The Donald Sterling Appreciation Thread

[Elano]

Racist greedhead Donald Sterling will pay $2.73 million to settle a federal housing bias lawsuit accusing him of all kinds of sleazy and thuggish behavior, none of which matters in David Stern's NBA if you're an owner.

The settlement is said to be the largest of its kind. Dan Wetzel rightly wonders why more people aren't talking about Sterling. Maybe it's because there's just so much to talk about that no one knows where to begin:

• In 2003, 19 tenants and the Housing Rights Center filed a housing discrimination lawsuit against Sterling, one of the biggest landowners in Los Angeles. (That case, too, was settled.) According to depositions given by one of Sterling's property supervisors and obtained by ESPN The Magazine's Peter Keating, Sterling didn't like renting to black people ("they smell"), Mexican-Americans ("just sit around and smoke and drink all day") and people with children ("brats"), though he did like Koreans because "they will take whatever conditions I give them and still pay the rent." (The property supervisor, Sumner Davenport, sued Sterling for sexual harassment. She lost.)

• When a tenant asked to be compensated for water damage in her flooded apartment, Sterling allegedly told Davenport, "Just evict the bitch."

• According to former general manger Elgin Baylor, Sterling envisioned a "Southern Plantation type structure" for the Clippers, one in which, as he allegedly put it to Baylor, "poor black boys from the South" played for a white head coach.

• Sterling bought the Clippers in 1981 for $13 million. The franchise is now valued at $300 million. On his watch, the Clippers have lost 50 games in a season 20 times. Long ago, Sterling realized — correctly — that an owner could turn a tidy and effortless profit under the NBA's revenue-sharing system merely by losing cheaply and relying on the league's ever-fattening coffers.

• The NBA once fined Sterling $10,000 for suggesting the Clippers tank to help their draft position.

• As reported here, Sterling's scorekeepers in the late 1990s routinely and dramatically undercounted the Clippers' assist totals. Deliberate or not, the effect was to depress the value of the team's own players.

• According to Franz Lidz in Sports Illustrated, Sterling would refuse to add players even after injuries left the roster at the league minimum of eight. "The Clippers came close to forfeiting a game after forward Michael Brooks had oral surgery," Lidz wrote. "Brooks had to suit up, and he actually played, though his jaw was as swollen as Sterling's ego."

• Sterling once welshed on a $1,000 prize for a free-throw shooting contest, forcing the winner, a lawyer and season ticketholder named Michael Spilger, to sue. More than a year later, according to Lidz, Spilger got his money.

• During his first season as owner, according to Sports Illustrated, Sterling reportedly wanted to save money by jettisoning the team trainer. He asked coach Paul Silas if he would mind taping up players before games.

• According to Sports Illustrated: "Sterling is also said to have proposed to trim the team budget for his second season by slashing training-camp expenses from more than $50,000 to about $100, scouting from more than $20,000 to about $1,000, advertising from more than $200,000 to less than $9,000 and medical expenses from about $10,000 to $100."

• Sterling would solicit "hostesses" for private parties and Clippers events, one of whom told ESPN The Magazine: "Working for Donald Sterling was the most demoralizing, dehumanizing experience of my life. He asked me for seminude photos and made it clear he wanted more."

• A former employee sued Sterling for sexual harassment in 1996. According to testimony obtained by ESPN The Magazine, Sterling would order her to find massage therapists, saying, "I want someone who will, you know, let me put it in or who [will] suck on it." The case was settled.

• In 2003, Sterling acknowledged paying a woman named Alexandra Castro $500 every time "she provided sex." He testified: "It was purely sex for money, money for sex, sex for money, money for sex." He would call her honey, but for decidedly unromantic reasons. "I'm a very flowery man," he said. "If you are having sex with a woman you are paying for, you always call her honey because you can't remember her name."

He loves Baron Davis 
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=mc-davisclippers121210

The Sordid Life Of Clippers Owner Donald Sterling

Just in time for the lottery, ESPN The Magazine has a look-see at the walking abomination known as Donald Sterling, Clippers owner and a man of discerning taste. Dislikes: blacks, Mexicans, children. Likes: Koreans, blowjobs.

The last one, at least, is old news. But The Mag's always excellent Peter Keating also got his hands on depositions from a discrimination lawsuit brought in 2003 against the real-estate mogul by 19 tenants and the Housing Rights Center, a case that prefigured the more recent volley of charges that Sterling is not exactly the most racially enlightened guy around. The picture that emerges isn't pretty.

Some highlights, such as they are (the story's not online):

"JUST EVICT THE BITCH." It was 2002, and Donald Sterling was talking to Sumner Davenport, one of his four top property supervisors, about a tenant at the Ardmore Apartments. Already the largest landowner in Beverly Hills, Sterling had recently acquired the Ardmore as part of his move to extend his real estate empire eastward toward Koreatown and downtown LA. As he did, Sterling "wanted tenants that fit his image," according to testimony Davenport gave in a discrimination lawsuit brought against Sterling in 2003 by 19 tenants and the nonprofit Housing Rights Center.

Cultivating his image, Davenport said, meant no blacks, no Mexican-Americans, no children (whom Sterling called "brats") and no government-housing-subsidy recipients as tenants. So according to the testimony of tenants, Sterling employees made life difficult for residents in some of his new buildings. They refused rent checks, then accused renters of nonpayment. They refused to do repairs for black tenants and harassed them with surprise inspections, threatening residents with eviction for alleged violations of building rules.

...

When Sterling first bought the Ardmore, he remarked on its odor to Davenport. "That's because of all the blacks in this building, they smell, they're not clean," he said, according to Davenport's testimony. "And it's because of all of the Mexicans that just sit around and smoke and drink all day."He added: "So we have to get them out of here." Shortly after, construction work caused a serious leak at the complex. When Davenport surveyed the damage, she found an elderly woman, Kandynce Jones, wading through several inches of water in Apartment 121. Jones was paralyzed on the right side and legally blind. She took medication for high blood pressure and to thin a clot in her leg. Still, she was remarkably cheerful, showing Davenport pictures of her children, even as some of her belongings floated around her.

...

Davenport reported what she saw to Sterling, and according to her testimony, he asked: "Is she one of those black people that stink?" When Davenport told Sterling that Jones wanted to be reimbursed for the water damage and compensated for her ruined property, he replied: "I am not going to do that. Just evict the bitch."

Repairs never came. The shower stopped working, and the toilet wouldn't flush; Jones needed to use a plunger and disposed of waste tissue in bags. Kandynce Jones departed the home she loved but that caused her so much grief when she passed away, on July 21, 2003, at age 67.

He wasn't just horrible with his tenants. He demeaned women, too.

But it's the people who work for Sterling and live in his buildings who say they bear the worst of his unconventional behavior. For years he has run semianonymous ads (crude design jobs he reportedly mocks up himself) seeking "hostesses" for Clippers events and his private parties. In a Times ad last summer, Sterling's company solicited "attractive females" to bring a résumé and photo to his address, where employees reviewed their looks. Some of the women who have gone through this process found it humiliating. "Working for Donald Sterling was the most demoralizing, dehumanizing experience of my life," says a hostess from the 1990s who says she helped set up "cattle calls" to find other women to work the job. "He asked me for seminude photos and made it clear he wanted more. He is smart and clever but manipulative. When I didn't give him what he wanted, he looked at me with distaste. His smile was so empty."

In 1996, a former employee named Christine Jaksy sued Sterling for sexual harassment. The two sides reached a confidential settlement, and Jaksy, now an artist in Chicago, says, "The matter has been resolved." But The Magazine has obtained records of that case, and according to testimony Jaksy gave under oath, Sterling touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable and asked her to visit friends of his for sex. Sterling also repeatedly ordered her to find massage therapists to service him sexually, telling her, "I want someone who will, you know, let me put it in or who [will] suck on it."

...

Sterling's testimony in another case, this one involving former associate Alexandra Castro, underscores his aggressiveness with women. When Castro, whom Sterling met in Las Vegas at Al Davis' birthday party over Fourth of July weekend in 1999, visited his Beverly Hills office, Sterling later stated under oath that she brought a lab report proving she was HIV-negative, freeing him to continue having unprotected sex with his wife. "The woman wanted sex everywhere," Sterling said. "In the alley, in her car, in the elevator, in the upstairs seventh floor, in the bathroom." And he paid her for it. "Everytime she provided sex she got $500," he testified in 2003. "At the end of every week or at the end of two weeks, we would figure [it] out, and I would, perhaps, pay her then."

"When you pay a woman for sex, you are not together with her," he further testified. "You're paying her for a few moments to use her body for sex. Is it clear? Is it clear?"

...

Sterling isn't a total racist, to be sure. He has a fine appreciation for Asian culture, for one thing.

    "He would tell me that I needed to learn the ‘Asian way' from his younger girls because they knew how to please him," Davenport testified in 2004. Davenport also stated: "If I made a mistake, I needed to stand at my desk and bow my head and say, ‘I'm sorry, Mr. Sterling. I'm sorry I disappointed you. I'll try to do better.' "

    Sterling's preference for Asians extended to the people he wanted in his buildings. "I like Korean employees and I like Korean tenants," he told Dean Segal, chief engineer at a Sterling property called the Mark Wilshire Tower Apartments, according to testimony Segal gave in the Housing Rights Center case. And Davenport testified that Sterling told her, "I don't have to spend any more money on them, they will take whatever conditions I give them and still pay the rent … so I'm going to keep buying in Koreatown."

...

But Mexican culture? Certainly not.

    Raymond Henson, head of security at the building, who was standing outside the room, heard what happened next. Sterling, according to Henson's 2004 sworn statement, once again expressed his distaste for Mexicans as tenants, saying, "I don't like Mexican men because they smoke, drink and just hang around the house."

[7even]

he's 100% right about baron davis though. that guy deserves all the abuse he gets. he got a long-term franchise player's contract and plays like a piece of shit more often than he does not, mostly due to lack of motivation

[Halu Sination]

God I wish the NBA could force Sterling to sell the team. Sterling is like the Al Davis of the NBA, although probably slightly less crazy but probably worse of a human being when you include non-league related issues.

[M Dogg™]

You can at least forgive Al for being old and senile. And honestly, Al Davis did more for the NFL; AFL commissioner, 3 Super Bowl titles, hired the first black and latino head coaches, helped the Raiders have the first multi-formation offense, help negotiate a labor deal due to his connection with Gene Upshaw, help establish the original 14 game schedule; than almost any other owner in sports has done for their league. It's just that since 2001, when he actually traded a coach, the signs were there that Al had forgotten more about being a team owner than anyone else would know. The sad part his he forgot EVERYTHING about being a team owner. But at least you can say Al Davis was a great owner. You can't say that ever about Donald Sterling. Someone needs to force him to sell. Hell, he even turned down a deal in the early 90's to go to the Pond, which is one of the nicest arenas, to stay at the LA Sports Center, which is a dump, all because he just wanted to stay in LA. Luckily the Staples Center took him in, but his a horrible owner.

[Halu Sination]

You can at least forgive Al for being old and senile. And honestly, Al Davis did more for the NFL; AFL commissioner, 3 Super Bowl titles, hired the first black and latino head coaches, helped the Raiders have the first multi-formation offense, help negotiate a labor deal due to his connection with Gene Upshaw, help establish the original 14 game schedule; than almost any other owner in sports has done for their league. It's just that since 2001, when he actually traded a coach, the signs were there that Al had forgotten more about being a team owner than anyone else would know. The sad part his he forgot EVERYTHING about being a team owner. But at least you can say Al Davis was a great owner. You can't say that ever about Donald Sterling. Someone needs to force him to sell. Hell, he even turned down a deal in the early 90's to go to the Pond, which is one of the nicest arenas, to stay at the LA Sports Center, which is a dump, all because he just wanted to stay in LA. Luckily the Staples Center took him in, but his a horrible owner.

Yeah, Anaheim would actually be a great location for Clippers. Orange County is pretty much Los Angeles anyways, as long as Clippers remained in the general metropolis areas of LA, Clippers could've done just fine there. At this point though, I've got to admit, I've grown fond of watching Clippers in Staples Center, so it doesn't matter much to me anymore.

If the NBA could force Sterling to sell, that would be great for the league IMO. I don't care what their excuse is, it could be just that Sterling is a racist prick, just find a way to get him out of there. I give ridiculous props to Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon for finding a way to cast aside that dark cloud that Sterling created over the franchise, but it would still be a lot better without Sterling's negative aura surrounding the team.

[Sccit]

he's 100% right about baron davis though. that guy deserves all the abuse he gets. he got a long-term franchise player's contract and plays like a piece of shit more often than he does not, mostly due to lack of motivation

I dunno if you've been watchin the Clips lately, but Baron Davis has been beastin...muthafucka found the fountain of youth and has been a great mentor to Blake Griffin. He's actually been better than Jason Kidd as of late

[7even]

it only looks like he's dope cause he's much better than at the start of the season... which is easy, cause he was probably the worst playing-time-getting player in the league. you also just like him cause he is from LA. he's trash and not living up to his contract one bit. i'd heckle his ass too if I was paying him 15 mil per year.

[M Dogg™]

I actually agree with Sccit.... 

His been doing great, the beginning of the year he sucked, but his doing really good and it's like his found that new motivation to live up to his contract.

[7even]

Yeah, last game 5-17 from the field along with the Rondo-esque number of 1 assist. I wish Kidd was that good. I apologize, you guys are right, Baron deserves that 70 million contract, he's almost as good as Chris Paul.

[.:DaYg0sTyLz:.]

it only looks like he's dope cause he's much better than at the start of the season... which is easy, cause he was probably the worst playing-time-getting player in the league. you also just like him cause he is from LA. he's trash and not living up to his contract one bit. i'd heckle his ass too if I was paying him 15 mil per year.

The money doesnt matter. If someone makes $8/hour....or $50/hour....their motivation will be heavily effected by their work environment and their "boss". Guaranteed you wouldnt be motivated to give it your all working for this piece of shit either.

[.:DaYg0sTyLz:.]

You can at least forgive Al for being old and senile. And honestly, Al Davis did more for the NFL; AFL commissioner, 3 Super Bowl titles, hired the first black and latino head coaches, helped the Raiders have the first multi-formation offense, help negotiate a labor deal due to his connection with Gene Upshaw, help establish the original 14 game schedule; than almost any other owner in sports has done for their league. It's just that since 2001, when he actually traded a coach, the signs were there that Al had forgotten more about being a team owner than anyone else would know. The sad part his he forgot EVERYTHING about being a team owner. But at least you can say Al Davis was a great owner. You can't say that ever about Donald Sterling. Someone needs to force him to sell. Hell, he even turned down a deal in the early 90's to go to the Pond, which is one of the nicest arenas, to stay at the LA Sports Center, which is a dump, all because he just wanted to stay in LA. Luckily the Staples Center took him in, but his a horrible owner.

Yeah Al and Sterling are nowhere near the same. Davis might be crazy, and old, and senile lol But he DOES care about winning. His wealth is from his ownership of the Raiders so he has an interest in the team doing well. He is just too stubborn to listen to anyone else about what to do...even if they are right. Sterling has made it perfectly clear that his only concern is his profit from the team. He is wealthy from his real estate, and the Clippers are just another way to make money. He is willing to do anything, including lose, to make money. He just makes money off of revenue sharing, from teams like the Lakers who will buy themselves championships by completely overshooting the luxury cap. Not to mention he is a complete racist and an overall disgusting person. Fuck Sterling.

[DJ SUGAFREE QUIK]

Bad enough that the LA times keeps putting this fools face on lots of their pages but I just can't understand why Stern can't ban dumb donald 4 life?  He does worse to people than George Steinbrenner did to Dave Winfield & George was actually banned 4 life.  Only thing dumb donald does good is not overpay those who don't deserve 2 be overpaid.  Dominique wanted 3yr's $21 million in 94, he wasn't worth it.  Clippers got heat for that but they did sweep the Celtics team Wilkins was on & embarrassed him in Boston Maurice Taylor & the late Bison Dele wanted $100 million contracts, they weren't worth it either & didn't play well after leaving the Clippers.

For the uninformed, in the early 90's Steinbrenner hired some ex-con to spy on Winfield for something & got severely punished for that.

[.:DaYg0sTyLz:.]

Bad enough that the LA times keeps putting this fools face on lots of their pages but I just can't understand why Stern can't ban dumb donald 4 life?  He does worse to people than George Steinbrenner did to Dave Winfield & George was actually banned 4 life.  Only thing dumb donald does good is not overpay those who don't deserve 2 be overpaid.  Dominique wanted 3yr's $21 million in 94, he wasn't worth it.  Clippers got heat for that but they did sweep the Celtics team Wilkins was on & embarrassed him in Boston Maurice Taylor & the late Bison Dele wanted $100 million contracts, they weren't worth it either & didn't play well after leaving the Clippers.

For the uninformed, in the early 90's Steinbrenner hired some ex-con to spy on Winfield for something & got severely punished for that.

The NFL didnt allow Rush Limbaugh's fat racist ass to become an owner. The NBA should step up and say enough is enough with this guy. If they dont want to get rid of him because he is a racist, get rid of him because he is a blackeye on the league. Look at the lawsuits against him. Not to mention, and owner who hurts the overall NBA product by allowing his team to continuously just lose by cutting costs in order to receive as much money as possible from revenue shares.

[Sccit]

Yeah, last game 5-17 from the field along with the Rondo-esque number of 1 assist. I wish Kidd was that good. I apologize, you guys are right, Baron deserves that 70 million contract, he's almost as good as Chris Paul.

lets see, german boy...bd averaged 15.6 points and 7.4 assists in the month of january. so far in february, he's averaging 17.4 points and 9.2 assists with 3 steals...but i guess it's more convenient to disagree with someone who clearly knows more than you in pretty much everything.

[7even]

Yeah, last game 5-17 from the field along with the Rondo-esque number of 1 assist. I wish Kidd was that good. I apologize, you guys are right, Baron deserves that 70 million contract, he's almost as good as Chris Paul.

lets see, german boy...bd averaged 15.6 points and 7.4 assists in the month of january. so far in february, he's averaging 17.4 points and 9.2 assists with 3 steals...but i guess it's more convenient to disagree with someone who clearly knows more than you in pretty much everything.

you certainly know more about pathetically coming back to a forum on which you a) dont respect the other members, b) nobody respects/likes you and c) people on the board even went as far as bending the law just to mess with your ass so you needed your even more pathetic real life friends to go take rides in your truck and your best forum friend to make certain posts go away permanently