollars" or "banning him for life" because he made fun of someone for being ugly.

Re: So Clippers owner Donald Sterling is extremely racist

Jermaine Ali said:

What? Just stop man.

Shaq didn't know he was disabled. In his mind he was just making fun of a guy who took a bad selfie. I don't see a problem with that apart from the fact that he's too old to be acting so immature.

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I don't buy that Shaq had no idea he was disabled and it didn't cross his mind.

This is the same Shaq that threw a punch at Barkley (I believe) when he was in the NBA. Shaq does have a mean side to him, like everyone else.

Lets not pretend that ANY of the owners in the NBA are nice people. You don't become a billionaire by being nice.

Cuban: Insider trader?
Gilbert: Predatory Lending or at the very least contributed to the sub prime mortgage crisis
Sterling: Racist, but I'm sure there's more.
Allen: Helped steal from another company
Maloofs (when they did own a team): Made millions (maybe billions) off peoples addiction
Shaq: Made fun of disabled person
Richard DeVos: Anti gay rights
Prokhorov: Prostitution

These are just the owners that I can think off the top of my head.