Sterling, owners no longer protected by privilege

For much of his 33 years in the NBA, Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, in warped word and deed, symbolized what was once known as the "billion dollar boys club."

They were a group of well-heeled basketball owners who saw their wealth and front-row visibility as conferring entitlement and untouchability in the league and society.

Sterling, for example, was arrogant enough to move his then-San Diego Clippers to Los Angeles without league approval and callous enough to operate with a blatant "plantation mentality."

But in his unfrocking this week by commissioner Adam Silver just days after release of a tape of racist rants, Sterling has become a symbol of another kind, the no-longer-teflon owner.

He is Exhibit "A" that owners, too, now have limits to their impunity. The concept of accountability for more than wins, losses and annual league dues is being reintroduced to folks used to being shielded by privilege.

When Sterling’s 29 fellow owners strip him of his franchise, it will be the biggest sign that owners are no longer untouchable in their executive suites, however big their bankrolls or successful their teams.

Heretofore owners in the major pro sports have been loath to severely come down on their own for anything other than legal issues. Part of it undoubtedly being that none of them want to be in a position to be judged by fellow owners. "The slippery slope," as Dallas owner Mark Cuban has termed it, which is why you can count the number of "lifetime" suspensions on one hand in the modern era and have fingers left over.

William D. Cox was banned for life and forced to sell the Philadelphia Phillies in 1943 after being warned against gambling and then being caught betting on baseball games.

Marge Schott, then owner of the Cincinnati Reds, was suspended for life in 1996 for an unremitting series of racist comments, but only when she persisted following a one-year suspension in 1993.

Schott, however, was never one of the boys. George Steinbrenner of the Yankees was. He was banned for life in 1990 for assigning a gambler to follow and dig up dirt on Dave Winfield but reinstated three years later.

In the NBA, it took a flouting of the league’s salary cap to get Minnesota’s Glen Taylor suspended for a year, fined and stripped of draft picks in 2000.

Since the NBA put teeth in its constitution in 2005, giving the commissioner wider powers, the league has done little more than nibble Cuban’s wallet for brash comments or suspend Jerry Buss, then owner of the Lakers, two games for a 2007 drunk-driving conviction.

Sterling’s vile, racist and misogynist blatherings barely made the NBA’s radar, or, if they did, went unchallenged for decades. Until last week, that is. Then as players united in disgust, fans showed contempt and sponsors began to flee, it became all about business for the NBA.

Imagine what an unsettling revelation that must be in skyboxes and front row seats everywhere.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.