Steve Ballmer has purchased the Clippers for $2 billion dollars, and the world now knows that in our modern era, characterized largely by technological advancew and social progress, an NBA franchise can be brought to the ground by an incensed mistress in a matter of weeks.

The sale, while a bit perplexing from an economic standpoint, has wide-reaching implications both inside and out of the NBA.  Most obviously, it displays the steadfast support of the league’s players from new commissioner Adam Silver who, less than four months into his new job, has dealt with a scandal that will perhaps remain his most controversial throughout the duration of his career.  It also seems to solidify that the Clippers will remain in Los Angeles, as Ballmer has stated publicly that he has no plans to move the franchise to Seattle despite his previous desire and investment in bringing a team to the city.  However, the case also raises some challenging and contentious questions regarding whether it was handled appropriately, no matter how delicate the situation may be.

The sale was only made possibly after 80-year-old Donald Sterling was deemed “mentally incapacitated,” allowing his wife to become the sole trustee, granting her the ability to negotiate directly with bidders, namely Ballmer, under the laws outlined by the Sterling family trust, which dictated that there was no court hearing necessary to declare Mr Sterling mentally unfit to run the team.  If this were truly the case, it would seem perhaps unfair to hold the mentally incapacitated Sterling’s remarks against him.

This raises the issue of Sterling’s history with racial insensitivity, as critics cite that his comments were no isolated incident. This seems to indict the media as the reason for the perpetuation of this story, as it is not the first time that an NBA owner, or even Sterling, has made insensitive remarks towards a specifically targeted group of people. If it were truly the remarks that brought the owner down, and not the media context they were delivered in, this would not have been an isolated incident, and would certainly not have been the first time the majority of America heard of Sterling and his racist tendencies.  

While I agree that actions should have been taken against Sterling given the position the NBA holds as a league that is comprised of an African-American majority, I feel that the action taken against the supposedly incapacitated former owner was rushed due to the inflammatory and viral nature of the sound-byte itself, and the tendency of our media to blow stories out of proportion.  It would have been interesting and beneficial to see the case play out in court, in the very least helping determine the boundaries of our shifting social landscape to more efficiently handle a similar situation in the future.

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