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The Ethics Cloud Over Ballmer's $2 Billion B-Ball Buy

theodp (442580) writes '"It is hard to imagine any more heinous way of earning money than by benefiting from racism," writes Rick Cohen, who argues that Donald Sterling and the NBA owners are being unjustly enriched by Sterling's racism, which led to the $2 billion sale of the L.A. Clippers to ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, a record-high sum for an NBA team. "Indeed, the only losers in the Sterling affair are the players," adds the NY Times. "What held promise as a possible D-Day in the N.B.A., a day when N.B.A. owners stood up to be counted and voted Donald Sterling out of the league, instead turned into a great day for the status quo." Forbes contributor Robert Wood speculates that if he plays his cards right, Sterling's windfall could be tax-free.'

9 of 398 comments (clear)

  1. pishaw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ethics? Ethics in the corporate world is what gets you the most cash. The corporate assholes live in a scruple-free culture.

    1. Re:pishaw by LWATCDR · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ethics on Slashdot? No one questions that someone was banned for life and was forced to forfeit his property because of something he said in a private conversation that was recorded and published without his permission.

      If you are not outraged by this then please do not bother ever complaining about privacy.

      Remember racism is not illegal. Discrimination based on race in the workplace is.

      BTW I do not like racism at all but this is just too weird for words.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    2. Re:pishaw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If you don't live for yourself then you live for others. Living for others makes you a slave.

  2. Disable Advertising? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    More like "Ignore my checkbox to Disable Advertising". I'm still seeing banners at the top of the content and at the top of the right column.

  3. Think harder Rick by PsyMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    '"It is hard to imagine any more heinous way of earning money than by benefiting from racism," ... Well, lets think, you could run a child prostitution ring, child slavery, people trafficking, run a pharmacutical firm/country that denies poorer people medicine or be a banker. Not hard to imagine at all. (not sure what the rest of the summary was about as I did not read it.

  4. Re:nonsense by Threni · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't `bring the game into disrepute` a reason? It's their rules...they can have any clause they like. He might not mind not caring what people think of his outdated mentality, but the sport suffers if people boycott it, or if it's embarrassing to have to admit you are involved with it, if for no other reason.

  5. Re:Racism or Thought Police? by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, but privacy and free speech and all that only applies if you're saying politically-correct stuff. The second you say "nigger" or even mildly criticize some protected group YOU MUST BE DESTROYED!!!!!

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  6. Re:Harder Idea - Shutter the team by flappinbooger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    bear in mind this man is guilty of nothing more than saying something politically incorrect within the privacy of his own house.

    What happened here? 1984 much?

    --
    Flappinbooger isn't my real name
  7. Re:So what's the problem here? by LordKronos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly. I don't get all of the talk about how this is a reward. He could have sold the team at any time of his choosing. The price he got isn't because of his racist remarks. It's because there are so few teams available, they don't often come up for sale, and as teams go, the Clippers is actually a pretty highly ranked team. If anything, forcing him to sell actually is a punishment, even at $2 billion. He bought the team for $12.5m 33 years ago. Now it's worth $2b. That works out to an average annual return of almost 17%. It's virtually impossible to find an investment that gives those sort of returns over the long term. When you actually do have one, you'd want to hold onto it as long as possible (unless you have reason to believe its value is about to tank). Forcing him to sell such a fast growing asset is indeed punishment.