NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was so disturbed by a recent recording of Donald Sterling telling his girlfriend not to bring her black friends to L.A. Clipper games that he placed a lifetime ban on Mr. Sterling and put in motion a plan to force him to sell his basketball team.
Players were so put out by Mr. Sterling's comments that they wore their warm-up jerseys inside-out in order to cover up the team's logo. They wore black socks as part of their protest.
Comments and pundits were beside themselves that a rich white dude would be saying something so outrageous in the 21st century. The local chapter of the NAACP decided not to award Mr. Sterling his second Lifetime Achievement Award after the recording surfaced.
But let's keep in mind that Mr. Sterling's comments were made in a private telephone conversation that was taped by the person at the other end of the phone. Let's keep in mind that he is being castigated for holding personal beliefs that a great majority of us find offensive. He committed no crime. But for the recording no one would ever have known Mr. Sterling's personal biases.
Or maybe they would have if they had been paying attention.
Back in 2009 Mr. Sterling entered into a $2.725 million agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to settle claims that Mr. Sterling discriminated against minorities who lived in apartment buildings he owned. Mr. Sterling would be the first one to say that the agreement was not an admission of guilt but an agreement to settle a dispute in a way that both sides could live with.
Of course $2.725 million is an awful lot of money to plop down to walk away from a nasty lawsuit if there wasn't some ring of truth to the allegations.
The NBA was well aware of the settlement when it happened. Then-commissioner David Stern didn't even raise a finger. And, once Mr. Sterling showed that he was willing to spend some money to attract better players to the city's second basketball team, free agents signed up without regard to the outcome of the housing discrimination litigation.
The NAACP didn't seem to care. Mr. Sterling wrote some big checks and that was enough to give him a plaque or two.
But the settlement of the housing discrimination lawsuit wasn't nearly as sexy as a recording in which Mr. Sterling voiced his bias against black folk. It's much easier to write a headline about what he said than about the settlement of a lawsuit.
For all the eye-rubbing and hand-wringing that accompanied the release of the recording, few people acknowledged that Mr. Sterling's prejudices were far from unknown. The players who signed to play for the Clippers didn't have to look hard to find out their new boss was a bigot. League officials conveniently forgot about the 2009 settlement when it suited their purposes. Why didn't the league try to force Mr. Sterling out years ago?
What does it say to our society that making racist and bigoted comments is crossing some unspoken line while carrying out acts of actual discrimination isn't give a second thought? Is it because those in positions of power and influence would rather move our focus from discriminatory business practices to the rantings of one man? Is it because if we actually acknowledge the discriminatory conduct we would realize that discrimination and racism are integral parts of most business plans?
Just turn whites workers and black workers against each other and the next thing you know there's nobody putting pressure on you to pay a living wage and there's no one to fight against closing a plant and moving production overseas.
Mr. Sterling became expendable when he was turned into the poster boy for racism. Suddenly everyone else could point and wag their fingers and avoid any scrutiny into their own personal and business practices.
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Friday, April 11, 2014
Some more burnt ends
Some things you just can't make up. You might try to put an ironic twist on something but it never comes together in a coherent way. Or else the premise is just so far out there that no one's buying it.
But then there are times that irony and premise intersect.
And that's what happened when three security guards at the Harris County Criminal (In)justice Center were arrested. It's bad enough that folks accused of committing a crime are forced to stand in ridiculously long lines because the architect of the building had his head up his ass and because the judges don't seem to understand that forcing defendants to come back to court for meaningless settings every three to four weeks feeds the problem. Now it turns out that contract security guards were stealing from them.
One security guard made off with an iPad while another pocketed a flat iron (of all the things one could steal she chose that?). These items either belonged to defendants or to their family members or friends. What could be lower than that?
A third security guard was charged with tampering with a government document when she altered a log that is filled out whenever someone places money in the security scanners. Of course the question of why someone would carry $1,000 into a criminal courthouse is a valid inquiry.
Now the three of them will enjoy the experience of trying to get into the criminal courthouse in time to answer the docket.
Over at the University of Houston there is a new man in charge of the basketball team. Former OU and Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson was hired to replace (retread) James Dickey earlier this month. This is, of course, the same Kelvin Sampson that left both the OU and Indiana programs in turmoil when he left thanks to his attempts to skirt NCAA recruiting rules. I'm sure nothing like that could ever happen again.
But that's not the story.
You see, coaches are free to walk away from jobs and walk into new jobs without penalty. Both coaches and schools routinely ignore those pesky little contacts everyone signed when they were hired whenever it suits their interests. When a coach sees a better opportunity it's easy for him to pack his bags, turn his back on the players he recruited and head for greener pastures. When a school is fed up with losing there is nothing to prevent them from cutting the coach loose for the next flavor-of-the-month. A little money exchanges hands according to the buy-out provisions and everyone is happy.
But the players aren't so lucky. When they signed their commitment letters they were handed a one-year scholarship that could be renewed year-to-year by the school. It's the NCAA's way of making certain that college athletes "know their place" in the universe.
Danual House and TaShawn Thomas wanted to transfer away from UH after the school hired Mr. Sampson as its new basketball coach. But the school wouldn't allow them to do so. Without providing any reason, the University denied both transfer requests. Now Mr. House and Mr. Thomas must appeal the decision if they want to go elsewhere to play and go to school. And, even if they win their appeal, UH can still block them from transferring to certain schools.
The decision by UH is but the latest example of how life on the plantation is for college athletes. Neither of these players is paid by the school. In exchange for playing basketball they both received the promise of a free education. But, while the university can cut them loose at any time for any reason, the players don't have the right to leave the university and transfer elsewhere when they decide that the school is no longer such a great fit.
There is no excuse for the actions of the UH athletic department. The decision to deny the transfers was made just to show the players whose in charge on Cullen Boulevard. Everyone who had a hand in that decision should be ashamed of themselves.
For those who were outraged by the NLRB decision that student-athletes at Northwestern were university employees, this is an example of why such protections are needed.
But then there are times that irony and premise intersect.
And that's what happened when three security guards at the Harris County Criminal (In)justice Center were arrested. It's bad enough that folks accused of committing a crime are forced to stand in ridiculously long lines because the architect of the building had his head up his ass and because the judges don't seem to understand that forcing defendants to come back to court for meaningless settings every three to four weeks feeds the problem. Now it turns out that contract security guards were stealing from them.
One security guard made off with an iPad while another pocketed a flat iron (of all the things one could steal she chose that?). These items either belonged to defendants or to their family members or friends. What could be lower than that?
A third security guard was charged with tampering with a government document when she altered a log that is filled out whenever someone places money in the security scanners. Of course the question of why someone would carry $1,000 into a criminal courthouse is a valid inquiry.
Now the three of them will enjoy the experience of trying to get into the criminal courthouse in time to answer the docket.
Over at the University of Houston there is a new man in charge of the basketball team. Former OU and Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson was hired to replace (retread) James Dickey earlier this month. This is, of course, the same Kelvin Sampson that left both the OU and Indiana programs in turmoil when he left thanks to his attempts to skirt NCAA recruiting rules. I'm sure nothing like that could ever happen again.
But that's not the story.
You see, coaches are free to walk away from jobs and walk into new jobs without penalty. Both coaches and schools routinely ignore those pesky little contacts everyone signed when they were hired whenever it suits their interests. When a coach sees a better opportunity it's easy for him to pack his bags, turn his back on the players he recruited and head for greener pastures. When a school is fed up with losing there is nothing to prevent them from cutting the coach loose for the next flavor-of-the-month. A little money exchanges hands according to the buy-out provisions and everyone is happy.
But the players aren't so lucky. When they signed their commitment letters they were handed a one-year scholarship that could be renewed year-to-year by the school. It's the NCAA's way of making certain that college athletes "know their place" in the universe.
Danual House and TaShawn Thomas wanted to transfer away from UH after the school hired Mr. Sampson as its new basketball coach. But the school wouldn't allow them to do so. Without providing any reason, the University denied both transfer requests. Now Mr. House and Mr. Thomas must appeal the decision if they want to go elsewhere to play and go to school. And, even if they win their appeal, UH can still block them from transferring to certain schools.
The decision by UH is but the latest example of how life on the plantation is for college athletes. Neither of these players is paid by the school. In exchange for playing basketball they both received the promise of a free education. But, while the university can cut them loose at any time for any reason, the players don't have the right to leave the university and transfer elsewhere when they decide that the school is no longer such a great fit.
There is no excuse for the actions of the UH athletic department. The decision to deny the transfers was made just to show the players whose in charge on Cullen Boulevard. Everyone who had a hand in that decision should be ashamed of themselves.
For those who were outraged by the NLRB decision that student-athletes at Northwestern were university employees, this is an example of why such protections are needed.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Who's really to blame for network fiasco?
So now Houston mayor Annise Parker has decided to get herself in the middle of the fray between the Astros and Rockets' regional sports networks and satellite and cable TV providers. According to Mayor Parker, the fact that the network is available to no more than 40% of Houston cable and satellite subscribers is "intolerable." So, to break the impasse she has invited representatives from the sports network, DirecTV, AT&T and Suddenlink to sit down and work it out.
In her pandering to the owners of the franchises, Mayor Parker seems to have forgotten that both the Astros and the Rockets had existing deals with one of Fox Sports' regional networks to televise their games. The Dynamo had no broadcast outlet for the majority of their games. The Fox network was available on all cable and satellite systems as part of a basic (or expanded basic - whatever the hell that means) subscription.
The ownership of the Astros and Rockets made the decision to go in with NBC Sports to create their own regional sports channel in hopes of making more money than they made with Fox. In order to bring in the revenue, the network has asked cable and satellite providers for a certain amount of money per subscriber. The providers say the asked for price is too expensive for them to make the channel available for basic packages.
Yes, the providers are trying to bid down the price so they can make more money carrying the channel. But the lion share of the blame must rest on the Astros and the Rockets for being greedy. The Astros have spent the last two seasons in the cellar and will likely sit on the basement sofa eating Cheetos come October. The Rockets are in the playoffs for the first time in I don't know how long (truth be told, I couldn't care less about basketball). I guess no one in the front offices realized that teams that aren't doing well on the field (or at the gate) don't have much leverage when it comes to negotiating television deals.
If Mayor Parker were really interested in the plight of Astros and Rockets fans she'd put the blame where it belongs - on the teams themselves. These teams had new stadiums built for them with the public picking up the tab (damn those poor folks who are scamming the government to get our tax dollars so they can sit at home all day and not work). With those kind of subsidies, these teams should be operated as a public trust.
Instead the owners of both teams have shown themselves to be greedy little monsters out to squeeze every dollar from the fans they can.
“The proud followers of our Houston teams – many of whom have paid for the venues where the Astros, Dynamo and Rockets compete – have been patient as your negotiations with Comcast SportsNet Houston have unfolded,” Parker wrote. “That said, as the Rockets push toward the NBA playoffs and the Astros and Dynamo seasons get underway, the situation is intolerable.”Most telling is her comment about who paid for the stadiums in which the teams play. When these multi-million dollar playpens were built, the public was told the bill would be paid by folks who came to town and stayed in hotels and rented cars. Well, that's not entirely correct. Local government officials agreed to finance the stadiums and placed an additional tax on hotel rooms and rental cars. That additional tax was supposed to cover the costs of the stadiums. But, should those tax revenues fall below the level necessary to pay off the bondholders, who do you think is responsible for coughing up the balance?
In her pandering to the owners of the franchises, Mayor Parker seems to have forgotten that both the Astros and the Rockets had existing deals with one of Fox Sports' regional networks to televise their games. The Dynamo had no broadcast outlet for the majority of their games. The Fox network was available on all cable and satellite systems as part of a basic (or expanded basic - whatever the hell that means) subscription.
The ownership of the Astros and Rockets made the decision to go in with NBC Sports to create their own regional sports channel in hopes of making more money than they made with Fox. In order to bring in the revenue, the network has asked cable and satellite providers for a certain amount of money per subscriber. The providers say the asked for price is too expensive for them to make the channel available for basic packages.
Yes, the providers are trying to bid down the price so they can make more money carrying the channel. But the lion share of the blame must rest on the Astros and the Rockets for being greedy. The Astros have spent the last two seasons in the cellar and will likely sit on the basement sofa eating Cheetos come October. The Rockets are in the playoffs for the first time in I don't know how long (truth be told, I couldn't care less about basketball). I guess no one in the front offices realized that teams that aren't doing well on the field (or at the gate) don't have much leverage when it comes to negotiating television deals.
If Mayor Parker were really interested in the plight of Astros and Rockets fans she'd put the blame where it belongs - on the teams themselves. These teams had new stadiums built for them with the public picking up the tab (damn those poor folks who are scamming the government to get our tax dollars so they can sit at home all day and not work). With those kind of subsidies, these teams should be operated as a public trust.
Instead the owners of both teams have shown themselves to be greedy little monsters out to squeeze every dollar from the fans they can.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
The power of teamwork
Under the hand of David Stern, the NBA has become a star-driven league. After years of living on the margins of the sporting public, the NBA exploded with the introduction of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird following their battle in the 1979 NCAA Championship Game.
The dramatic rise in ratings and television rights fees (and the appearance of some kid from North Carolina named Michael Jordan) made the owners of NBA franchises rich - very rich. And it also turned professional basketball from something resembling a team sport to a glorified one-on-one game with players chucking up shots from all over the court.
An NBA season is 82 mind-numbing games. And, at the end of that marathon stretch, 16 out of 30 teams "qualify" for the play-offs. That's fully 53% of the league. It makes you wonder just what the purpose of playing 82 games is if more than half the league goes on to the post-season tournament.
Up until 1969 major league teams played either 154 or 162 games after which only one team from each league advanced to the World Series. The purpose of the long season was to winnow out the pretenders and determine just who the best team in the league was. Of course the baseball postseason has been watered down over the years to the point that teams that can't even win their own division get to play some extra baseball.
Trying to schedule all those games is a hassle and some teams seem to get hit harder by the scheduling bug than others. Teams on road trips face the dreaded back-to-backs periodically over the course of the season. Last week the San Antonio Spurs - the textbook definition of a "team" - found themselves in the hot seat.
In 1996, Greg Popovich took over as coach of the Spurs. Over the past 16 years, Coach Popovich has created a squad that puts the needs of the team over the desires of the individual players. When David Robinson was reaching the end of his career he gladly accepted a supporting role as Tim Duncan became the new star. Now that Tim Duncan is reaching the end of his career, he has also accepted more of a supporting role. And the reason these Spurs haven't tried hanging on as long as they can is Greg Popovich.
Greg Popovich is the very antithesis of David Stern. While Stern wants style and flash and drama, Popovich wants stability and teamwork. It all came to a head last week when the Spurs were wrapping up a seven-game roadtrip. After playing five games in seven days, Popovich sent his stars back to San Antonio for some rest and relaxation and sent out his B team to play the defending league champions, the Miami Heat.
Why did he do it? To preserve his big guns for later in the season. With better than half the league making the playoffs there isn't much danger of San Antonio missing the show. The game against Miami didn't mean anything. Popovich didn't want his stars to risk injury in a meaningless game so he sent them home.
David Stern decided this just wouldn't do. How dare a coach rest his stars on a game on national television? How dare a coach make a decision with the long-run in mind? Mr. Stern decided he couldn't stand for such tactics and he fined the Spurs $250,000.
Or maybe he was just pissed that the San Antonio subs almost beat Lebron James and company - dropping the game 105-100. Just what does that tell you about the power of teamwork?
The dramatic rise in ratings and television rights fees (and the appearance of some kid from North Carolina named Michael Jordan) made the owners of NBA franchises rich - very rich. And it also turned professional basketball from something resembling a team sport to a glorified one-on-one game with players chucking up shots from all over the court.
An NBA season is 82 mind-numbing games. And, at the end of that marathon stretch, 16 out of 30 teams "qualify" for the play-offs. That's fully 53% of the league. It makes you wonder just what the purpose of playing 82 games is if more than half the league goes on to the post-season tournament.
Up until 1969 major league teams played either 154 or 162 games after which only one team from each league advanced to the World Series. The purpose of the long season was to winnow out the pretenders and determine just who the best team in the league was. Of course the baseball postseason has been watered down over the years to the point that teams that can't even win their own division get to play some extra baseball.
Trying to schedule all those games is a hassle and some teams seem to get hit harder by the scheduling bug than others. Teams on road trips face the dreaded back-to-backs periodically over the course of the season. Last week the San Antonio Spurs - the textbook definition of a "team" - found themselves in the hot seat.
In 1996, Greg Popovich took over as coach of the Spurs. Over the past 16 years, Coach Popovich has created a squad that puts the needs of the team over the desires of the individual players. When David Robinson was reaching the end of his career he gladly accepted a supporting role as Tim Duncan became the new star. Now that Tim Duncan is reaching the end of his career, he has also accepted more of a supporting role. And the reason these Spurs haven't tried hanging on as long as they can is Greg Popovich.
Greg Popovich is the very antithesis of David Stern. While Stern wants style and flash and drama, Popovich wants stability and teamwork. It all came to a head last week when the Spurs were wrapping up a seven-game roadtrip. After playing five games in seven days, Popovich sent his stars back to San Antonio for some rest and relaxation and sent out his B team to play the defending league champions, the Miami Heat.
Why did he do it? To preserve his big guns for later in the season. With better than half the league making the playoffs there isn't much danger of San Antonio missing the show. The game against Miami didn't mean anything. Popovich didn't want his stars to risk injury in a meaningless game so he sent them home.
David Stern decided this just wouldn't do. How dare a coach rest his stars on a game on national television? How dare a coach make a decision with the long-run in mind? Mr. Stern decided he couldn't stand for such tactics and he fined the Spurs $250,000.
Or maybe he was just pissed that the San Antonio subs almost beat Lebron James and company - dropping the game 105-100. Just what does that tell you about the power of teamwork?
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Dirty rotten scoundrels
If you want to see your tax dollars at work, you need to check out Michael McKnight's piece on SI.com about the point shaving scheme at the University of San Diego.
Now, before I go any further I must say that sports are entertainment. Yes, a sporting event is the ultimate reality show but, in the end, the game is meant to entertain. Fans have a multitude of entertainment options and sports must compete with restaurants, clubs, the movie theater or the myriad of other things you can spend your hard-earned dollars on.
To this day I don't understand why los federales are interested in alleged point shaving schemes in college sports. The only people who get hurt are the folks who end up betting on the wrong side. We're not talking about throwing games, we're talking about missing a shot here and there or turning the ball over to keep the game within the spread.
Let me repeat, the only folks getting "hurt" are bettors, bookies and the casinos.
As Mr. McKnight points out, the key figure in the alleged scheme was a bookie named Steve Goria. Mr. Goria became the apple in the eyes of los federales when he was stopped at the border with a whole lot of cash - and a map to the pot capital of Northern California. Operation Hookshot was soon born.
The star of the sting was a confidential informant who was looking at a 10-20 year stretch in federal prison for a variety of drug crimes. He was only too willing to help out.
Just to make things more interesting, the informant is represented by the same attorney, Nicholas DePento, who represented Mr. Goria when he was stopped at the border in 2008. That raises questions of whether or not Mr. DePento violated his duty to his former client when he arranged for his current client to become the government's tool.
But the question is whether or not the FBI manufactured this alleged scheme. Did their informant drive the action or was he merely the means of discovering what was going on down by the ocean? Did the FBI stumble onto the scheme when they nabbed Mr. Goria at the border or did they manufacture it?
The evidence compiled by SI.com doesn't seem to indicate that, with the possible exception of one game in 2010, that there was any unusual betting patterns on USD games while the scheme was supposedly going on. And trust me, USD is such a small school that any suspicious bets would be detected quite easily.
What was the point in the investigation? Who benefits from it? And does it make anyone feel better knowing that the key government witness is a convicted felon who is facing a decade or more in prison?
And does it make sense for the government to go around creating criminal acts when there is more than enough real crime going on? If they wanted to go after some folks, why not take a look at the shenanigans in the mortgage-lending industry that helped bring down the economy?
The importance in the story, however, is in laying bare the ways in which our government schemes to entrap people in criminal enterprises. When you lie down with the pigs, you're bound to get dirty.
Now, before I go any further I must say that sports are entertainment. Yes, a sporting event is the ultimate reality show but, in the end, the game is meant to entertain. Fans have a multitude of entertainment options and sports must compete with restaurants, clubs, the movie theater or the myriad of other things you can spend your hard-earned dollars on.
To this day I don't understand why los federales are interested in alleged point shaving schemes in college sports. The only people who get hurt are the folks who end up betting on the wrong side. We're not talking about throwing games, we're talking about missing a shot here and there or turning the ball over to keep the game within the spread.
Let me repeat, the only folks getting "hurt" are bettors, bookies and the casinos.
As Mr. McKnight points out, the key figure in the alleged scheme was a bookie named Steve Goria. Mr. Goria became the apple in the eyes of los federales when he was stopped at the border with a whole lot of cash - and a map to the pot capital of Northern California. Operation Hookshot was soon born.
The star of the sting was a confidential informant who was looking at a 10-20 year stretch in federal prison for a variety of drug crimes. He was only too willing to help out.
Just to make things more interesting, the informant is represented by the same attorney, Nicholas DePento, who represented Mr. Goria when he was stopped at the border in 2008. That raises questions of whether or not Mr. DePento violated his duty to his former client when he arranged for his current client to become the government's tool.
But the question is whether or not the FBI manufactured this alleged scheme. Did their informant drive the action or was he merely the means of discovering what was going on down by the ocean? Did the FBI stumble onto the scheme when they nabbed Mr. Goria at the border or did they manufacture it?
The evidence compiled by SI.com doesn't seem to indicate that, with the possible exception of one game in 2010, that there was any unusual betting patterns on USD games while the scheme was supposedly going on. And trust me, USD is such a small school that any suspicious bets would be detected quite easily.
What was the point in the investigation? Who benefits from it? And does it make anyone feel better knowing that the key government witness is a convicted felon who is facing a decade or more in prison?
And does it make sense for the government to go around creating criminal acts when there is more than enough real crime going on? If they wanted to go after some folks, why not take a look at the shenanigans in the mortgage-lending industry that helped bring down the economy?
The importance in the story, however, is in laying bare the ways in which our government schemes to entrap people in criminal enterprises. When you lie down with the pigs, you're bound to get dirty.
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