Viva Los Clippers!

The Yard coalesced into an all-inclusive excursion via Cancun this past week. It was a gradual filtration into a tequila fueled Mexican ambience. Relaxed nonsense was the way and the light. Tony at the Yard was a pineapple wedge away from the next Negro Modelo most days. Our thoughts were far from the last blog that went to press. It was not from lack of keystrokes. The Laker 2014 mess was written about long before Phil got dissed. Another John Calipari coached team missing free throws on the way to losing in the finals was another stored diatribe. The relevance of thought expired before we executed the post. Then Donald Sterling was recorded with his whiny ass racist rant. The Yard’s most hated target since our first syllables of Yardiot was being flayed publicly. It was a beautiful day at the Yard. Animosity festers the breathy words of contempt. God Bless you TMZ! In this turd storm, no one is coming out well. Yard contempt for this Donald is well documented. He showed his true colors a very long time ago to anyone who followed the Yard or any other major media outlet. This is a reality show more compelling than the Kardashian’s and more disturbing than Duck Dynasty. There is an 80 year old lizard, a 20+ year old rat, the NAACP, and the estranged wife all distilled to us through the spigot of TMZ. WTF! Los Angeles has never been a Clipper town since the Lizard King moved them up on the coat tails of Jerry Buss. He followed Jerry’s every move like a creepy uncle with a Polaroid camera. Los Angeles never embraced Sterling and he really never seemed to care. McCourt was as reviled and the more he cared the more we hated him. Sterling figured it was best to yell from the sidelines not in the newspapers. He gave interviews as often as he gave depositions...never. Many of both were requested, never were they granted. Apparently, the 20 year old mistress with the $1.8 million home had the best access to his soul or whatever was there as a placeholder. It seems fortuitous that these coerced Sterling sentiments hit the internet with the news of his mistress’s pending lawsuit by Mrs. Sterling. Shelly Sterling launched a preemptive strike to retain her 50% of any community property Sterling gave to another woman outside of their estranged marriage. She never expected it to jeopardize their most valuable asset-The Clippers. She chased her $2 million from Donald’s mistress. The mistress blew the $1.2 billion palace up. As outrageous as Sterling’s recorded comments were, is that surprising? In 2005, he is the primary owner of a corporation that was fined by the US government $2.7 million for directing corporate property managers not to rent to minorities and young parents. This was not a guideline, it was in the policy manual. They were also charged $5 million in legal fees to the plaintiffs. Sterling’s company vigorously fought “these baseless allegations” and then settled without admitting guilt. Apparently $7.7 million absolves a lot of sins. The Los Angeles Chapter of the NAACP gave Sterling a Lifetime Achievement award in 2009 and another was slated for next month. It is unclear to us how the Donald would deserve any award let alone an award for his body of work in the advancement of colored people. If the NAACP wants to recognize a lifetime achiever, recognize Elgin Baylor. He toiled away for a lost decade with the Lakers beginning in Minneapolis and then being the first star in Los Angeles basketball history. Jerry West and Elgin fought the Celtics often trying to bring a title to Los Angeles. Elgin retired at the moment the Lakers went on a 33 game winning streak on the way to Jerry West’s only title in 1969. Jerry built Laker championship teams as an executive. Donald Sterling bought the Clippers for $13 million dollars. He made more money than any owner every year while making improvements like a landlord under rent control. Sterling figured he might try hiring a Laker Legend to spread some pixie dust across his moribund franchise. When Sterling rarely re-signed lottery picks, Baylor was left to loyally explain why insanity was best for the team. Baylor was one of the lowest paid executives in the NBA. Sterling let Baylor twist in the marginalized air of his private convictions. Sterling needed Baylor to enhance the public persona he advertised in the Los Angeles Times three times each week. In his 22 years of service, Elgin understood who and what Sterling was and is. He sued and alleged discriminatory practices and beliefs by Sterling. His case was dismissed. NBA Commissioner David Stern sat by and let the legal system its due process during each of Sterling’s discrimination lawsuits. He never questioned or faulted Sterling while the Federal government was finding his corporation guilty of egregious crimes against minority and low income renters. The NBA was silent when Elgin brought suit and claimed that Sterling was the man we all know so well now. David Stern rewarded Sterling by voiding the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers and handing him to the Clippers. This is not bitter Laker fan, this is NBA fan wondering what the beloved Stern was thinking. Sterling is a bad guy. He is despicable and this not a revelation. Stern enabled him to finally succeed as an owner in spite of his well-documented discriminatory corporate practices. We have heard the last of Donald Sterling, we think not. We do not expect a mea culpa with Oprah or Al Sharpton on network television. The Yard legal team surmised he will pursue legal action against the NBA if he is forced to sell the team. He is not going to go quietly into the night and disappear. Sterling has acquired many assets in his fortune. He has never sold any of them. He is not going to sell the Clippers without a fight. He will never again be on the sidelines at a Clipper game in his Jabba the Hut starter suit but these are early stages of this LA tragedy. The Yard has adopted the Clippers as our new favorite team. We hate Sterling and all he stands for but this is proud solid team with a world class coach. Doc Rivers has to be in the toughest position of his career. He is being asked to coach important games while being asked questions no coach should have to answer ever. Rivers is a distinguished coach, in a major market, doing an outstanding job for man who does not want to be associated with his kind. The Yard will root the Clippers on as far as they go. We will not attend a single game but we were not going to do that anyways. We hope they rally behind our common enemy, their owner, in a fight to the finish. It is a good team and we will cheer from our sofa. Clipper season ticket holder, you are all in already. Donald has your money, go to game and root for that team. Clipper Fan, we are with you! The Donald does not need any more of your dough but this team deserves your support. Would there be no better moment in the history of sports than to have a championship team spraying champagne, holding aloft the trophy while giving this dickhead the one gun salute?