Why Are People Shocked that Donald Sterling Is an Asshole?

Right on cue, last night, TMZ released the Donald Sterling tape half a day after I enumerated my reasons for not being able to root for his team. And, judging by the reaction on Twitter and Facebook, people are shocked. Why?

Everything Sterling said in that phone conversation with his girlfriend is nothing shocking to anyone who has read any of the coverage surrounding the Donald. He doesn’t like Mexicans, blacks, Salvadoreans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, etc. He’s a complete misogynist.

All of this has been public knowledge through court records, depositions and transcripts. And despite it all the NBA has chosen to look the other way for decades. So forgive me if I’m not quite so optimistic anything will be done in this case.

Keith Olbermann floated the idea on Twitter that the Clippers should refuse to play if the Donald remains the owner. That is a fine thought on the surface. But most of these guys chose to take his money, to help his team be successful which in turn lines the Donald’s pockets with the precious money.

Today Charles Barkley on TNT said that we have to separate the team from the owner, that we should support Chris Paul, Doc Rivers, Blake Griffin and the boys but denounce the Donald. The problem is you can’t separate them. Their success is the Donald’s success. That’s the way economics works. And that’s why I can’t root for the Clippers despite finding them to be very entertaining to watch.

Vinny Bonsignore of the Daily News reported that the Clippers had a team meeting last night to discuss the news. After practice today in Oakland, one reporter remarked that he had never seen Doc Rivers as mad as he was today.

Perhaps it’s a good thing it took a recorded phone call to be leaked by TMZ for all of this uproar to come to a boil. I guess it has the impact that mere words do not.

I don’t know if the NBA has a “best interest of the game” clause like MLB does. If they do, commissioner Adam Silver needs to yank the Clippers away from the Donald yesterday.

The best and most articulate response to this came from Mr. Calvin Broadus on Instagram.

Edit: I completely forgot to put this in here. But Sterling, despite all of his philandering, is still married to his wife, Rochelle, of almost 57 years. She, by the way, is suing this girlfriend V. Stiviano. I. Don’t. Know.