The NBA has been all business in punishing Donald Sterling, and a big reason for that is because they know the players have been watching the situation closely.
The Golden State Warriors had elaborate plans to boycott Game 5 of their playoff series with the Clippers if Commissioner Adam Silver’s punishment didn’t satisfy them. Many other teams may have joined them in protest.
And one player who has been outspoken on the issue is LeBron James, who less than 24 hours after the audio recordings were released said “there’s no room for Donald Sterling” in the NBA.
LeBron apparently feels so strongly about the issue that he would not want play next season if Sterling is still an owner. Or at least that’s the message James conveyed to Roger Mason Jr., his former Heat teammate who is also First Vice President of the NBA Player’s Association. That’s what Mason told Jim Rome in an interview slated to air on “Jim Rome on Showtime” Wednesday.
“If it’s not handled by … the start of next season, I don’t see how we’re playing basketball,” Mason told Rome. “I was just in the locker room with LeBron … At the end of the day, you know we have leaders. We have player reps, we’ve got executive committee members … Leaders of the teams, they’re all saying the same thing, ‘If this man is still in place, we ain’t playing’.”
It’s nice to see the players come together, bond and take a stand over this issue. As we saw in his interview with Anderson Cooper, Sterling is a pretty despicable character and terrible representative of the league. I wouldn’t want to be associated with him either. And I really like that the best player in the league also leads when it comes to social issues; he understands he is an influential voice and exercises it when necessary.
