Why Is The NBA Being Congratulated For Bringing Down Donald Sterling? They Hid His Racism For Years!

The billionaire behind a racist rant over Instagram pictures his girlfriend posted, has been kicked out of the NBA for life. He is no longer allowed to attend games, contact players, or, if the Commissioner gets his way, own a team. I'm glad Donald Sterling was outed for the whole world to see what really frightening opinions he has, but let's not kid ourselves, the NBA is no knight in shining armor to minorities in this case. The League has been giving this guy cover for years, and the only reason they banned him for life was because their own lack of action was finally brought to light.

Let's leave aside the fact that Sterling was making those ignorant statements in private. The only lesson learned there for future racists is not to be a racist in front of your too-young mistress who is working as your "archivist", and whose job it is to record your words for posterity. Sterling is not only a racist, he's a world class egomaniac for thinking anyone would give a damn about what he had to say.

Sterling has a well-documented history of lawsuits against him for housing discrimination. When he was sued for not allowing minorities to rent from him, he would simply settle the suits, and even though the NBA knew what was going on, they did nothing about his racist practices, and more importantly, never called Sterling out publically for his stupidity. The shock and reprisals from the NBA after the recordings surfaced on TMZ is the same thing that happens when you walk into your kids playroom and find one kid writing on the walls while the other kids in the room are playing. "Oh, Mom, we knew little Joey was doing that, but we didn't want to be tattletales for telling you!" The NBA knew all along what a piece of trash Sterling is, but he is a billionaire owner of a team, and that gave him carte blanche to do whatever he wanted until the world found out about his racism. He spoke in private - his lawsuits were public. The NBA had the perfect chance to get rid of this guy, but they did nothing. NBA players should be asking themselves why it took the League so long to speak up.

I'm glad that the NBA finally addressed Sterling's ignorance, but let's not break out the brass band and throw them a parade. They let this guy hide in plain sight for years. The person who should get the credit for letting the world know about this moron is a pissed off girlfriend, not the NBA.