Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban joined others in the league on Monday in condemning Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s alleged racist comments but wouldn’t go as far as calling for Sterling’s ouster.
“What Donald said was wrong,” Cuban said Monday before the Mavericks’ game against the San Antonio Spurs, as quoted by the Dallas Morning News. “It was abhorrent. There’s no place for racism in the NBA, any business I’m associated with, and I don’t want to be associated with people who have that position.”
“But at the same time, that’s a decision I make,” he added. “I think you’ve got to be very, very careful when you start making blanket statements about what people say and think, as opposed to what they do. It’s a very, very slippery slope.”
Cuban explained that he didn’t like the idea of someone being forced out of the league over controversial privately-held beliefs, according to ESPN. The Texas billionaire stressed that the league would be better off without Sterling, though, and said the Clippers owner should be slapped with maximum sanctions.
“In this country, people are allowed to be morons,” he said, as quoted by ESPN.
The NBA is set to announce the results of its investigation into Sterling’s comments on Tuesday.
This post has been updated.
Mark Cuban was well aware of Sterling’s history, yet he considered him a friend. Spoken like a true ONE PERCENT.
As an NBA owner, Mr Cuban, you ARE associated with Sterling. The league has an obligation to protect its brand. As for what Mr Sterling does as opposed to what he thinks or says, his payment of approx $3 million to settle a housing discrimination lawsuit speak rather loudly, despite his non-admission of wrongdoing.
“People are allowed to be morons.” Mark Cuban should know. Fined 13 times by the NBA for his loose mouth (to the tune of $1.7M), I’m sure he has sympathy for Sterling.
There’s a difference between your garden-variety moron (i.e. Mark Cuban) and a venal, poisonous freak who should be seen as a pariah by everyone, 1 percent or not (i.e. Donald Sterling).
So what’s up TPM? You found a racist 1%er and decided to let the GOP off the hook for supporting armed insurrection against the government?
This is a story, no doubt, but maybe one or two stories. Total. Not ten a day. And certainly not at the exclusion of everything else. Right now there are 15 stories on the front page (not counting EdBlog or Livewire), of which 7 are this story. There is one about Kerry’s Isreal comments, one about ObamaCare, and one about Bundy. Does that not seem to be strange priorities?