Mark Cuban warned about the precedent that was set when Adam Silver expelled Donald Sterling from the NBA and forced him to sell the Los Angeles Clippers.
When the next racist comment came out, the penalty was swift and accepted by the perpetrator. There was no fighting it.
Things got worse when news broke of what Danny Ferry had repeated in a scouting report on Luol Deng presented to Hawks owners. It made the owners uncomfortable at that point and then made everyone uncomfortable when it was made publicly available.
What is private has become increasingly public in our society thanks to social media and the speed at which information travels. In this new world, owners are indeed digging through their past e-mails and being concerned about what skeletons lie in their closets. One seemingly innocent moment of insensitivity or ignorance can easily topple an owner and bring him and his team into disrepute.
It is becoming clear that public perception matters and that any level of insensitivity that could alienate key audiences and a large group of NBA players. Adam Silver and the NBA has had to act quickly in the latest two “incidents” lest they alienate nearly the entirety of the NBA’s population.
There is some fear, it would seem, that any owner could be the next owner.
It did not take long for basketball fans to dig out the old quotes from Rich DeVos regarding his feelings on homosexuality. They came in 2008 and DeVos had some unfortunate phrasing and some ignorant thoughts on homosexuality. He was commenting on his membership of President George H.W. Bush’s panel studying AIDS and he perpetuated the completely wrong claim that this was a disease gays brought on themselves. He went on in that interview to ask why gays wanted this thing called marriage and fumbled through a statement claiming they should stop pressing for this civil right because of the “sanctity” of the institution. Maybe if you pressed him he would be fine with a civil union, just not calling it “marriage.”
In any case, it was an ignorant statement of a man blinded by religious doctrine (well meaning, but ultimately wrong on what is not a religious matter, but rather a civil rights matter).
DeVos has spent part of his fortune donating to political causes and has been involved through campaign donations to efforts to define marriage as between a man and a woman. His son has donated to the National Organization of Marriage (NOM) in the past as well.
These are all facts Magic fans have to wrestle with (and I will grant you, much of this column and my defense of DeVos on this issue of civil and human rights is partially to let me sleep at night supporting the Magic, again, it is an issue we have to wrestle with and discuss ways to adequately deal with individually).
Donald Sterling’s attorneys noted DeVos’ previous comments on this issue in their complaint against the NBA during their failed lawsuit attempt. It was certainly one of the “skeletons” Sterling hoped to dredge up to show the NBA owners were all hypocrites for voting him out. Unfortunately the Hawks incident proved him at least partially correct.
My view has been that DeVos does not discriminate in his business. I disagree vehemently with his view on homosexuality and marriage equality. But, overall, he seems to do a lot of good. Does it outweigh the bad? That is for each individual to decide.
These were public donations, but there has been nothing reported of his political activism in this area since 2008. Who is to say what would happen should Florida ask voters to repeal the constitutional amendment defining marriage. It would not be surprising to see DeVos and his family donate to keep that amendment on the books. But there is no need to speculate. This matter will not be on your ballot in two months.
Rich DeVos has never been shy about letting it known religion is a key guiding principle of his life and his success. That unfortunately comes with some less than enlightened views on the world. Photo by Andrew Kuhn | MLive.com
And the NBA is not going after DeVos. There are no groups to my knowledge calling on the NBA to take the Magic away from DeVos in the same way they did with Sterling and Levenson was surely under pressure to do. The boycott I wrote about in 2012 amounted to nothing when it came to the Magic.
The other part of this issue is, in my view wrongly, many people still agree with DeVos when it comes to homosexuality. This is changing, of course. Very quickly.
The important thing is preventing discrimination and not allowing these ignorant, insensitive thoughts affect business transactions. The Magic are not firing someone for their sexual preferences. They are not writing “he has a little gay in him” in scouting reports.
What got Levenson and the Hawks in trouble was their overt racial prejudice in conducting team business.
Still, after what has gone down in the NBA these past six months, you cannot help but think owners around the league are clutching onto the words they say a little bit tighter.
These discussions are coming out into the open. And with municipalities and counties investing millions of dollars into professional sports franchises, not to mention fans with their emotion, having a clean figure at the top signing the checks and accepting that investment makes it easier to enjoy the actual game on the court.