That didn't take long. We hear that Donald Sterling plans to challenge the bum rush he's receiving from the NBA, but that's not stopping his wife and others now empowered to make decisions on the team's behalf from moving forward with a reportedly $2 billion agreement to sell to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Oh, and just as the NBA completed an "investigation" of Sterling's disqualifying racism in two days, some experts have also acted with astonishing alacrity in determining that Sterling is "mentally unfit" to stop the sale of his own team. Apparently when a loose-tongued racist is embarrassing the league and giving a platform to professional activists, mental health diagnoses can move with exceptional speed. Very impressive.
I suppose Sterling can take solace in the fact that Ballmer's offer represents a pretty nice return on his original investment of $12 million. And the Clippers and their fans will surely express a lot of excitement over a new owner whose reputation, at least, suggests he'll be just what they need:
The Clippers deal would be the most paid by far for an NBA team, after the $550 million paid for the Milwaukee Bucks earlier this year.
Ballmer, 58, was CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to '14, and is worth $20.3 billion, according to Forbes.
He would become the richest majority owner in major U.S. sports, passing his former boss, Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen (who is worth $16 billion, according to Forbes). Ballmer was the only investor who did not immediately seek out other partners when preparing a bid.
On Wednesday, Seahawks (and former USC Trojans) coach Pete Carroll took to Twitter to back Ballmer.
The Clippers would be so fortunate to get Steve Ballmer as owner. He's a great competitive force & would bring big energy to the LAC fanbase
Of course, excitement over a new owner will last as long as the win-loss record looks good and excursions deep into the playoffs continue, and even then the fans will get restless at some point unless the Clippers win a title or two.
Ballmer comes across as a compelling figure because he led Microsoft, and you can't argue with success. Then again, the man who was at the helm during the release of Windows 8 doesn't necessarily know how to draft the right point guard or sign the right free agent, so we'll see. For now, Clippers fans and the NBA seem thrilled to be getting a guy who doesn't lead a comically absurd personal life and make headlines for weird statements about minorities.
Back to the determination that Sterling is "mentally unfit," we don't yet have any details on who made such a determination or what it was based on. Did he seriously submit himself to some sort of mental examination? Or did some "expert" brought into the legal process make that declaration based solely on Sterling's statements on that secret recording? And if that's the case, is this what we've come to? Someone catches you making statements deemed beyond the pale by the conventional thinking of the day, and that's enough to have some "expert" declare you "mentally unfit" such that you can't even make decisions about the operation of your own business?
A lot of people have pointed out that the NBA is not the government, but rather a private association that can make its own rules, and they've used this observation to question whether Sterling's legal rights are really being violated at all. I don't know if they are or not, in a strict legal sense. Maybe the NBA is acting in complete accordance with its bylaws and Mr. Sterling, having agreed to abide by these bylaws, has no legal leg to stand on.
But I don't really care about that. My concern is that the NBA is doing all this - a lifetime ban after a two-day "investigation" prompted by a secretly recorded conversation; a sudden announcement of a mental diagnosis - simply because the politically correct atmosphere of the day demands it. It's dangerous that this is where the culture is going, regardless of whether the government is behind it or not.
