It sounds like there's a much more interesting story going on with the Donald T. Sterling donnybrook than anybody has been investigating yet. I don't know how far this story might go, but it just might go all the way from Magic Johnson to somebody really interesting.
For years, I've been pointing out that much of the hoopla over racism and sexism isn't actually about blacks or women or whatever. Instead, it serves as a cover story for ambitious, clever men to get what they want. For example, I've long been fascinated by how mortgage lenders like Angelo Mozilo, Roland Arnall, and Kerry Killinger used the rhetoric of the War on Racist Redlining to blow up the housing bubble.
Obsess over racism; pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
But in the Sterling Story, who is The Man?
I'll offer a theory about why the man might be Magic Johnson, who desperately wants Donald Sterling's NBA franchise now that the Buss family says they won't sell his old Lakers. But Magic was the front man in the purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers two years ago. So it might be Magic's big money backers in Guggenheim Partners.
Or ... And this is really a stretch, but let me toss it out there. There's a financier in L.A. who invests some of his money with Guggenheim Partners who for intelligence and energy and guile makes Mozilo and the other mortgage guys look like smalltimers. You haven't heard much about him since he got out of prison a couple of decades ago. He's legally banned for life from getting anything in return for giving investment advice. But he's still here and he's allowed to manage his own billions. The SEC has been investigating whether the Dodger purchase by Guggenheim was something of a front for him to get back in the game.
Granted, I'm no doubt reading way too much into this. And if this story doesn't go all the way to the top, it's still really interesting. I apologize for this post wandering all over the place, but the more I looked into the story that Magic wants the Clippers, the more pieces fell into place.
Listening closely to the presumably illegally made tapes suggests that the mistress was setting the LA Clippers owner up -- she's the one egging on the racial angle over her photos cuddling with Magic Johnson and Matt Kemp of the Dodgers. Originally, I assumed her minor league lawyer was her mastermind, but the news that Magic and his mysterious Guggenheim Partners backers want control of Sterling's NBA franchise suggests that there's a reasonable chance that this whole set-up originated with somebody more high-powered than her Woodland Hills attorney. (This lawyer is so obscure that his office is on Burbank Blvd. rather than on Ventura Blvd.)
Former Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Magic Johnson was the public frontman for the secretive Guggenheim Partners in paying an outlandish $2 billion to Boston leveraged parking lot robber baron Frank McCourt for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. And now, what do you know, Magic and the Guggenheim Partners are willing to take the Los Angeles Clippers off Donald Sterling's hands and add it to their nascent Los Angeles sports empire.
In contrast, the new Guggenheim Partners firm is very high-powered. In fact, the SEC has been trying for a year to figure out if GP is so high-powered that its Los Angeles sports franchise acquisitions are done in illegal collaboration with ... well, I won't mention his name yet, but it's a smack-yourself-in-the-forehead name out of the history books of Los Angeles and finance. I'll tell you the name later in the posting, but for my readers who are at his annual Beverly Hills wingding today, why don't you ask around and see what your host thinks about the Clippers. Or ask Magic Johnson when he speaks at lunchtime on Wednesday.
For years, I've been pointing out that much of the hoopla over racism and sexism isn't actually about blacks or women or whatever. Instead, it serves as a cover story for ambitious, clever men to get what they want. For example, I've long been fascinated by how mortgage lenders like Angelo Mozilo, Roland Arnall, and Kerry Killinger used the rhetoric of the War on Racist Redlining to blow up the housing bubble.
Obsess over racism; pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
But in the Sterling Story, who is The Man?
I'll offer a theory about why the man might be Magic Johnson, who desperately wants Donald Sterling's NBA franchise now that the Buss family says they won't sell his old Lakers. But Magic was the front man in the purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers two years ago. So it might be Magic's big money backers in Guggenheim Partners.
Or ... And this is really a stretch, but let me toss it out there. There's a financier in L.A. who invests some of his money with Guggenheim Partners who for intelligence and energy and guile makes Mozilo and the other mortgage guys look like smalltimers. You haven't heard much about him since he got out of prison a couple of decades ago. He's legally banned for life from getting anything in return for giving investment advice. But he's still here and he's allowed to manage his own billions. The SEC has been investigating whether the Dodger purchase by Guggenheim was something of a front for him to get back in the game.
Granted, I'm no doubt reading way too much into this. And if this story doesn't go all the way to the top, it's still really interesting. I apologize for this post wandering all over the place, but the more I looked into the story that Magic wants the Clippers, the more pieces fell into place.
Listening closely to the presumably illegally made tapes suggests that the mistress was setting the LA Clippers owner up -- she's the one egging on the racial angle over her photos cuddling with Magic Johnson and Matt Kemp of the Dodgers. Originally, I assumed her minor league lawyer was her mastermind, but the news that Magic and his mysterious Guggenheim Partners backers want control of Sterling's NBA franchise suggests that there's a reasonable chance that this whole set-up originated with somebody more high-powered than her Woodland Hills attorney. (This lawyer is so obscure that his office is on Burbank Blvd. rather than on Ventura Blvd.)
Former Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Magic Johnson was the public frontman for the secretive Guggenheim Partners in paying an outlandish $2 billion to Boston leveraged parking lot robber baron Frank McCourt for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. And now, what do you know, Magic and the Guggenheim Partners are willing to take the Los Angeles Clippers off Donald Sterling's hands and add it to their nascent Los Angeles sports empire.
In contrast, the new Guggenheim Partners firm is very high-powered. In fact, the SEC has been trying for a year to figure out if GP is so high-powered that its Los Angeles sports franchise acquisitions are done in illegal collaboration with ... well, I won't mention his name yet, but it's a smack-yourself-in-the-forehead name out of the history books of Los Angeles and finance. I'll tell you the name later in the posting, but for my readers who are at his annual Beverly Hills wingding today, why don't you ask around and see what your host thinks about the Clippers. Or ask Magic Johnson when he speaks at lunchtime on Wednesday.
From Yahoo Sports:
Exit strategy for NBA, Donald Sterling: Sell Clippers to Magic Johnson
By Adrian Wojnarowski
April 28, 2014 3:30 AM .
For all these despicable revelations tumbling out of the hateful heart of Donald Sterling, there promises construction of a roadmap to redemption for the Los Angeles Clippers and the NBA. There's a way out for the most hated man in Los Angeles now, a way out for the commissioner's office and the owners responsible for long legitimizing and harboring a bigot and slumlord.
Magic Johnson and his billionaire backers, the Guggenheim Partners, want a chance to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers, league sources told Yahoo Sports. "Magic's absolutely interested," one source closely connected to Johnson's business interests told Yahoo Sports on Sunday night.
To bail themselves out of the NBA's worst crisis of credibility since the Tim Donaghy officiating scandal, the easy part for the NBA will be enlisting the eagerness and financial muscle of Magic Johnson and Mark Walter of the Guggenheim Partners – owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
For commissioner Adam Silver, the chance to turn the Clippers over to Magic Johnson and his partners is the best possible of solutions. Exit Sterling, enter Magic. It would be the greatest trade in sports ownership history since, well, Magic for the McCourts, with the Dodgers.
Magic Johnson is the ultimate cleanser in sports, and steering a Clippers sale to him could be transformative for the franchise.
Okay ... ultimate cleanser ...
Funny, though, how one of the two pictures that Donald Sterling was upset over his hired girl not taking down from Instagram was of her and Magic (see above). Sterling apparently doesn't trust anybody around him associating with Magic, because Sterling is a horrible racist (and perhaps because Magic wants to take his team away from him. Now that I think of it, the other Instagram picture Sterling was mad about was of her and Matt Kemp, who plays for Magic's Dodgers.)
Now, you may be thinking that something odd could be going on here. But if you smell a rat, you just haven't benefited from Magic's ultimate cleansing.
You see, Magic is the ideal sports team owner.
Well, unless you are part of the 70% of Dodger fans who haven't been able to watch the Dodgers on cable television so far this season because Magic and Mark Walter of the Guggenheim Partners are so deadset on raising cable rates to get back the absurd amount they overbid to buy the Dodgers.
 |
| Mark Walter, founder and CEO of Guggenheim Partners Chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers "I look all white, but my dad was black" * |
McCourt was a terrible guy, but at least if you had paid for cable TV to watch the Dodgers, he let you watch the Dodgers. Magic (and the Guggenheim backroom boys) want so much more money for Dodger telecasts that most of the cable systems in Southern California haven't gotten on board because they'd have to raise their overall rates to subscribers.
John Maffei writes in the San Diego Union-Tribune on April 22, 2014:
How about 70 percent of Southern California not getting Dodgers telecasts?
The Dodgers signed a 25-year, $8.35-billion deal with Time Warner to run and distribute the team's new SportsNet LA.
Like the Padres' deal, which was worth $1.2-billion, the Dodgers jumped at the money before knowing the team's telecasts would be fully distributed.
Only Time Warner customers in Southern California get the Dodgers.
Verizon FIOS, DirecTV, Dish, Cox, AT&T U-Verse and Charter, which service about 70 percent of TV viewers in Southern California, do not get the Dodgers.
I was at my sister's home in Apple Valley on Easter Sunday. She's on Charter and doesn't get the Dodgers.
So we watched the Angels, whose games are available on fully distributed Fox Sports West.
Don't think the lack of distribution is hurting the Dodgers? According to Nielsen, the Dodgers are averaging about 37,000 viewers a game.
The Angels are averaging about 100,000.
The Angels have an exciting team with top-notch stars. There is no way, however, that the Angels should have nearly triple the viewership of the Dodgers.
The Dodgers were getting about $350,000 a game last season from TV. They get about $1.5-million a game this season.
No matter what the cost, bad ratings are what you get when three-quarters of Southern California are shutout of Dodgers telecasts.
The problem with Time Warner and the Dodgers, just like Time Warner and the Padres, is cost.
But, stop thinking about how Magic's greed is depriving a huge number of baseball fans of seeing their favorite team and get back to thinking about how racism is bad, and then you'll realize that of course the NBA should force Sterling to sell his team to Magic and friends.
By the way, who else is involved in the Guggenheim Partners' aggressive moves in the Los Angeles area? The SEC was trying to find out last year: they were interested in the activities involving the Dodger purchase of a certain Los Angeles ex-financier who happens to have $800 million invested with Guggenheim, a fellow who's got a little more mojo than lawyer Mac Nehoray of Woodland Hills.
And this giant in the history of finance also has a lot of time on his hands because he is under a lifetime ban on securities trading since his 22 months at Lompoc in the early Nineties.
 |
| No, not the college president on the left; and, no, not Magic; him. |
Now I have less than zero evidence that junk bond king Michael Milken has had anything to do with Donald Sterling's downfall. I mean other than that a year ago Milken had $800 million with Guggenheim and Guggenheim has been chasing sports franchises in Los Angeles and really wants to get the Clippers away from Sterling. So forget I ever mentioned the name Milken. This story has nothing to do with the ambitions of rich men. It's about racism. Nothing else. Stop thinking about anything other than the horrors of racism.
* Just kidding. Mark Walter from Cedar Rapids, Iowa is the whitest man in America.
By the way, speaking of Magic as the "ultimate cleanser," what's the over-under line for how many people the HIV-positive Magic killed by giving them AIDS? As a super-celebrity he got access in 1991 to experimental HIV-fighting medical techniques that apparently saved his life, but what about the little people who weren't first in line like him? How many were there?
Is there a word for that feeling when you agree with a general story, in this case that Sterling is a clown and an ass, but find the overall sense of the coverage and reaction, especially the shallowness of the overall understanding, so off-putting that you'd almost rather see him win just to watch all the self righteous MLK impersonators' heads explode?
ReplyDelete"secretive Guggenheim Partners"
ReplyDeleteEvery time somebody mentions a privately owned financial company the verb "secretive" gets thrown around. The implication is always that they're a bunch of evil plutocrats engaging in cloak and dagger conspiracies. What exactly makes Guggenheim particularly secretive? They don't release public financial statements, but neither does virtually any privately held company.
They don't have a public face or marketing strategy, but they don't have any consumer focused operations. I've had tangential dealings with their hedge fund seeding business and they didn't behave "secretive" in the slightest.
Should they go around running commercials: "Hi, we're Guggenheim Partners. This is exactly what we do, we're just running these ads for no reason but to let the common man know what we do."
Guggenheim actually does have a retail consumer focused division now: they bought an ETF sponsor and now run their own line of ETFs that small investors can buy in their discount brokerage accounts.
Delete"Should they go around running commercials:"
ReplyDeleteNo, they should run ineptly laid out half-page ads every week in the Los Angeles Times congratulating themselves (see below).
Well, obviously, the Dodgers (Magic) and the Lakers (highly Magic associated) hate poor people who used to be able to watch numerous games on over the air TV before they got as greedy, as well, as Wall Street Banksters. The Elderly on fixed incomes, the residents of Public Housing Projects, and NBA D-Leaguers, all of them screwed by the Magic.
ReplyDeleteSo, why did Frank McCourt get divorced anyway, which cost him control of the Dodgers? Enquiring minds want to know?
ReplyDelete"For all the despicable revelations tumbling out of the hateful heart..."
ReplyDeleteIf you read this in an archived issue of Pravda, it might make you laugh out loud or at least shake your head at how crude their propaganda really was.
Wonder what the etiquette is in situations like this... would Magic's mere interest in buying a crosstown rival make him persona non grata within the Lakers organization?
ReplyDeleteMagic and Walter tried to buy the Lakers, but the Buss family turned them down, so the Clippers are the only NBA team left in town.
ReplyDeleteGuggenheim Partners bought the money-losing LA WNBA team a few months ago to ingratiate themselves with the NBA by taking it on as a charity project.
Mark Walter looks like one of those evil albino villains Hollywood loves to hate.
ReplyDeleteI interviewed with the Dodgers Front Office once - I have no idea how Ned Colletti is a GM in the league.
ReplyDeleteHe comes off as a used car salesman pimp.
This is something I thought the moment I heard about this yesterday. I think Steve is spot on with this assessment.
ReplyDeleteI would rather the Seattle group buy them though and move them to seattle.
Hey, don't talk trash about Colletti: He signed Andruw Jones to a 2-year $36 million contract. Jones hit .158 with 3 homers and 14 RBIs in 75 games.
ReplyDeleteMagic Johnson leading/fronting a group that buys Sterling's basketball team would be seen as poetic justice by the media.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, later this evening (GMT)/ sometime this morning (PST), try some Stevery Across the Sea: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b041xbxc
ReplyDeleteJohn Maffei writes in the San Diego Union-Tribune on April 22, 2014:
ReplyDeleteHow about 70 percent of Southern California not getting Dodgers telecasts?
How about 50% of Southern California being poor Mexican and having marginal interest in the Dodgers?
Guggenheim Partners is "secretive" as in the SEC is investigating it to figure out if it's some kind of front for Michael Milken to get back in the game!
ReplyDeletePoor Mexicans in L.A. traditionally love the Dodgers. The Mexican guy behind the counter at the corner liquor store _always_ has the Dodger game on TV. Except this year it's always like Seattle - Tampa Bay because he can't watch the Dodgers because of Magic and friends and he looks pretty down about it.
ReplyDeleteThe Sterling thing is kind of interesting, but why aren't you talking about the Kerry controversy?
ReplyDeleteHe compared what is going on in Israel to apartheid and now they are declaring his presidential bid DOA and even calling for his resignation.
I don't know if other owners have commented but if it goes down like this and Magic gets the team, you would think it would make the other owners a bit uneasy. You can get your team taken away from you from an illegally recorded phone call? You have to watch your ass every second of the day.
ReplyDeleteThis would essentially be like a conduct code for team owners.
I'd wire tap my entire team after this. All of them would be subject to blackmail. I'd be like Nixon
Delete"One could imagine a scenario where Milken sources the Milagro investment for himself, the company needs more money, and Milken talks about the idea with his guys at Guggenheim, who after all manage some $800 million of his money and with whom he chats frequently. Guggenheim invests alongside Milken, and because Milken came up with the idea and had the contacts, Guggenheim agrees that he gets better terms – say, more of the deal for less cash – than do Guggenheim and its non-Milken clients.3 Is that just Milken making a smart investment and negotiating good terms for himself, while also bringing in Guggenheim because he likes them or needed them to complete the deal or both?
ReplyDeleteI don’t know, but honestly: who cares? You might be interested in these questions out of idle curiosity, or for your own nefarious purposes,4 but why would the SEC want to make a fuss over them? Banning someone from being an investment advisor or broker is a tricky beast, much harder than banning them from being an airplane pilot or a hairdresser, because at their core “investment advising” and “brokering” consist of saying “hey, this is a good investment,” or “hey, Joe, have you met Sue?,” respectively. And there’s a certain constitutional squickyness about preventing people from saying stuff. Here you can read a man who was banned from the securities industry opining on the goodness of an investment; I submit to you that the SEC is not going to come after him for it. (Nor should they.)5"
http://dealbreaker.com/2013/02/michael-milken-seems-to-have-been-overdue-for-another-sec-investigation/
Who cares?
ReplyDeleteMichael Milken is a world-historical figure.
It's a very good point to raise that's always deliberately avoided in this victim-as-hero culture: How many people have been infected and killed by these noble AIDS sufferers such as Johnson? It seems people reflexively steer clear of that one.
ReplyDeleteAnd which NBA owner has so far come out with the most vitriolic statement against Sterling? Johnny Michigan State, Dan Gilbert of the Cavaliers. Same place where MJ went to school.
ReplyDeletePoor Mexicans in L.A. traditionally love the Dodgers. The Mexican guy behind the counter at the corner liquor store _always_ has the Dodger game on TV. Except this year it's always like Seattle - Tampa Bay because he can't watch the Dodgers because of Magic and friends and he looks pretty down about it.
ReplyDeleteMLB has been on a steady decline for a while. There doesn't seem to be any reason to think it will turn around. I think demographic changes coming and huge salaries will diminish it further in the coming years. It won't disappear, but it will become like WBA/WBC/IBF title fights. Can you imagine the attention a white WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight champ with a Ph.D. would get in the 1970's-80's? And of the 5% of Americans who have heard the name Klitschko, maybe 0.25% could tell you which brother holds the title.
Racism hysteria has become the nuclear weapon of the scam artist.
ReplyDelete.@KNXjonBaird: Outside #Milken Global Conf, #JesseJackson calls for #Clippers owner #DonaldSterling to resign & sell team.
ReplyDeletehttp://twitter.com/KNX1070/status/460872576168759296
A real-time civics lesson, unfolding in the sewers.
ReplyDeleteSo many narratives to choose from! But a playbill featuring The John, The Slut, and Her Shyster has already proven to be too complicated for legacy media, when there's a vein of faux Rrracism to mine.
And now it turns out that we've scored prime seats for Act III, The Art of the Forced Divestiture.
A morality play, without the morality.
Tokowitz has been bitten in the butt by a dog that he personally injected with rabes--Director (Heartiste)
ReplyDeleteThis is the world that the Oligarchs wanted.
Why do white men fork over money to Magic and Sterling?
ReplyDeleteBasketball really isn't good entertainment.
Is say Magic waved his Harry potter wand and killed at least a dozen women. Half a dozen men. He killed a Dirty Pony of sluts and rent boys.
ReplyDeleteIs the world any poorer if a couple dozen basketball groupies like the two pictured at the top died from AIDS?
ReplyDeleteI told you Steve, just the tip of the iceberg. The entertainment continues.
ReplyDeleteThis is america circa 2014.
http://www.jammiewf.com/2014/illinois-democrat-faces-child-porn-charges/
ReplyDeleteWhether the Junk Bond King is involved or not, this is just smart money taking over from dumb money. Hard to get upset about.
ReplyDeleteIs there a word for that feeling when you agree with a general story, in this case that Sterling is a clown and an ass, but find the overall sense of the coverage and reaction, especially the shallowness of the overall understanding, so off-putting that you'd almost rather see him win just to watch all the self righteous MLK impersonators' heads explode?
There should be.
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2014/04/chuck-schumer-steve-israel-and-debbie.html
ReplyDeleteImage begs a caption.
ReplyDelete"Which one do I infect today?"
@G. Gordon Liddy: U R a Genius!
ReplyDelete@DR: U R so smart! But haven't you figured out yet that "secretive" is Steve's dog whistle for "Jew"? (Guggenheim, geddit?) Of course, Sterling's a Jew, but he's one of Steve's heroes, the old rich straight goat, so he gets a pass.
Of course, Guggenheim isn't any more secretive than any other privately held firm.
Being a latter day Piketty-ite, I think it sux bigtime that oligarchs exist, but there's nothing illegal about them.
I also agree that there is way more to this than meets the eye, in fact, that's the point, and the Divine Miss V is a front for much more powerful interests. Steve's onto something here, but not what he thinks. It ain't the Jews, it's just the American way.
> Poor Mexicans in L.A. traditionally love the Dodgers.
ReplyDeleteWhich is strange, considering that thousands of poor Mexicans were scammed out of their land in LA to build Dodger Stadium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chavez_Ravine
No secretive means that almost nobody had heard of Guggenheim Partners before the Dodger deal. For awhile, all the newspapers assumed Magic was the main man. Then they figured out he was mostly the front man.
ReplyDeleteAs for Jews -- is Guggenheim CEO Mark Walter of Cedar Rapids Jewish? Is Ted Boehly?
But if the SEC announces that their investigation showed that Guggenheim is fronting for Michael Milken to cheat on his lifetime ban, well, that would be kind of secretive, wouldn't it?
Very astute in many ways! A deconstruction of race hustling rackets. By Steve
ReplyDeleteLost amidst l'affaire Sterling is a kerfuffle over political correctness in science fiction.
ReplyDeleteShort op-ed:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/04/28/hugo-awards-science-fiction-reading-politics-larry-correia-column/8282843/
Long blog post from the guy who caused it:
http://monsterhunternation.com/2014/04/24/an-explanation-about-the-hugo-awards-controversy/
An older blog post from the same guy exhibiting some very iSteve humor:
http://monsterhunternation.com/2014/01/28/ending-binary-gender-in-fiction-or-how-to-murder-your-writing-career/
And that little boy grew up to be......................Michael Milken.
ReplyDeleteAnd now you know..................the rest of the storrrry.
>>Steve Sailer said:
ReplyDelete"""""But if the SEC announces that their investigation showed that Guggenheim is fronting for Michael Milken to cheat on his lifetime ban, well, that would be kind of secretive, wouldn't it?"""""""
Now see, if the SEC is investigating to figure out if Milken is indeed behind it, one can only wonder what would have happened if ex-Venture Capitalist Mitt Romney had been elected in '12.
The SEC during a President Romney administration investigate Mike Milken? Don't think so!
Magic Johnson doesn't have the kind of coin to be the main man to buy one of the most expensive NBA franchises in one of the most expensive cities. Even if you didn't know the name "Guggenheim," (incidentally, one of the Guggenehim family members from the New York branch, not the "Waiting for Superman" southern California branch, was heavily involved in St. Louis cultural affairs for a very long time), common sense would dictate that Magic Johnson was only a minority percentage participant.
ReplyDelete"d said...
ReplyDeleteI also agree that there is way more to this than meets the eye, in fact, that's the point, and the Divine Miss V is a front for much more powerful interests. Steve's onto something here, but not what he thinks. It ain't the Jews, it's just the American way."
It isn't "the American way". Just as not all people are greedy, it is entirely possible that not all peoples are equally endowed with greedy people.
I find claims that "it was ever thus" less convincing when made by people who express a fondness for chaning whatever was "ever thus". It's like a tenant in an apartment building taking a big dump in the lobby, and then claiming that there "as always been" a big pile of s**t in the lobby.
Mark Cuban had an interesting quote recently: "But regardless of your background, regardless of the history they have, if we're taking something somebody said in their home and we're trying to turn it into something that leads to you being forced to divest property in any way, shape or form, that's not the United States of America. I don't want to be part of that."
ReplyDeleteI imagine a lot of NBA owners (the white ones, anyway) are quaking in their boots over how quickly this shakedown is unfolding...
The reality is that the SEC didn't go after Milken, Wall Street went after Milken. Let's be clear on who's the dog and who's the master.
ReplyDeleteI want Sterling to mop the floor with these bastards. But, he might not. The fact is, when you're about 80, you're looking to slow down. Age alone may cause him to throw in the towel. (Milken is 67 and in remission for 10 years, i.e., full of beans.)
ReplyDeleteThis is really a non-story and hopefully we can move on from it quickly.
ReplyDeleteYeah I can already see extremely wealthy guys who look around and realize that they're not in "the club" who gets to decide these things. Mark Cuban is a good example, so is Elon Musk. Donald Trump has made some remarks that suggest he's aware.
ReplyDeleteAlways the tendency is for "the club" to push too far too fast. They won't like the backlash that a billionaire can muster.
At last, a chance to use, without irony, a variation on Marion Barry's deathless line: "The bitch set him up!"
ReplyDeleteIs there a word for that feeling when you agree with a general story, in this case that Sterling is a clown and an ass, but find the overall sense of the coverage and reaction, especially the shallowness of the overall understanding, so off-putting that you'd almost rather see him win just to watch all the self righteous MLK impersonators' heads explode
ReplyDeleteIf there's a word for this, it probably exists in German.
The key to unlocking the mystery is identifying who is "Dennis" he set the events in motion.
ReplyDeleteForgive me if I ignore all your conspiracy musings. Inside Basketball is just 'Inside Baseball' to me.
ReplyDeletePat Boyle (AKA Albertosaurus)
I'm trying to transition from pseudonyms to my real name.
What angers me most about Magic is how he and the gay lobby got and continued to get funds for making everyone believe falsehoods about how and among whom HIV was going to spread.
ReplyDeleteThe money the gay lobby wrested from the feds, the money that otherwise would have gone to research into other diseases, was gotten by lying.
Further, it began an era of new medicines that keep HIV positive people alive (a good thing, yes) but in so doing we see that HIV is still spreading among homosexual males between the ages of 23 and forty something. All that money, all that "education" all that lying and preaching and victimization crap from the gay lobby for WHAT? For gay men to continue their promiscuous ways all the while Hollywood and the progressive elites talking about them as victims instead of making them responsible for their own behavior.
You take a look at the CDC stats on HIV and on the spread of other stds (gonorrhea has become drug resistant, reaching Super Bug statue)and you realize that we've institutionalized special status among those who refuse to take responsibility for their choices.
The CDC is now quite mum in how they handle their figures, printing them up, of course, but you don't hear press conferences at which they tell the public the truth about the continuing new infections of HIV among gays, do you? No, they are cowed, like everyone else.
Right. Who is Dennis? And what was the comment that he made that really bothered Sterling? Nobody is interested in that, but it seems pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm stumped. The only two big shot Dennises I can think of in LA are former city councilman Dennis Zine and radio rabbi Dennis Prager (who doesn't know me but he did me a big favor once that I'll have to write about). The only Dennis on the Forbes 400 (i.e., a peer) is Dennis Washington in Montana. No Dennises work for the Clippers.
It's very hard to look up anything on Google because the giant amount of current teasers on old web pages generates endless false positives.
"Is there a word for that feeling when you agree with a general story, in this case that Sterling is a clown and an ass, but find the overall sense of the coverage and reaction, especially the shallowness of the overall understanding, so off-putting that you'd almost rather see him win just to watch all the self righteous MLK impersonators' heads explode?"
ReplyDeleteIf there isn't such a word, I hope someone coins it because you have summed up my feelings perfectly.
One stupid idiot like this Sterling guy is hardly as serious a problem for American society as the behind the scenes financial manipulations of bright scammers and more importantly, the refusal of "journalists" and owners of newspapers to do their damn jobs.
McCourt was a terrible guy, but at least if you had paid for cable TV to watch the Dodgers, he let you watch the Dodgers. Magic (and the Guggenheim backroom boys) want so much more money for Dodger telecasts that most of the cable systems in Southern California haven't gotten on board because they'd have to raise their overall rates to subscribers.
ReplyDeleteThat's the whole point of owning a major sports franchise. It gives you a bunch of monopoly rights: to the franchise, brand, stadium, park concessions, broadcast rights, large chunks of expensive urban real estate, etc. And the ownership is always structured so that the franchise itself is officially losing or making a lot less money, which means tax breaks and the cities and taxpayers paying for a lot of the costs, while the owners get revenues from the other monopoly rights or just sit on it until someone willing to pay more comes along.
The SEC during a President Romney administration investigate Mike Milken? Don't think so!
ReplyDelete______________________________
Bull shyt.
He comes off as a used car salesman pimp.
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking, as much as we might not like it, "used car salesman pimp" type personalities tend to do well in business.
Dennis is probably some old jewish real estate (millionaire, non Forbes 400) poker buddy. He's not the interesting part of the story to me.
ReplyDeleteThe guggenheim gang don't have to prompt someone to comment, they just have to set the stage.
Mark Cuban had an interesting quote recently: "But regardless of your background, regardless of the history they have, if we're taking something somebody said in their home and we're trying to turn it into something that leads to you being forced to divest property in any way, shape or form, that's not the United States of America. I don't want to be part of that."
ReplyDelete_________________________
He's right. It means no one can have a private thought (thought and speech are the same thing)...or at least used to be in the United States of America.
Notice that Eric Holder struck just as this story broke. Announced DOJ looking into arrest records by race?
Co-ordination with our race-obsessed US Attorney General?
I'm confused - how can Magic Johnson, or anyone else, get Sterling to sell the Clippers against his will? Does the league have some mechanism for forcing an owner out?
ReplyDeleteMLB has been on a steady decline for a while. There doesn't seem to be any reason to think it will turn around. I think demographic changes coming and huge salaries will diminish it further in the coming years.
ReplyDeleteThe MLB is far more popular and profitable than the NBA, which is a really minor league.
The MLB is in a much better demographic position than the NBA. Whites have been abandoning the NBA for a while. Whites have been sticking with MLB, which is a much whiter league. Lots of Hispanics like baseball. The NBA is increasingly reliant on a small, poor, black fanbase, and it increasingly driving away other demograhpics by being too black. That's why so many NBA playoff games aren't even on the major networks but on minor cable channels like TNT, and why all the car commercials during games are for KIA.
"As for Jews -- is Guggenheim CEO Mark Walter of Cedar Rapids Jewish? Is Ted Boehly?"
ReplyDeleteNo, neither. But Guggenheim and Milken are, and I doubt you would have been so obsessed with the 'secretive' aspects if Guggenheim had been (for example) Halvorsen Partners, and if Milken had been Michaelson. YOu'd have been as interested in the whole grand opera, but not the secretive side.
BTW, Wiki sez that Guggenheim Partners was "founded by Peter Lawson-Johnston II, Solomon R. Guggenheim's great-grandson."
How old Sol's Grandson ended up w/a name like that is YOUR territory. I'm bored with all that stuff now.
IMO, the taping has to do with Shelly Sterling's suit against the Divine Miss V. Guggenheim and Magic are moving in for the kill. Or maybe Mrs. Sterling & Guggenheim are in cahoots?
Definitely more here than meets the eye, and it would have made a great late 50s film noir B movie with Sterling Hayden as the cynical gumshoe and Marilyn as the divine Miss V. Talk about whitewashing!
>>David said:
ReplyDelete"""""(Milken is 67 and in remission for 10 years, i.e., full of beans.)"""""
In a recent GMA or some morning show joint interview with Sumner Redstone, Milken stated that he had cancer in '92, surgery/treatment and that its been in remission for about 20 yrs.
Redstone said he's been in remission for about 10yrs.
The interview was about cancer survivors, diet, exercise, etc.
OK, I lied. The origins of Guggenheim Partners, along with other fun stuff:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/n7zt3ku
Perhaps the man behind the curtain isn't Milken but Lawson-Johnston, Jr.
"Mark Walter, founder and CEO of Guggenheim Partners
ReplyDeleteChairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers
"I look all white, but my dad was black" *
Mark Walter's so-called "Black" father must be an Octoroon or a Quadroon at the most.
There is no way his father looks as Black as Wyclef Jean example. Because someone that Black can not produce an off spring who looks as White as Mark Walter.
Dear Jefferson:
ReplyDeleteSorry, that was baby boomer humor -- a line from a Who song from going on 50 years ago.
Steve
ReplyDeleteEarvin Magic Johnson ✔ @MagicJohnson
Follow
To NBA Fans, I want to put a stop to a rumor. I am not trying to buy the Clippers, they already have an owner.
5:38 PM - 28 Apr 2014
4,294 Retweets 2,683 favorites
_________________________________
:)
Am I the only one who is a little mystified by all the outrage over the comments by Sterling?
ReplyDeleteI've read them a couple times and I still don't get it. I thought the rule was that you couldn't say the 'N' word. You could not use such expressions as 'chimp out' or 'jungle bunny' or any of a number of terms meant to insult black people.
If you go over to Breitbart - a mainstream conservative web site - you will read these kind of terms used occasionally in the comments sections. If you visit the really motivated race focused web sites, you will read them routinely. No one seems to care.
But Sterling never uses racially disparaging language and at one point claimed to 'love' black people.
It clear to me that he doesn't personally like or admire blacks very much, but he is pretty circumspect about his language
Have the standards changed?
I follow a series of gun videos on YouTube. The author who has a bald head and tattoos (the signs of a white supremacist) has been accused of being a racist on that basis. In his own defense he asks - "How many of you have had a black person over for dinner this year?" Apparently he has black friends with whom he dines.
Maybe that should be the standard. Or maybe not. It's a mighty high standard. I can't meet it. Although at one time most of my daily acquaintances were black, I can't remember ever having any of them over for dinner. But I've often had Jews over. Do you suppose any of the black Clippers dine at home with Jews?
Sterling seems to not care to socially mix with blacks. My Jewish friends often defend blacks in the abstract but never seem to actually socialize with them in the concrete. I imagine if I were to tap their phones I might hear them making unflattering remarks about people of color.
But of course Jewish distaste for blacks is as nothing compared to the reciprocal black distaste for Jews. Blacks are all over the Web expressing their hatred for Jews.
Or am I wrong? This isn't the sort of thing you can just look up in Wikipedia.
Pat Boyle (AKA Albertosaurus)
I lived in LA for a while, Corona del Mar too. It's too crowded. If I had to live in Southern California I'd rather live in La Jolla, Del Mar or Encinitas. They have better surf.
ReplyDelete>>James Hedman said:
ReplyDelete""""If I had to live in Southern California I'd rather live in La Jolla, Del Mar or Encinitas. They have better surf."""
Way way way way wait. Hold it. What about Malibu and Huntington Beach? How could you leave out the bu? Paradise by another name, where all the beautiful people live.
Didn't Sterling have a condo or property in the bu where his son committed suicide? Or was that Corona Del Mar?
But surf wise, you can't leave out Malibu. Come on.
FWIW:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tmz.com/2014/04/28/donald-sterling-wife-shelly-video-racist-clippers-nba-v-stiviano/
The soon to be ex wife is now back on his side. Some are saying that this is proof that the whole thing is a power play over ownership of the Clip Joint, and she knows it. If this is right, she will soon stop the divorce proceedings, "kiss and make up" with him at least for public consumption, support his legal and PR efforts to save his reputation and ownership of the team, and wait for him to die so she can own.
>>pat said:
ReplyDelete'"""""Have the standards changed?"""""
Yes. Its now, 'racism is whatever we say it is and anything that we personally don't like or approve of', brought to you by Jesse, Al, and the heads of diversity inc.
Does Ted Turner still own CNN? Does he have an interest in sports franchises? The Sterling thing is a nonstop story on CNN. Is mulatto gay guy Don Lemon doing this on his own or does he have direction from above?
ReplyDelete"The soon to be ex wife is now back on his side. Some are saying that this is proof that the whole thing is a power play over ownership of the Clip Joint, and she knows it. If this is right, she will soon stop the divorce proceedings, "kiss and make up" with him at least for public consumption, support his legal and PR efforts to save his reputation and ownership of the team, and wait for him to die so she can own."
ReplyDeleteI think everyone on ESPN and all the sports talk shows know that this was all a set up to get him to sell and although they might not have proof of the people who have set this up, they understand it for what it is although, of course, they are only talking the race angle.
Why do I say that? Because every single player or former player interviewed says the same thing: he must be forced to sell AND, they add, the NBA cannot "be content" with letting the franchise go to his wife or his kids.
IN other words, they are instituting the new American motto (well, new since the 1960s and reinvented every so often): "Yes, indeedie, we CAN and SHOULD visit the sins of the father upon the children."
When Charles Barkley said it was fine for people to have their own PRIVATE feelings about race (and here he conceded that what Sterling said to his girlfriend was indeed private), he followed it by saying but it wasn't okay for an employer of a black league to say this.
ReplyDeleteWould have been super funny had anyone had the balls to say to him that all the honkey, cracker, anti-white stuff Charles and other former and present black players spout is NOT okay in white employers' league. It's the same as not expecting a Bill Gates or a Mark Zuckerburg to keep an employee who speaks publically or privately (caught on a phone illegally, of course)against the employer/company for which he works.
But Sterling never uses racially disparaging language and at one point claimed to 'love' black people.
ReplyDeleteIt clear to me that he doesn't personally like or admire blacks very much, but he is pretty circumspect about his language
Have the standards changed?
No, most people just aren't reading the transcript. They're following what they're told, and the media is running with the line that he's a racist who said something to the effect of "I hate black people and don't want them at my games".
http://starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-7-cast-announced.html
ReplyDeleteUglies take over
Sterling made an agreement with the lady (who is visibly part black) and didn't keep his wife from suing to take back what he'd paid to his nonwhite girlfriend.
ReplyDeleteSterling's failure to keep his wife under control was the efficient cause in all this. Their community property is going to be worth several hundred million dollars less as a result. (No immigration restrictionists are in the top 300 billionaires because these people are too vulnerable). Then wolves and vultures pounce.
I suppose some people in Johnson's circumstances might have settled cases brought by alleged infectees.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/31/article-0-1A133A16000005DC-374_634x395.jpg
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoS1MCF8AeI
It is official - Rush reads iSteve; on his show today he introduced iSteve take on the whole Sterling witch hunt through the back door. He took a call from "Neal from Texas" (who had a black accent). Neal informed Rush it was a set up to get Sterling to sell the team, but, afraid that Magic Johnson would send out a hit squad to infect him with the AIDS, didn't feel comfortable naming names.
ReplyDeleteRush was very coy and all like "oh, I wonder who it could be" and yet somehow worked in the picture the gold digger took with Magic, but when he ended the call with Neal along the lines of "hurrmmmph...interesting...hurrm..I never heard of it ... gotta look, look into it", well, I knew it was coming.
When Rush came back from break he announced had just "noticed" the yahoo article where it reported that Magic Johnson would use his power of AIDS and general numinosity to cure the NBA and the Clippers of the evil virus of racism. Rush then went on to discuss the story at some thing before getting into Benghazi for the zillionth time.
Obviously, the above is not verbatim, so check out the transcript, but it really, really was a masterpiece.
Now - if only Rush would deal with HBD head on.
This would make a good "other woman" scenario. Say, V and Rochelle realize, instead of fighting, they could team up to force the other Donald to convert the team into liquid assets for the divorce. V gets to keep what she's got plus 5% of Rochelle's net in the divorce.
ReplyDeleteDPG said...
ReplyDeleteLost amidst l'affaire Sterling is a kerfuffle over political correctness in science fiction.
...
=====
SciFi is different from the other geek/male fields that have recently been targeted by PC/feminism in that the feminism encysted into it decades ago.
Vox Day's blog is a godo place to read on that stuff. I had some sympathy for that stuff many years ago, back when I naively called myself a feminist lol.
Wow. Watching the press conference of Silver:
ReplyDeleteGood title for a miniseries: meant to be a comment on race relations in America, the struggle for the hearts and minds of Minorities, all the while
"Good Jew, Bad Jews
...or How to Retain Financial and Political Power in Race-Obsessed America, All the While Winning the Hearts and Minds of Minorities"
Coming to PBS soon.
By the way, speaking of Magic as the "ultimate cleanser," what's the over-under line for how many people the HIV-positive Magic killed by giving them AIDS?
ReplyDeleteForgive me if I'm being dense, but is this a rhetorical question, or perhaps a joke that I'm missing? Do we know that Magic has in fact fatally transmitted AIDS to others? I've never heard of this.
According to this Sterling can't keep the team. But it seems to me he might have a scorched earth option of sitting tight, not selling, and daring the NBA to suspend the franchise from the Clippers. He isn't going to willingly sell at a buyer's walk away laughing price, I can tell you that.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, speaking of Magic as the "ultimate cleanser," what's the over-under line for how many people the HIV-positive Magic killed by giving them AIDS?
ReplyDeleteIs this a joke, or a statement of fact dressed in a question? Never heard of Magic fatally transmitting HIV before but I'm intrigued if that's the case.
Apologies if I'm being dense-- Steve's humor is over my head at times.
Countenance posted this:
ReplyDeletewww.tmz.com/2014/04/28/donald-sterling-wife-shelly-video-racist-clippers-nba-v-stiviano/
Fascinating. They have a handicapped decal (whatever the thing you hang on the mirror is) for that car.
These people get more tacky the closer you look at them. And I wouldn't have thought this possible. Assuming of course neither the Stud, nor his wife is handicapped.
Is there a straight bone in anyone's body out there?
Right, Milken was diagnosed in '93 and it went into remission 20 years ago. My error.
ReplyDeleteSteve's point is good, whether Milken is involved or not. Behind every "racism" scandal is possibly a power player, a Machiavellite. It's the first thing to cherchez. Cui bono?
1) I gather I'm supposed to greet the latest conspiratorial heaviosity unearthed by the sleuth of Outer Burbank with fear and trembling--it just makes sense the Clippers kkkrisis of late would actually be revolving around somebody Sailer met once rather than bigshot developer-politicians, nouveau-riche software types, tacky-rich Russian oilmen, or even NBA fixers from Seattle. That's all too mundane to be true.
ReplyDelete2) Your screed about the misbegotten SportsNetLA venture betrays general naivete about business trends in mass sports marketing since about 2 decades ago including trivial details e.g. the YES Network, NESN, or Disney's pre-fab theme nets for football farms in the Midwest & South. The part you did get right, about nobody signing up for the crap channel or feeling especially grateful to TimeWarner/GP, isn't exactly the Da Vinci Code. I get it though, everything was loads better back in 1970 or whatever's the horizon of your most vivid teenage memories.
"Dennis" might be a reference to Dennis Levine, the middle class trader from Queens who turned state's evidence to cause Milliken's downfall the first time.Will anyone decide to talk about this? Doubt it.Sports programming as more people unplug may be the only way left to make cable TV highly profitable. The Holder/Obama Error SEC is not going after the money men who rid the NBA of the evil racist Sterling.Let the 2 Minutes of Hate go on a while longer to cover their tracks.
ReplyDeleteBud Selig-also member of the tribe. Frank McCourt is not. But his financial transgressions were far less than those of the New York Mets ownership Wilpons' dealings with Madoff. And Selig so punished the Mets that he...lent them $25 million of MLB money on easy terms.
Appears Rush secretly reads Sailer. Just heard him suggesting pretty much the same conspiracy theory regarding Magic and referring to him as "the ultimate cleanser."
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that Magic will partner with a guy who desperately does not want to return to the south side of Chicago when his job in Washington ends in 2016.
ReplyDeleteI would still put my money on Sterling. He can just throw it in a trust, have professionals manage it, pump the franchise value and sell out for top dollar.
ReplyDeleteHe also seems to thrive on litigation. The half life of public interest in this is going to be measured in days. Litigation will last longer than his conceivable life span.
I think it is time for him to retire from his current lifestyle. Asians make better mistresses for his demographic. It's a big world and a billion opens any door in 99% of it.
"MLB has been on a steady decline for a while."
ReplyDeleteGotta think global. Baseball is enormously popular in Latin America, Japan, and Korea.
The future is being at the top of the food chain in a globally growing sport.
India is virgin territory. Check out Twenty20 cricket. You couldn't make this stuff up. They have outsourced cheerleading, among other things.
The US stuff is old and boring. Same thing, over and over and so little passion.
Basically, this whole episode puts paid to the theory that "the Jews" control everything and push PC and Diversity and Multiculturalism as a way to control things. Donald T Sterling is pretty much a caricature of a Jewish personal injury lawyer, and here he is, all his donations to the NAACP facing a mob baying that he sell out at bargain prices to Magic Johnson and Guggenheim.
ReplyDeleteNothing can protect you when one private moment is exposed. Nothing. Which is why Mark Cuban is concerned along with Donald Trump and Elon Musk and Peter Thiel (as noted in a comment above). They could be next.
We have to look deeper -- WHY is this worship of all things Black, a Civic Religion among the media, elites, etc? The answer is women. Women love that stuff, in reaction to the utter feminizing of White guys who lacking the massive amounts of testosterone that Black guys have are more sensitive to all that birth control pills (estrogen) in the water supply steadily increasing since 1965. [WF Price of the Spearhead came up with the feminizing effect, credit where credit is due.]
Look at how women behave. The criticize beta males dropping a napkin on the floor but forgive (quite literally) the murder of their twin sisters by Alphas. Blow up a bunch of innocent people, amputating legs of 12 year old girls and killer her nine year old brother and her mother? No problem, if you are an Alpha male killer Chechen. You'll get love proposals so massive they'll flood your hospital.
If you want to know where power lies and who is sacred and who is a serf, look only to how women act and perceive men. There is no end of things better than being Alpha, and nothing worse than being Beta.
What bullshit.
DeleteTokowitz is being roasted because he suggested that blacks are treated like dogs in Israel.
He foolishly claimed that Jews are racists. He's being destroyed because he's "anti-Semitic".
Btw this will now bite all the players in the ass. I expect the players will all be bugged and surveiled by owners from now on.
It seems that Donald Sterling is now banned for life from the NBA. It seems that PC has come full circle now and finally... they've come for the Jews again.
ReplyDeleteFirst they came for the WNs, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a WN.
Then they came for the straight white males, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a straight white male.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.
The Sterling kerfuffle isn't some unusual or ironic chapter in American racism. Rather, it is firmly in the American tradition of 'rough justice'. Well known and hated public figures tend to be jailed for misdemeanors, which are barely related to the primary cause of the hatred. Al Capone (Tax Evasion), O J Simpson (something about sports memorabilia). The list is lengthy.
ReplyDeleteSterling has been outside the line for decades. The fact that he has been called out for an out of context comment from allegedly 100 hours of phone calls taped by his mistress -- that is simply the way things work.
It is the type of rough justice that happens when punishment requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Things that can be easily proven become the basis of punishment or shaming -- rather than much more serious actions that deserve severe punishment or shaming.
I wonder how many of those imprisoned for so called minor drug offenses were known to be guilty for much more serious but unprovable crimes.
Al Capone & O.J. were murderers who got snagged for other offenses. A better example would be Martha Stewart, who merely sold a stock when she was told bad news was imminent - she didn't seek out any inside info. I can't imagine a non-celebrity going to the pokey for that.
DeleteAhaha! By sheer co-incidence I am half way through re-reading Den of Thieves. The first and only name to cross my mind on reading this was Milken's.
ReplyDeleteI first read Den of Thieves in 2000 when I found myself employed by a successful company that had been acquired by an unsuccessful company that had been acquired, allegedly (my boss thought so), through the sale of junk bonds by a former executive from one of the New York divisions of Drexel Burnthem Lambert.
The former executive was, allegedly (boss again), no longer allowed to work on Wall Street for some reason unrelated to Milken's division. He kept acting like a Wall Street guy, trying to leverage a fast growing medium-tech company that had a 15 year track record of growth, from its start in a suburban Québec garage, into billions. He wiped us out in eight years, punishing high performers and rewarding sycophants.
So I was flown to Manhattan to be interviewed by a lawyer in the class action suit. He already knew everything I had to say, so five minutes after meeting me (he just wanted to see me, my demeanour, my posh accent, my tweeds) we found ourselves in the awkward position of sitting in an empty conference room with a sense that we had to fill up some time for appearance's sake -- before I went to spend my three days in Manhattan at his expense (which meant having sushi twice a day and taking an elderly family friend out for an expensive breakfast).
He ordered coffee and bagels from downstairs. We had to talk about something, so he talked about how Milken was likely innocent and had been railroaded, and I talked about how he was certainly guilty.
Just the threat of my testimony and the class action suit was settled without a trial. Ahaha!
I wish the news of a Guggenheim bid had broken three weeks from now. That would have given me enough time to seem prescient. Now it's as if I merely blurted the obvious.
ReplyDeleteTo those asking about Sterling being forced to sell, the value of the Clippers conditional on Sterling's continued ownership is considerably less than the value of the team to someone else. Unless he's a spiteful man, he'll sell the franchise because it is in his financial interest to do so.
I do wonder what Striviano knows about Magic that ensures he'll keep whatever promise he made her. We'll probably never know.
anon at 9:49 - the MLB may have more total revenue right now (a lot more games!) but except for a small handful of countries, the NBA is more popular on an international level and more marketable stars - i don't consider the nba minor league
ReplyDelete"Who cares?
ReplyDeleteMichael Milken is a world-historical figure."
Michael Milken brought an $825 million deal to Guggenheim, a company with $210 billion AUM. Even if the whole thing was nefarious (which I'm pretty sure it isn't, the SEC seems to have dropped the investigation and never took any action), it only represents 0.5% of Guggenheim's overall business.
So it's a little ridiculous to imply that the entire company is set up to be a front for Milken.
The MLB is far more popular and profitable than the NBA, which is a really minor league
ReplyDeleteThe MLB is in a much better demographic position than the NBA. Whites have been abandoning the NBA for a while. Whites have been sticking with MLB, which is a much whiter league. Lots of Hispanics like baseball. The NBA is increasingly reliant on a small, poor, black fanbase, and it increasingly driving away other demograhpics by being too black. That's why so many NBA playoff games aren't even on the major networks but on minor cable channels like TNT, and why all the car commercials during games are for KIA.
Actually, the NBA Finals had better ratings than the World Series last year -
NBA Finals - average of 17.56 million viewers
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2013/06/2013-nba-playoffs-wrap-tv-ratings-for-every-game/
World Series - 15.02 million viewers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_World_Series#Ratings
NBA playoffs have more games on cable because the NBA has more than double the number of playoff games than MLB. MLB does have about 50% more revenue than the NBA but MLB also plays double the number of regular season games (to bigger crowds, to be fair).
ReplyDelete"There is no way his father looks as Black as Wyclef Jean example. Because someone that Black can not produce an off spring who looks as White as Mark Walter."
I don't think that is really the case:
twins
It's funny watching the reaction of the players to Sterling's punishment. What do they think is going to happen to them the next time they are caught beating their wife or gf?
ReplyDeleteA precedent has been set and the media will call for their removal if they aren't nice to gays or women.
You nailed it, Steve!
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to transition from pseudonyms to my real name.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to regret that.
New Republic: Jews hardest hit by Sterling affair.
ReplyDeleteEgyptian military kills 400 political prisoners. No outrage.
ReplyDeleteBut forget Pinochet.
I mean 'but never forget pinochet'.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWasn't there a PBS series called EYES ON THE PRIZE about the civil rights movement?
Well, without a hint of irony or parody..
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/books/review/forcing-the-spring-by-jo-becker.html?_r=0
Or forcing the scwhing.
Used to be black men used to go around carrying a sign, "I BE A MAN."
Now, are we to have guys and girls going around carrying a sign, "I am a man, woman, or whatever-in-between as I feel like it at any given moment"?
As to MLB or the NBA, either way it's a license to print money.
ReplyDeleteThe stadium is paid for by either tax breaks or sponsors, and you can depreciate the hell out if it either way. Only an idiot loses money with $11 tap beer.
But the TV rights fees from both the leagues and netowrks are totally guaranteed profit. Further web income is only beginning to be tapped. And if you set up your own local network you can self deal and hide even more profits. Again as consumers unplug from cable TV while opting for roku or amazon or hulu, live sports will one of the few appointment TV items left. And whether you jack subscriber fees through the roof or sell your network on line (as the WWE is now doing) again only a moron could do anything but make money.
And this is why Milliken/Magic/Guggenheim covets the Dodgers and now the Clippers.Who needs to go through the details of insider trading when your unquestioned sports programming monopoly can bleed the 2nd biggest TV market in the country.
Wow. Just wow. In a sane society, Sterling would simply apologize and that would be that. But we live in an insane society.
ReplyDeleteHey, I'd rather have Magic own the Clippers than Sterling. If he somehow 'set him up' then good for him. Sterling fell for it by expressing he real views. It's win win.
ReplyDeleteThere is something in that theory
ReplyDeleteSequence
1- It was an obvious set up
2- One would assume that the reason for it would be the blackmail
3- One would further assume that Sterling faced with evidence will pay it given destructive power of the types
4-unless the reason for set-up was not the blackmail nor vengeance but it was part of well planned operation described above
If you want to know where power lies and who is sacred and who is a serf, look only to how women act and perceive men. There is no end of things better than being Alpha, and nothing worse than being Beta.
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for you. Your life must be miserable. I do hope you have a positive way to vent your frustration.
""""Actually, the NBA Finals had better ratings than the World Series last year -"""""""
ReplyDeleteYes, that was last yr. Now finish the concept. How does the NBA finals do vs the NCAA tournament, which is in fact, the 2nd biggest annually watched sports event, 2nd only to the Super Bowl?
Crickets. Thought so.
Also, you did not bother to directly address the main point he had; namely, that the NBA is losing fans and has been losing fans over time due to the perceived "black league" or "thug element" associated with the NBA in particular.
About half of all NBA teams are losing revenue and a couple more above breaking even. It cannot compete vs MLB, NFL, NCAA.
Also, there is world soccer. How do the NBA finals do vs the World Cup? And remember, that is one of the world's most watched venues in history.
This summer in Brazil the final match will be played in a 200,000seat arena.
In other words, for one single match, 200,000, there will be more viewers watching the World Cup (in the arena alone) than total TV viewers for most of the NBA's worst and struggling franchises.
Meanwhile, how is Steve Utash doing?
ReplyDeleteIt's not just a matter of more games. MLB has wealthier, more paying fans who can fill 45,000 seats and pay for $10 hot dogs and $15 beers and attract advertisers. Judging from the commercials during NBA games, KIA is the only car NBA fans can afford.
ReplyDeleteMagic's tweeted denial of intent to participate in the purchase of the Clippers is another wrinkle to this story - and another lesson: almost any unsolicited blanket denial of nefarious intent is the same as an admission of it. Watch Magic and the Guggenheim Partners move like a black mamba snake to get the Clippers.
ReplyDeleteOnce had a boss who said: "We're not evil people here" apropos of nothing. The federal investigation began less than a year later, followed by a strategic bankruptcy. Needless to say, another genius career move became necessary.
The average mlb fan will be dead in 20yrs. And the mlb has gotten greedy and is pricing out the next generation. But they're cashing in now, that's something. Very soon the mlb will be like golf, a niche sport for the old and rich that no one else cares about. (no offense, Steve!)
ReplyDeleteIs there a word for that feeling when you agree with a general story, in this case that Sterling is a clown and an ass, but find the overall sense of the coverage and reaction, especially the shallowness of the overall understanding, so off-putting that you'd almost rather see him win just to watch all the self righteous MLK impersonators' heads explode?
ReplyDeleteI know a couple of phrases:
"A pox on both their houses."
"It's too bad they can't both lose."
The Sterling thing is kind of interesting, but why aren't you talking about the Kerry controversy?
He compared what is going on in Israel to apartheid and now they are declaring his presidential bid DOA and even calling for his resignation.
Cruz immediately calls for Kerry's resignation: American Jewry flinches, rolls eyes, says, "suure, why don'tcha just scream 'Jews run America' already?"
Good Shabbos Goy are so hard to find.
Kerry flirts with anti-semitism, says "I will not allow my commitment to Israel to be questioned by anyone."
I thnk somebody asked this question, yesterday. How does a potential mistress become an actual mistress without a blood test, copy of her birth certificate and an extensive background check? Wouldn't an old rich guy want someone stunning and circumspect? Maybe this is where Dennis comes into the story. He's her handler. Her rabbi.
ReplyDeleteMark Cuban is right to be afraid. At least he's smart enough to recognize a potential threat. Today it's the old randy unappealing rich guy. Maybe tomorrow it's the owner with an attitude.
""""The average mlb fan will be dead in 20yrs. And the mlb has gotten greedy and is pricing out the next generation. But they're cashing in now, that's something. Very soon the mlb will be like golf, a niche sport for the old and rich that no one else cares about.""""
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, NBA pales in comparison to global PGA viewership. Who makes more in a year, Tiger Woods or Lebron? Answer: Tiger.
MLB tickets per game are still way cheaper than the basic NBA ticket.
But the NBA finals vs the Masters or the US Open? Do go betting the farm cause you might be surprised, and certainly GLOBALLY the PGA out earns the NBA.
I'm struggling with the connection to Milken.
ReplyDeleteIf Magic Johnson wants to buy the team and he's the guy "seeing" Sterling's girlfriend, why would you think Milken's involved? Isn't the simpler explanation that Magic set the whole thing up?
Johnson's a smart enough guy, and in my experience black people are much more attuned to these sorts of issues than white guys - especially white guys like Milken.
Someone recently mentioned on another comment thread that there really aren't many true investigative journalists anymore. That is, of course, true. If there were, and they were as brave as they once were, somebody could get out there and find out if Saint Magic actually did infect women (and men?) with a virus that was very dangerous back then for those without millions of dollars to pay for treatment. Did any of them die? Was Magic aware of their being infected? It would be a bombshell report. Sure, the reporter would get demonized in some quarters, but remember back when journalists actually like to stir things up?
ReplyDeleteAs I said, it could be that Magic is the man behind the curtain. Or it could be Mark Walter and Todd Boehly of Guggenheim Partners. Or it could be the man who talks to Boehly almost every day, the most cunning and titanic financier of late 20th Century.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot to choose from there.
The average mlb fan will be dead in 20yrs. And the mlb has gotten greedy and is pricing out the next generation. But they're cashing in now, that's something. Very soon the mlb will be like golf, a niche sport for the old and rich that no one else cares about. (no offense, Steve!)
ReplyDeleteThe average NBA fan is poor and even more demographically cooked than the average MLB fan. The average NBA fan has no economic prospects, and is being replaced by a Hispanic underclass that prefers soccer and baseball.
"Someone recently mentioned on another comment thread that there really aren't many true investigative journalists anymore. That is, of course, true."
ReplyDeleteMost newspapers have been so severely cut back that nobody can afford to be a true reporter anymore. I haven't read a paper or magazine in years because it's all just fluff crap and things I can read on Google News.
Of course, there's also the influence of cultural Marxism, which is persuasive and all-encompassing.
Among the most self-righteous of the NBA players, the level of slander and misogyny and not-caring-about-poor-people-who-got-AIDS-from-rich-athletes is about five times the level of racism of the old and foolish Democrat owner of the boring Clippers - who, by the way, even failed as an adulterer - dude, even at 80, he should have been able, as a self-respecting billionaire, to swing a less unpleasant, less 30ish "concubine to a billionaire" - it is not as if he is as ugly as the weirdly oracular and yoda-like Warren Buffet or as emptily boring as the platonic narcissist Bill Clinton .... he should have hired a better "geriatric game" adviser with whom to consult on which mistress to go for (I kid, of course) ... as the Good Book says, it is as "sport to a fool to do mischief" ...
ReplyDeleteAnonymous wrote:
ReplyDelete"The average NBA fan is poor and even more demographically cooked than the average MLB fan. The average NBA fan has no economic prospects, and is being replaced by a Hispanic underclass that prefers soccer and baseball."
I'm curious as to the truth of this. These franchises sell for a lot.
Yet you read about the non-marquee teams not being able to sell seats.
Kind of just think that unless you are fortunate enough to be the big dog in a major media center, or the only game in town like Oklahoma City, San Antonio, or Utah it's not that good a gig.
As for the demographics of the NBA's fans, I dunno. I don't watch or pay attention to it. No one I know does either. Might just be where I am and who I know.
But honestly I never even hear anyone talking about it. Definitely not like football.
>>Steve Sailer said:
ReplyDeleteSteve Sailer said...
""""As I said, it could be that Magic is the man behind the curtain. Or it could be Mark Walter and Todd Boehly of Guggenheim Partners. Or it could be the man who talks to Boehly almost every day, the most cunning and titanic financier of late 20th Century.""""
So, if the Guggenheim or Mark Walter were to directly partner with Earvin Johnson regarding an NBA franchise deal, does that automatically maket them Magic men?
Then, who really is the Magic Man, in this situation?
Blow up a bunch of innocent people, amputating legs of 12 year old girls and killer her nine year old brother and her mother? No problem, if you are an Alpha male killer Chechen. You'll get love proposals so massive they'll flood your hospital.... There is no end of things better than being Alpha, and nothing worse than being Beta.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't stake too strong a claim on Dzhokhar being an Alpha. More of a weak-willed loser. Did anyone regard him as an Alpha before his brother roped him into his bomb plot? Was he getting laid right and left? Sure, there are
death row groupies who write love letters to guys like him, but so what? Is that better than being a Beta at home with the wife and kids? I'm picturing you as one of the guys in Office Space playing "Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta" on your car stereo as you drive to your boring job.
Once had a boss who said: "We're not evil people here" apropos of nothing.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a speech Obama gave on May 5, 2013, in which he said, "Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems; some of these same voices also doing their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices."
This seemed to come out of nowhere, but within weeks it came out that the gov't was bugging AP reporters and the IRS was targeting conservatives, and not too long after that Eric Snowden delivered his revelations of the extent of domestic spying. It's almost as if Obama knew what was coming and wanted to do a little before-the-fact damage control.
Was Martha Stewart's crime not the insider traading but not acknowledging it?
ReplyDeleteV St iViano
ReplyDeleteAnother overrated product from Cupertino?
I see your Wizard of Oz reference and raise you Ramstein
ReplyDeleteWe're all living in America
Coca-Cola, sometimes war
We're all living in America
America, America
"By the way, speaking of Magic as the "ultimate cleanser," what's the over-under line for how many people the HIV-positive Magic killed by giving them AIDS? As a super-celebrity he got access in 1991 to experimental HIV-fighting medical techniques that apparently saved his life, but what about the little people who weren't first in line like him? How many were there?"
ReplyDelete-I don't know, but Sterling had to be an absolute idiot to sleep with a girl who he knew was getting personal with Magic.
what would ernest borgnine do is correct.
ReplyDeleteRobert Maxwell was an obnoxious overweight pretend billionaire and he had no trouble picking up mistresses so it should have been easier for a real billionaire.
Was Martha Stewart's crime not the insider trading but not acknowledging it?
ReplyDeleteI may have this wrong but Stewart's 'crime' was apparently lying to a Federal officer when asked about her trading. She had no lawyer present and it sounds like they tortured the definition of lying just as the notion of insider trading was then tortured and spun into something else in the trial.
"Martha Stewart's crime not the insider trading but not acknowledging it?"
ReplyDeleteOnly because she didn't exercise her legal right to decline to answer questions. She talked her way into trouble as always happens when people try to get out of trouble by talking to the police. Even in the case that you are compelled to testify at a hearing, you can legally decline to answer the questions. Any time you talk to investigators they can find something to trip you up on. And charge you with perjury, like Stewart.
If David Geffen ends up buying the team, Steve will look awfully silly.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, but Sterling had to be an absolute idiot to sleep with a girl who he knew was getting personal with Magic.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I doubt Sterling, 80, is capable of doing the things that transmit STDs.
"Who is Dennis?" Dennis Rodman?
ReplyDeleteHarry Baldwin:
ReplyDelete"I don't know, but Sterling had to be an absolute idiot to sleep with a girl who he knew was getting personal with Magic."
---
Maybe old Don knows something about Magic we don't. Being a league insider for over 30 years, I'd guess he knows quite a bit about the NBA that the general public does not. For example, maybe he knows something about why Michael Jordan 'retired' at the peak of his career to play baseball.
It will be interesting how this develops.
http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2014/04/episode-11.html
ReplyDeletePC bitches pretend to be un-pc.
It would be interesting to find out if any owners/part-owners of a team are named "Dennis."
ReplyDelete"The man who remade American capitalism in the Eighties."
ReplyDeleteThe linked Epstein article
http://www.scribd.com/doc/69349434/The-Milken-Revolution-and-Its-Consequences
is sugar coating it of course.
Junk bonds fueled the off shoring and deindustrialization of America and the subsequent ongoing global economic crisis that has ensued.
The old corporations were never uneconomic. It was a all a big lie. They were less profitable than they could be but that gap provided the middle class life and the benefits of that life to society as a whole.
Junk bonds enabled hostile takeovers of even the biggest corporations which forced them to focus entirely on maximizing short-term profitability or risk take over and asset stripping.
"If David Geffen ends up buying the team, Steve will look awfully silly."
ReplyDeleteNot at all: Steve's writings about the G World we now live in will be confirmed. Imagine, a hugely rich, open homosexual owning an American sports team in the major entertainment market, a team and a league that is mostly black.
And, Mr. Geffen's very good friend Magic Johnson, will be very happy that his "friend" bought the team.
"Whether the Junk Bond King is involved or not, this is just smart money taking over from dumb money. Hard to get upset about."
ReplyDeleteThe decline and fall of civilization in a nutshell.
.
"You take a look at the CDC stats on HIV and on the spread of other stds (gonorrhea has become drug resistant, reaching Super Bug statue"
Yes. From gay plague to eventual straight plague.
.
""Who is Dennis?" Dennis Rodman?"
I thought that but mainly cos he's the only Dennis I could think of.
The only connection with this kind of scam that I could imagine there though was as a party planner, drug hookup, girl supplying type dude. No idea if that would fit Rodman or not.
Alternatively someone who knew Sterling well enough to figure he'd fall for this kind of entrapment?
.
"I'm confused - how can Magic Johnson, or anyone else, get Sterling to sell the Clippers against his will?"
WITCH!!!!!!!!!
(Tangentially it's why there's never been a real war on drugs, social coercion > legal coercion.)
.
"Sorry, that was baby boomer humor -- a line from a Who song from going on 50 years ago."
Also psychologically interesting vis a vis Pete Townshend and the Hitchen's quote: we didn't like immigration we disliked Britain.
Relatedness etc.
.
"Basically, this whole episode puts paid to the theory that "the Jews" control everything and push PC and Diversity and Multiculturalism as a way to control things."
But it doesn't put paid to the idea that a paranoid minority might seek to undermine and weaken the host population's culture as preemptive self-defense and that behavior might have unintended consequences.
(over and over for thousands of years)
ReplyDeleteYesterday Mr. Silver spoke of the wondrousness of the "diverse" family of the NBA. (Personally, it doesn't seem "diverse" to me but rather tribal, with most of the players black and most of the owners Jewish...so let's just say "It's tribal.")
However, by adding Mr. Geffen to the list of owners, the NBA ownership will stay of mostly one ethnic tribe but will add some diversity of sexual behavior.
Wouldn't it be absolutely hilarious if Mr. Geffen wanted the unis to be pink or lavender?
My, how wondrous is diversity.
Who is Dennis?
ReplyDeleteIts fun to think about but I assumed it was someone well known to V and Sterling, not necessarily anyone with public name recognition.
So, Jews have to send a message that they are shocked, shocked, and shocked with someone like Sterlowitz, the LONE BAD Jew...
ReplyDeleteAnd by making Sterling a LONE BAD Jew--as well as a honorary southerner--, Jews hope that what he said won't reflect on Israel either.
Thats good. They are a bit like the Agents in the Matrix. They are part of the problem but the are constrained the rules of the system they are part of and have to make the best of it.
She said it was the "other denis'"- the guy that fix her teef, yo!
ReplyDeleteFor example, maybe he knows something about why Michael Jordan 'retired' at the peak of his career to play baseball.
ReplyDeleteHe retired like Justine Henin, Martina Hingis and other tennis players did?
"We have to look deeper -- WHY is this worship of all things Black, a Civic Religion among the media, elites, etc? The answer is women. Women love that stuff, in reaction to the utter feminizing of White guys..."
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right, Whiskey.
The Sterling Shakedow can't be contexed without understanding the subrosa alliances in play ... in this case, between the Race Interests and Feminism, or the collective power of women... the two elements at core of leftist/prog political hegemony, which now rules the western world.
On the personal level, as white males are more denigrated and emasculated, the ebophilia of white american women (and weak/metrosexual men) increases.
Much more is at precedent here than mere basketball team ownership -- private conversations now subject to race/gender litmus tests, with harsh punishments for Offenders. A vast PR coup for the new order came off successfully. But even more, sports is the final link between the boomers and their (often now deceased) dads. Many of us grew up watching and participating in athletics with our dads, it was nascent niners on tv for me, with a just opened Candlestick for special outings with dad and brother, bring a blanket lol.
Fatherhood's been decimated by feminism for fifty years, and now the race coalition just landed a sucker punch on dad. What was once a relatively pure expression of masculinity -- sports in the fifties and sixties -- is now corrupt with money, political correctness, scheming, flopping, whining, hypocrisy, egoic acting out ... all the stuff sports WASN'T in the uh Bad Old Days of
the fifties with our dads.
Now, as Whiskey points out, look at the disaster that feminized white males have become, the people who are supposed to be the alphas of american masculinity -- Sterling mewls pathetically for love before a woman he had to rent, for God's sake, and much worse were the media announcers and commentators who As One grovelled before their goddess of political korrektness, fame, money.
Yikes look at Adam Silver, glib and intelligent and popular and utterly devoid of masculinity. Devoid. And this is how America wants it, too. The better to mock us, and to further separate fathers from sons.
Apologies for the length. Cheers.
American life would be a lot more calm and rational if people didn't care so much about sports.
ReplyDeleteI think the "man behind the curtain" is not a man. I think it is Shelly Sterling. She has been a smart disrespected wife married to an a$$hold plotting a way to take over for years.
ReplyDelete