By: Jeff Arnold

For years Los Angeles Clippers fans have known that their team owner, Donald Sterling, was not right fro the NBA. Players knew, team personnel knew, season ticket holders knew, even casual fans knew that Sterling’s views on race and equality were stuck in the past. The problem was, there was nothing to be done. As the owner there was no true precedent for any repercussions from the league when Sterling inevitably did get in trouble for acting on his twisted views of race relations. In 2003 minorities accused Sterling of housing discrimination in a federal court case that ended in a large settlement and an order from the judge for Sterling to pay nearly $5 dollars in attorney fees for the plaintiffs. In 2006  another federal housing discrimination lawsuit stemming from his ownership of an apartment complex yielded a $3 million settlement. In 2009 Elgin Baylor, the team’s General Manager and executive vice president from 1986-2008, accused Sterling of racial discrimination and alleged that Sterling told him that he “wanted the Clippers team to be composed of ‘Poor Black boys from the South’ and a White head coach.” Although this lawsuit was eventually dropped, the fact that then NBA commissioner, David Stern, did not try to  take action of any kind against Sterling from any of the three incidents was a troubling sign to say the least.

One of the reason why Stern could get away with not punishing Sterling was that frankly, the Clippers were terrible.  They were mismanaged, cheap, and were the clearly inferior franchise to the team that shares the Staples Center with them: the Lakers. This all changed though with the drafting and emergence of Blake Griffin in 2009, and DeAndre Jordan to a certain extent, and the acquisition of Chris Paul from the New Orleans in 2011. The Paul trade suddenly turned a slowly improving team into a solid playoff team led by one of the league’s most likable stars. This along with the deterioration of Kobe Bryant and the Lakers slowly thrust Sterling and the Clippers in the spotlight.

Now, the Clippers are in the spotlight (partially) for the wrong reason and the league and the team are at a crucial point in their history. Sterling’s recent comments expressing hate for African-Americans, Jews, and other minorities and the subsequent lifetime ban from Commissioner Adam Silver have put the Clippers and the NBA in an unfortunate position. Yes they have now seemingly ousted Donald; however, his wife, Shelly, is still looking to be the team’s owner and is sying that the league’s efforts to get her out of the ownership group are “sexist.” Obviously this has raised the issue of sexism in sports, but it should be noted that players are looking for the Sterling family to be completely removed from the league. If they do let Shelley Sterling stay on as a partial owner, Silver and the rest of the team owners will be making a big mistake.

Silver already passed his first test with flying colors. Never has such an easy decision based on clear and common morals been applauded as much as his to ban Sterling for life. This new issue, the one of Shelly is where Silver is put at a crossroads. Stern already made the mistake of letting Donald stay on and looking past his character flaws, now Silver needs to correct that in a way by making sure that no one from that family is ever associated with the NBA again. It would make the league look weak and like it is still okay with pushing racial prejudice under the rug for the sake of an individual. If you look at it from a different angle, that is one of the only likable characteristics about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Despite being arrogant, self-righteous, and an overall aggravating person to watch perform at his job, his record of handling racial issues (minus the ongoing problem with the Washington Redskins) is one that surpassed Stern by leaps and bounds. Now it is time for Silver to take that lead and do what everyone agrees is right; get the Sterlings out of the league.

The next part of the fallout from this incident will be with the Clippers themselves. After getting ousted by the Oklahoma City Thunder things should be looking up. Blake Griffin is improving as a perimeter player, DeAndre Jordan is getting meaningful fourth quarter minutes, and Chris Paul is in his prime. On top of that, as much as you could say that this early exit is frustrating, a young team sometimes needs a tough loss to motivate them for next season. Despite all of these positives, the Clippers future is looking down.

First things first, the Clippers should have won their series with the Thunder. They outplayed them every game and should’ve probably won in six games. Instead, they lost in six despite playing far superior basketball. What does this show? The Clippers are no where near talented enough to win a title in the years to come. They need another piece to find the winning formula. This might come at the expense of one of their current stars. The person I look to is DeAndre Jordan. Obviously Jordan is a great rebounder and presence in the paint; however, he is so much a liability in the fourth quarter that the Clippers probably need to find a way to get rid of him and get another big man who could bring more to the court in late game situations. Whether this comes with a blockbuster trade or just dealing Jordan in exchange for a solid role player big man (someone like Nick Collison on the Thunder) and draft picks doesn’t really matter. What does is changing up their rotations so that they can find a way to win close games.

Outside of the issue with DeAndre Jordan there are other gaping holes in the Clippers. First you have to look at Blake Griffin. Obviously he is a fantastic player that helps his team, but his game does not match up well with many of the people that he guards/is guarded by. Griffin is a soft player, he regularly commits offensive fouls and struggles to use his size correctly in the post. As much as you could point to his development of a jump shot as a positive, it also may come with a price for his team. Because he shies away from physicality but now has the option of shooting from the perimeter, you have to wonder whether that will mean that he will settle for jumpers more often than he used to. This is turn not only hurts the team because they are lower percentage shots, but also because he will get to the line less and also be one less body going for offensive rebounds.

Another problem for the Clippers comes with Chris Paul and the fact that he has never advanced past the second round of the playoffs. This obviously isn’t just on him, but you have to wonder whether continually coming up short will wear on him. Despite playing extremely well in the playoffs this year, he pretty much single-handedly lost the pivotal game five with the Thunder by turning the ball over and then fouling Russell Westbrook on a three point attempt to give the Thunder the lead. This capped off an extraordinary comeback by the Thunder and an unprecedented collapse by the Clippers. Will this have a psychological impact on Chris Paul? Most likely yes and that could doom this team.

The final problem brings the Donald Sterling issue full circle, and that is the future of Doc Rivers. After the Sterling comments came out Rivers said that he will have to reevaluate his future with the team. Worst case scenario, the Clippers lose their steady leader and have to adjust to a new system from the top down. This could be catastrophic to a franchise that is finally looking up.

In conclusion, Donald Sterling’s comments, banning, and subsequent fight over ownership is a serious issue for the world of sports. Because of its racially charged subject matter, it again brings up the issue of racism in sports and thus impacts people from all realms of the sports world. The NBA, especially commissioner Adam Silver, must now deal with this and find a solution that will benefit the league as a whole. On an even smaller level, the Clippers are now at a cross roads. Because of issues with the team that are both related and not related to Sterling, they must find a way to either keep their team in tact and continue to be a middle of the road playoff team or improve and become true title contenders. All of these issues have to do with one big question: what’s next?