Steve Ballmer is officially the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.
And it’s about damn time.
News broke Tuesday that the NBA had finalized the $2 billion sale of the Clippers to Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO:
It's official: press release from the @NBA. Donald Sterling no longer owns the Clippers. pic.twitter.com/91DCLgiUH0
— UnguardedCNN (@UnguardedCNN) August 12, 2014
Once again, it’s about damn time.
This, truthfully, couldn’t have been done any sooner. Not really. The process wasn’t at the mercy of the NBA’s timeframe. Donald Sterling’s deflections and counters made it so this would always take time. And it did. But now it’s over, and the Clippers can move on.
Sort of.
Sterling is already doing very Sterling things, planning an appeal, preparing to see this bloodbath through to the bitter end—an end that, no matter what he does, includes him being displaced as owner of the Clippers, courtesy of him being racist bastard with no filter or common sense or the decency to admit he’s all those things.
Donald Sterling will file appeals and a petition for a writ, asking for a stay, today.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) August 12, 2014
Yes, it’s perfectly fine to think that. Candid interviews suggest that Sterling isn’t all here, that the things he’s saying aren’t out of deliberate bigotry and ignorance, but out of mental fragility. When he claims he was unaware of the recording that had him disgracing the human race in a conversation with alleged lover V. Stiviano, you have to believe him. That’s how pathetic this man looks and talks at the moment.
But he doesn’t deserve our sympathy. Never wish bad fortunes on anyone else, no matter who they are, but there’s no reason to use Sterling’s current mental state as an excuse for a lifetime of calculated immoral wrongs. Sterling is a bad man, a racist, a scumbag, a sleazy, sorry excuse for a human being. And that’s pre-Stiviano.
His removal from NBA ownership ranks is long overdue. Commissioner Adam Silver has spearheaded a movement that should have taken place and been completed long ago. For that, he, and the rest of the NBA, deserve a round of applause.
A brief round of applause.
Good ol’ Sterling isn’t really gone. Never mind the appeals he’ll file and the war he’ll continue to wage and fund, his estranged wife, Shelly Sterling, still figures to be a part of this team’s DNA:
Shelly Sterling will still have a large and visible presence with the Clippers after this deal. pic.twitter.com/UKqFVTSPF1
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) August 12, 2014
Steve Ballmer acquires 100 percent of the #Clippers so there will not be 10% held in a charity run by Shelly Sterling.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) August 12, 2014
Having Shelly around at all is a loss. A big one. It doesn’t matter that she helped broker the sale, or that she’s been repeatedly vocal in her support of the team. Having her around in any capacity is crap. Complete and utter crap.
The sheer ridiculousness of it all—from the tickets to the parking spots to the championship rings—isn’t even the point. The Clippers need a fresh start. They need to purge their future of past demons. Shelly Sterling is one of those demons.
AP
David Roth of SB Nation penned a terrific piece on the far-from-innocent Shelly. It’s worth a read, but it’s important you understand Shelly isn’t a victim here, nor is she a hero.
She was, for so many years, an enabler.
She was an extension of her husband.
That is not OK.
Doc Rivers and Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan and the ushers and the vendors shouldn’t have to work for a Clippers team that has any Association with the Sterlings—Donald, Shelly or otherwise—in any capacity. That would be a fresh start.
It’s bad enough these people are walking away with billions of dollars thanks to this deal; they shouldn’t be allowed to cast slimy shadows over the franchise, too.
Maybe it’s a tacit obstacle, and perhaps it doesn’t mean anything to some, but it’s relevant nonetheless. The Clippers cannot move on unless they cut ties with the Sterlings. They need the luxury of being free and clear.
Donald’s tardy exit is a step in the right direction. Shelly’s lingering presence is a damn shame, because her removal is belated, too.
Sterling should never be a name the Clippers are in bed with. And until that’s reality, until time and/or the NBA has cathartically wiped that epithet from the franchise’s existence, the Clippers can only be so free.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
