The Best Course of Action

This weekend an audio recording surfaced that is "allegedly" Donald Sterling being, well, Donald Sterling.  I use quotes because the word allege has such an insulting meaning of its own in today's society, i.e. The Boston Marathon Bombing was carried out by alleged suspects, as was the Aurora movie theater shooting.  Don't insult the intelligence of humanity by making anyone think there was anyone else other than those in custody responsible.  And in this case, with voice recognition software available today, this IS Sterling's voice; not just allegedly.  

But back to the point: It's not news that the man is a racist bigot. He has a perfect history of discriminatory and racist behavior.  It's also not news that comments like those on the audiotape have no place in today's society, where we're finally perfecting the notion that no person is inherently better than another.

What is news is the vindictive and equally unforgiving actions that are being contemplated by the NBA, some of its most notable past players, current players, coaches, and fans everywhere.  I understand that freedom of speech is a foreign concept in a league where a player's estute understanding that the quality of officiating may have been compromised at a critical point in the game warrants a fine, but our society does value free speech.  Please do not confuse my condoning free speech with support for Mr. Sterling or his comments.

The appropriate course of action would be for the NBA's player contracts to include clauses that allow them out of deals where they have a genuine belief that they are being placed in a hostile work environment.  This would address such issues as racist owners, abusive coaches, or even cases of lockeroom bullying a-la Jonathan Martin.  Produce enough evidence that your concerns are genuine, and you're able to tear up your contract and enter free agency.

What this accomplishes is far more powerful than any sanction or fine that is currently being contemplated against Sterling and any future cases such as this.  Rather than forcing defensive behavior whereby the original offender now feels attacked for their views, why not allow the NBA community to simply abandon the asshole?  Wouldn't everyone walking away from the racist in the minority send a better message?  It's a much stronger statement to provide a silent "what are you going to do" response, and forces the offending individual to look within themselves to grow and find a solution, or forever be exiled from the community.  Instead of ganging up on the offender and making him feel attacked, leave him alone by himself, his investment hemmoraging cash due to decisions that keep quality labor away, and let him figure out where bigotry is going to get him in life.

Punitive sanctions against someone as "successful" as this will have no lasting effect, will cost the man less in the long run, and do not promote personal growth.  This course of action works for a player, who is fined from their primary income source, but not an owner, who has a much larger and tangible asset to work with.  The only way to get the point across is to compromise the asset; empowering the players with that ability will go a long way.

I Need My Dodgers, But Not Like This

If you haven't noticed already, the segmentation of sports broadcasting has continued in the Los Angeles metro area, adding a second exclusive network controlled by Time Warner Cable (for now).  This new channel is to be the Dodgers' station, much like TWC Sportsnet is the Lakers' exclusive channel (for most games, not all, and they don't even have broadcasting rights on a few ABC and TNT nationally broadcast games).  Remember when a broadcasting network (Fox) carried the games for both teams?....and there wasn't a huge issue about every subscriber for each cable company having to pay more on their monthly bills for this channel?


We all know it, though even to me it seems to be an intangible and instinctual understanding; Time Warner screwed the Lakers with the contract for exclusive broadcasting rights.  Which makes the contract with the Dodgers even more puzzling.  Yes, Time Warner is a content distributor (for the time being, until the Comcast deal goes through), but that is not where the value of an exclusive sportscasting contract is derived.  The value for TWC or anyone who puts out the content is derived from the sale of advertising space.  In today's information age, the barrier to entry for broadcasting is extremely low.  I can live stream whatever I want straight from my cell phone to the internet.  Take a professional sports organization with a bit more capital horsepower and they can stream whatever they want through the web.  A sports marketing department (not just a person, but a whole department) is always staffed at professional sports franchises, and is already equipped to sell advertising; it's not too much of a stretch to add another medium to the portfolio.  With in-house advertising dollars generated to boost the quality and content of the streaming broadcast, there really isn't a need for a middle-man like TWC.  All they do is increase cost to those that are ultimately providing the revenue stream.


This is the ultimate direction of all video content as barriers to entry continue to fall and individual tastes in video entertainment remain diverse.  Remember when there was no "cable company" that you had to pay?  It's going to come full circle.


I need my Dodgers, but not like this.  The insistence by content providers on multiple income streams (subscribers plus advertisers) is closing in on the breaking point that will hasten their demise.