Published CommPRO.biz 2014.04.30

Sticky Arena Floor Ethics

 

The Staples Center in Los Angeles may be different from other arenas, but in most such sports palaces the floor is usually a little sticky, scummy if you will. It’s that kind of feeling that this whole Donald Sterling mess leaves us with. Ethically it is so far out of bounds that it’s out of sight. Sterling is still the owner of the LA Clippers, but he has been sent to the woodshed, the door has been slammed and he doesn’t even have a knothole to peek out at his club.

The brand new NBA Commissioner Adam Silver took swift action banning the long time Clipper’s owner from anything to do with his basketball franchise or anything else connected to the NBA, “forever.” And he slapped him with the maximum fine under NBA rules $2.5 million; pocket change for Sterling.

It’s not that Sterling hasn’t been in a woodshed before. He has a history as a bad boy who has managed to buy his way out of one mess after another. When you are a billionaire you can do that sort of thing. In Sterling’s case everything about him and his fortune leaves the bottom of your shoes sticky. He is a lawyer who started out in the Barracuda Bar, suing for a big share of the settlements. But that wasn’t enough. He moved into the landlord business, and that’s how he got into the “Ten Digit Club” – a billion dollars is a thousand million dollars.

Sterling has never been convicted of serious wrongdoing. However, he is certainly not the kind of landlord most of us would choose. He has been hauled into court for refusing to rent to minorities, blacks and Hispanics. All of these actions were settled before the court imposed a penalty; one even eclipsed the NBA fine a discrimination suit that settled for $2.765-million dollars; still pocket change.

Reckless, would describe a lot of Donald Sterling’s public life. His parading the women money buys for him in public. He seems to have left his moral compass in pieces somewhere along the road. You wonder how someone can fall to this level. Surprisingly it is easy. We have no idea how Donald Sterling lost his way. But those who wander from the life most of the rest of us strive to maintain have no intention of ending up like the sticky scum on an arena floor.

It begins easily enough; it’s just a little thing. Any number of emotions can trigger it: fear, jealousy, envy; the emotions we all feel and on occasion have allowed to turn our heads. It’s those who can’t turn back who are in danger of following a path that ends up in the rejection and degradation that Donald Sterling has on his head. It’s our guess that Sterling is so far down that path that he doesn’t care. Be sure that you don’t let that easy first step off the path lead you to a place you never intended to find yourself.