The NBA Commissioner did the right thing in banning Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life. Now with that having been said, and with all due respect to Adam Silver, he only got the banning of Clipper’s owner Sterling half right.  Amid all the fuss about Sterling’s pitiful comments  made in private) people seem to have conveniently overlooked the equally bizarre comments of New York Knicks Vice President Larry Johnson, who stated via twitter that there should be a “black only league” for basketball players.

Think on what he said for a minute.  Mr. Johnson believes that we should go back to the 1950’s when black and white people were segregated.  And unlike Sterling’s comments (made between hisself and his trophy girlfriend) Larry Johnson is actually bragging about his racism?  Why was nothing done about that?

To my dear friends who call this a 1^st amendment issue – sorry but there is no Constitutional right to own a basketball team.  The NBA is a franchise, where Sterling owns the team, but he also owns 1/30^th of the NBA as well. Hence Mr. Sterling’s obnoxious comments affect everyone elsel.  And like Sterling, this isn’t Johnson’s 1^st crack at race hatred. In 1999 he stated that “we’ve got a lot of rebellious slaves on this team" (NY KNICKS).  If that’s not inflammatory, I don’t know what is. 

We should be talking about having the NBA sanction racists of all colors, and this includes Mr. Johnson, who is an executive of an NB A team as well.  After all, if you’re white, do you want to see a team play where the executives do not want you in the stands?  If you’re Cole Aldrich or Andrea Bargnani (both centers for the Knicks and both of whom are Caucasian) doesn't their concerns count for anything?  Why should they have to work for an obvious racist? 

John Massoud is a blogger for the Shenandoah Valley Constitutional Conservatives