Great anti-racism model

The NBA (National Basketball Association) commissioner Adam Silver has banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling for life from attending or being involved with the management of his own or any other NBA team. Three months after his appointment as NBA chief, Silver took this unprecedented action against one of the league’s longest tenured owners after public exposure of a recorded conversation between Sterling and a young woman with whom he had an intimate relationship. Sterling’s contribution to the conversation was a finger-wagging, racist admonition that she steer clear of Clippers games when in the company of African-Americans such as NBA legend Magic Johnson. This shocking prejudice from a man in his position is hard to accept. I believe Silver’s decision is 100 percent correct! Even before Sterling’s identity was confirmed, the conversation went viral, and his true characteristics were displayed for all the world to see and hear. For many, it was not a revelation. Sterling bought the Clippers and moved them from San Diego to Los Angeles in the early 1980s. He attempted to hire former Villanova basketball coach, Rollie Massimino to pull the struggling Clippers out of their dysfunctional state. Massimino terminated the interview when Sterling used racist epithets to describe his players. The plantation-owner demeanour of Sterling is well documented, both in anecdotes and lawsuits. He had mistreated his black tenants and harassed former Clippers’ players like Baron Davis. The latest episode is simply the most public of many. There was some talk that Clippers players would walk away from the playoffs. Silver’s quick action allayed that concern. Sterling was banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million (Rs.15.6 crore). But even with the commissioner’s swift action, the unpleasant incident provides an opportunity to revisit a number of critical issues. One is the personal responsibility of every individual, and society as a whole, to maintain racial harmony and respect black and minority communities. Racism has been a fact of life in the US for so long that it has become a cancer. In most cases it is tolerated, often it is ignored. It may go into remission, but it is never cured and always returns. Therefore the Silver-Sterling spat on the race issue offers a rare opportunity to address it without fear of being accused of playing the race card. Secondly, while there’s much to feel good about — nationwide revulsion over crude forms of racism — we are forced to speculate why NBA moved so quickly against Sterling. A major reason is that Sterling couldn’t survive his vitriolic racist rant because he is part of a rare institution in which African-Americans are predominant — 76 percent of the members of NBA teams are African-American. NBA players whose talent attracts huge audiences demonstrated a solidarity their employers — Sterling’s fellow owners — simply couldn’t ignore. Moreover, the timing was propitious. The NBA playoffs are in their early stages, the number of fans watching professional games is rising and sponsorships are especially lucrative. In…