On April 25, 80-year-old US businessman Donald Sterling, owner of the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Clippers, found himself in the eye of a storm when recordings of him making racist comments became public. After his young girlfriend posted Instagram pictures of herself posing with basketball great Magic Johnson, Sterling blasted her: "It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to?" Sterling also told her not to bring Johnson to his games.
Slapdowns for Sterling came swift and severe: from Johnson himself to President Barack Obama, the Clippers owner was harshly criticised. The commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, acted decisively: he fined Sterling $2.5 million, banned him from the league from life and urged the other owners – under the NBA constitution, the only ones who can take such action – to force Sterling to sell the team.
Leading the effort to pressure Sterling to sell is Mumbai native Vivek Ranadive, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur who last year bought the Sacramento Kings team. (He was earlier a part-owner of the Golden State Warriors). The founder and CEO of a computing company named TIBCO, Ranadive famously found his passion for basketball when he began to coach his daughter's high-school basketball team, an episode that was the subject of an essay by New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell.
On April 27, two days after the recordings became public, Ranadive tweeted: "We must have zero tolerance. Fully support [Commissioner] Silver." Two days later, after Silver announced his measures against Sterling, Ranadive wrote: "Great leadership today from Adam Silver. Very clear message about who we are as a league and where we're going." He also had this quote from Gandhi: "To slight a single human being is to slight those divine powers and thus harm not only that being but with him the whole world."
Ranadive then told the press that he would "lead the motion" for the other NBA owners to make Sterling sell. He described them as "amazing" and "colour-blind", and anticipated a unanimous vote.
To be fair, there is divided opinion about whether such a sale would amount to any kind of punishment for Sterling. After all, he bought the Clippers for $12m in 1981 and the team is now valued at $575m: a tidy profit, there for the taking. Some have argued that if he does sell, the proceeds should "go directly to groups committed to fighting bigotry, hate crimes, discrimination and bias".
Ranadive echoed some of that in a message for Sterling last week. "Apologise to Magic Johnson,” he said. “Apologise to the NBA, the fans, the black community, the world at large. And respect the wishes of the NBA – put the team up for sale. Take some of the profits and donate them to a good cause."
Last November, several of Ranadive's classmates at Bombay International School gathered to watch the Sacramento Kings' first game of the season, some even sporting Kings merchandise Ranadive had sent over. To add a little Indian spice to opening night, he arranged for some of these Mumbai friends to appear on screen at halftime in the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento. The Kings won that first game, but did poorly the rest of the way and missed the playoffs.
It's not yet clear how the racism row will play out: will Ranadive's leadership prevail and will Sterling have to sell the Clippers? Still, this much is probably true: never before has the NBA held quite as much interest for Bombay International alums as it does right now.
We welcome your comments at
letters@scroll.in.
Slapdowns for Sterling came swift and severe: from Johnson himself to President Barack Obama, the Clippers owner was harshly criticised. The commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, acted decisively: he fined Sterling $2.5 million, banned him from the league from life and urged the other owners – under the NBA constitution, the only ones who can take such action – to force Sterling to sell the team.
Leading the effort to pressure Sterling to sell is Mumbai native Vivek Ranadive, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur who last year bought the Sacramento Kings team. (He was earlier a part-owner of the Golden State Warriors). The founder and CEO of a computing company named TIBCO, Ranadive famously found his passion for basketball when he began to coach his daughter's high-school basketball team, an episode that was the subject of an essay by New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell.
On April 27, two days after the recordings became public, Ranadive tweeted: "We must have zero tolerance. Fully support [Commissioner] Silver." Two days later, after Silver announced his measures against Sterling, Ranadive wrote: "Great leadership today from Adam Silver. Very clear message about who we are as a league and where we're going." He also had this quote from Gandhi: "To slight a single human being is to slight those divine powers and thus harm not only that being but with him the whole world."
Ranadive then told the press that he would "lead the motion" for the other NBA owners to make Sterling sell. He described them as "amazing" and "colour-blind", and anticipated a unanimous vote.
To be fair, there is divided opinion about whether such a sale would amount to any kind of punishment for Sterling. After all, he bought the Clippers for $12m in 1981 and the team is now valued at $575m: a tidy profit, there for the taking. Some have argued that if he does sell, the proceeds should "go directly to groups committed to fighting bigotry, hate crimes, discrimination and bias".
Ranadive echoed some of that in a message for Sterling last week. "Apologise to Magic Johnson,” he said. “Apologise to the NBA, the fans, the black community, the world at large. And respect the wishes of the NBA – put the team up for sale. Take some of the profits and donate them to a good cause."
Last November, several of Ranadive's classmates at Bombay International School gathered to watch the Sacramento Kings' first game of the season, some even sporting Kings merchandise Ranadive had sent over. To add a little Indian spice to opening night, he arranged for some of these Mumbai friends to appear on screen at halftime in the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento. The Kings won that first game, but did poorly the rest of the way and missed the playoffs.
It's not yet clear how the racism row will play out: will Ranadive's leadership prevail and will Sterling have to sell the Clippers? Still, this much is probably true: never before has the NBA held quite as much interest for Bombay International alums as it does right now.
