On the Supreme Court of the United States of America, you have your justices who are strict constructionists – those who believe the text is the law itself and no inferences or interpretations should be made from said law. You have your loose constructionists – those that believe the original Constitution’s language be evaluated contemporaneously. Then you have your judicial activists – the justices that will use personal or political considerations in consideration of their rulings. If Commissioner Adam Silver were the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the NBA, he’d be the judicial activist.
The NBA’s Constitution and By-Laws is by no means comparable to the United States Constitution; however, it still is the governing literature by which the organization lives and breathes. Nothing in Article 13 (Termination of Ownership or Membership), even if interpreted liberally, suggests that Sterling is in direct violation. He didn’t fail to pay his dues, his team never missed a game, he never engaged in any illegal better. And, in my opinion, he didn’t refuse to fulfill his contractual obligations to the Association, its members, players, or any other third party in such a way as to affect the Association or its members adversely (although my guess is this provision is what Silver was alluding to).
However, by Sterling telling his trophy girlfriend not to hang around with black people in what was intended to be a private conversation, he wasn’t in breach any contractual obligation to the Los Angeles Clippers even if the consequence of his actions demoralized the team and put them under the national spotlight during an already stressful time. Quite contrarily, we’ve witnessed the Clippers rally around each other, other teams stand behind them in usually a divisive time (black sock solidarity!), opposing fans give their support very cleverly, and the sports media finally dedicate more time to a topic than Peyton Manning.
Now, before you accuse me of supporting Sterling, I don’t. I hope he goes quietly into the throws of death. It just really bothers me that things like this are what cause us as Americans to have a conversation about racism in this country. As if this was some sort of isolated incident that made us all gasp in unanimity. No. It happens all the time, and no one says anything about it or pays much attention (I’ll let Bomani Jones explain that to you because as a white female who came from a place of privilege, I’m not really sure I can properly do so). It’s time we address systemic racism in sports (hell, America) beyond the Sterling paradigm.
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