The lawsuit Elgin Baylor filed against the Los Angeles Clippers and owner Donald Sterling appears to be weakening. Sterling has been accused of racism multiple times in his tenure as Clippers owner. Earlier this week, we questioned whether or not his Black History month ad — which was run in March instead of during Black History Month — was anything more than a PR stunt. Baylor’s claim that Sterling had a “plantation mentality” in dealing with him as an employee is just one tidbit in an abundance of information that has turned people into skeptics.
On Friday, Baylor dropped the racial discrimination claim in his lawsuit against the Clippers. The teams executive vice president and general manager from 1986-2008, Baylor filed a wrongful termination suit in February 2009 alleging wrongful termination due to his age and race. According to Baylor’s attorney, Carl Douglas, the race claim was “going to survive” but Baylor chose to voluntarily dismiss it. Like many of the racism accusations against Sterling, an ongoing game of “he said, she said” probably wasn’t going to cut it in the court room.
When you consider that Baylor worked for the Clippers for 22 years — four of which saw the team qualify for the postseason — it should come as no surprise that he voluntarily dropped the racial discrimination claim. Proving age discrimination will also be a challenge considering he worked for the team into his 70s.
This is not the first racial discrimination suit against Sterling that has been settled, so a pattern has obviously developed over the years. At this point, one has to either believe that Sterling is not a racist, or he’s just extremely effective in covering his tracks.
