On Donald Sterling, Jewish bigots, free speech, privacy and consequences

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Not long after my Bar Mitzvah, I stayed at the home of an orthodox rabbi on a Friday night to see how ultra-religious Jews celebrated the Sabbath. I bunked in the same bedroom as the rabbi's son, who was about my age, and we talked for a little while to get to know each other. About a half-hour into the conversation, he was discussing the neighborhood his school was in ... and he used the n-word twice. I asked something like, "Did you have problems with them?" His response: "Nah, I just don't like (n-words)."

That pretty much ended our conversation. I wasn't confident enough in myself back then to admonish him on the spot or to tell his parents what he said, but I wasn't going to get swept up into this world. As the only Jewish kid in my grade school, I had heard plenty of taunts; as a guy who had befriended the few black kids in my neighborhood, I knew that racism existed and was ugly. I tried to go to sleep but tossed and turned until finally drifting off some time later.

The episode did affect my Jewishness. As a newly minted teenager, I already was questioning my faith (among other things). And now here came this son of a rabbi, and he was filled with hate. He didn't even have a reason for it. I remember thinking, "This is somebody who professes to be Jewish, somebody who claims to believe in a benevolent God?"

Which brings us to Donald Sterling. His real name is Donald Tokowitz. And, as we all know by now, he is a Racist with a capital R.

I'm always amazed when a person whose lineage traces back to a long-persecuted people can be so hateful and bigoted toward another long-persecuted people. You'd think Jews would have empathy for blacks and other racial, ethnic and religious minorities. When the Jewish person instead is filled with bile, it is, in my mind, a little tragedy. It certainly doesn't speak well for how God supposedly oversees us all.

I won't go into Sterling's transgressions because we've all heard them by now. His punishment? He eventually will be forced to sell the L.A. Clippers, reaping a mere $1 billion or so on his original $12 million investment.

See? Jews are good with money!

Some are trying to make this a free-speech issue. It isn't. Sterling is free to say whatever he wants. And the private organization to which he belongs -- the NBA Board of Governors -- is free to punish him. If you work for a private company and you are overhead saying the exact same things Sterling said, hopefully your company will ban you for life, too.

Because Sterling was recorded by an angry girlfriend, who might have goaded him into showing his hateful self, some are trying to make this a privacy issue. It isn't. Just because those comments came out in such circumstances, it doesn't mean Sterling's peers should have ignored them. He DID say them. He obviously believes every word he said. If you send what you think is a private email to a co-worker belittling your boss, your boss has every right to fire you. You will not be protected by any kind of right to privacy.

Were this a court of law, he couldn't be convicted. But it isn't a court of law. He doesn't have the protections of speech and privacy. He signed a league constitution binding him to rules of order and he violated those rules of order.

Some have equated this to hateful comments that black NBA players have made against gay people or putdowns of white players. In the future, will the NBA also ban players for life for insensitive or bigoted remarks? Well, no.

For one thing, players are protected by a union. The NBA couldn't even make stick a year-long suspension of Latrell Sprewell, who famously choked his coach in front of witnesses. A player might get a slap on the wrist for racist comments, but there is no way he will be banned for life.

But that's a double-standard, isn't it? Perhaps, but the two situations are far more dissimilar than they are similar. A player has little power. He doesn't hire and fire coaches, he doesn't decide if a department manager should be promoted or demoted, he doesn't establish a pay scale for secretaries and janitors. His bigotry is distasteful, but he doesn't have the power to use it for evil.

Long before this incident, Sterling left a trail of discrimination lawsuits, allegations of mistreatment and the like. His NBA peers have long wanted to rid themselves of him. This latest incident gives them an "in" to do it -- kind of like Al Capone finally getting nabbed for tax evasion.

Well, how about those who worry that this is a slippery slope? Will every owner who is caught on tape saying something disparaging that he thought was private be forced to sell a franchise he worked so hard to build?

Certainly, precedent now has been set. But let's not get overly dramatic here. Maybe people actually will start thinking before they talk. Now there's a crazy notion. We can't answer the broader question until we see how it plays out.

Finally, given Sterling's history, one person who comes out looking particularly bad is recently retired NBA commish David Stern. While his replacement, Adam Silver, has come out of this looking golden for the swift, strong stance he has taken, Stern has the smell of an enabler who turned a blind eye toward Sterling's longstanding racist acts.

Stern certainly wasn't afraid to ruffle feathers. He fined Mark Cuban so much and so often for ripping referees over the years that the Mavericks' owner might as well have set up direct deposit from his bank account to the NBA's coffers.

Here's hoping Stern wasn't giving Sterling a pass because they share the same religion.

Being Jewish never has been easy. Beyond the overt and covert bigotry that has persisted for thousands of years, entire nations and religions want nothing more than to eliminate all Jews from the face of the earth.

So it's especially sad and disheartening when Jews are guilty of narrow-mindedness, intolerance and hate.
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Of 1-and-dones ... and softball Win No. 1

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Those who hate the rule that allows -- even encourages -- young basketball hotshots to go to college for one-plus semester and then turn pro shouldn't hate the kids.

Nor should they be hating on Kentucky, coach John Calipari or NBA commissioner David Stern.

You go to college to better your lot in life. It's hard to argue that Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and the other Kentucky starters did anything but that when they decided to go pro. They teamed to win the Wildcats the NCAA title, so it's not as if they owe Kentucky anything else. Even if they hadn't won a title, they played hard and represented the school well for the short time they were there (at least as far as we know). That's all any college athlete owes his or her school.

So the kids are all right.

Calipari? He just recruits the best players in the country and abides by the rules as they stand (as the rules pertain to 1-and-dones, anyway). What? You don't think he'd rather have Davis & Co. for another year or three? He didn't write the rule. Get off his case.

Stern has publicly stated that he'd like the rule revised so athletes would have to stay in school for at least two years before declaring for the draft. But league owners have to collectively bargain that stuff with the players' union, so it's not as if Stern can make some kind of unilateral ruling.

I don't fault the union, either. Coming to an agreement that keeps kids from jumping right from preps to the pros was a major concession a few years ago. Why should they give in more unless the owners make a major concession? The sooner a player enters the league and gets through his first relatively modest contract, the sooner that player is going to get the really big bucks, thereby inflating salaries for everybody. The union is in no hurry to give that up.

So who's to "blame"? There is no blame. This simply going to be the way it is for the foreseeable future. Deal with it.

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And speaking of Ready for Prime Time Players, our geriatric-ish softball team used a spectacular last-inning comeback to score our first win of the season.

Trailing big early, we eventually rallied to tie it at 17-17. Then we fell behind 19-17 before scoring 9 in the top of the last to go up 26-19. That's the way it ended when our defense put together our only 1-2-3 inning of the game. Clutch! Even more impressive, we had to play without our coach, who arguably is our best player, and two other guys. Don't take this personally, Ed, but you must be overrated!!

Yours truly wasn't exactly the MVP -- a sac fly, a hit, a walk, line-drive out and an embarrassing called third strike (believe me, the ball was 6 inches inside, but I still should have protected the plate). I made a couple of decent plays at second base, scored a couple runs and led the charge to grab a beer after the game. Hey, I'm all about camaraderie.

So now we're 1-2 and gaining a reputation as Komeback Kids (if 50-, 60- and 70-somethings can be called kids). Our previous game, we trailed 9-0, roared back to take a 10-9 lead and then lost in the bottom of the last. This time, we made the comeback stick. Very satisfying.

Look at me, all jacked up about a softball game. Ah, it's grand to be a kid again.

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David $tern = Hypocrite

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Elimination of teams. Thirty-three percent salary reductions for players. Hard salary cap.

Little David Stern is making big threats as he glooms and dooms his way toward the next round of negotiations between the NBA's billionaire owners and millionaire players.

He says owners are losing money hand over fist, so he's merely mentioning possible ways for those poor lugs to make ends meet in 2011 and beyond.

By the by, here's one money-saving idea he didn't mention:

The highest-paid commissioner in sports (estimated as much as $20 million per year) taking a sizable salary cut and eliminating about half of his bloated administration.

Say what you want about NBA players (and all athletes) being overpaid. At least they can do things very few humans can.

What can David Stern do that most Average Joes can't ... besides convince a bunch of billionaires to pay him more money in two weeks than most Average Joes will see in their lifetimes?
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