Here’s what I wrote the day after TMZ aired audiotapes of Donald Sterling sabotaging his ownership, the way Richard Nixon sabotaged his presidency:
The commissioner should forfeit his ownership with fair compensation in the interest of the NBA. (The commissioner of Major League Baseball set an instructive precedent by prevailing upon Marge Schott to sell her interest in the Cincinnati Reds after she was caught making similarly offensive anti-Semitic and anti-Asian comments.)…
No matter how this Sterling mess unfolds, I’d be shocked and dismayed if he still has his NBA team or his Black-Hispanic girlfriend this time … next week.
(“NBA Owner to GF: Your Photos with Blacks, Including Magic, Embarrass Me,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 27, 2014)
Sure enough, just 48 hours later, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced his determined intent to forfeit Sterling’s ownership. And, perhaps to show that he meant business, Silver banned him from any further association with the LA Clippers, “effective immediately.” I duly praised his announcement in “NBA Commissioner Gives Racist Sterling the Death Penalty,” April 30, 2014. Oh, he lost his girlfriend too.
Of course, Sterling lived up to his reputation as a litigious fool by filing all kinds of legal complaints in a vain attempt to retain ownership. And legal trolls polluted social media with all kinds of specious arguments supporting this fool’s errand. Ignorant of the basics of franchise law, they proffered the notion that the sanctity of Sterling’s property rights precluded Silver’s declared intent.
But I never doubted for a moment that this NBA saga would play out just as I scripted. Accordingly, here now, the final scene:
Donald Sterling is officially out as owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, ending a nearly four-month effort to oust him after racially insensitive comments were made public.
The sale of the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion closed Tuesday, the NBA announced in a news release. The purchase agreement closed after a California court issued a written order affirming that Sterling’s wife, Shelly, has the legal authority to sell the team on behalf of the Sterling Family Trust.
(CBS Sports, August 12, 2014)
The End
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