BY LARRY ELDER
Assuming one can still call an owner of a professional basketball team an “owner,” this piece is about two of them. Both owners are white and bigoted, but only one was white, bigoted, and incredibly stupid.
The first was named Ted Stepien. In 1980, this advertising magnate purchased the abysmal NBA Cleveland Cavaliers. Stepien thought he had a formula for success. White fans, he insisted, preferred to watch white players. The Cavaliers’ stadium, at the time, was located between Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, in a predominantly white demographical area. Stepien felt fans would come if the players looked like them. In 1981, he told Sport Magazine: “I feel that whites should have a position in the athletic world. Sometimes they’ve given it up. … Professional sports in general would gain greater respect if whites competed more with Blacks in athletics, as much as Blacks want to compete more in the business world.”
Stepien stacked the team with white players for the white fans. In 1980, he told a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sportswriter: “No team should be all white and no team should be all Black, either. That’s what bothers me about the NBA: You’ve got a situation here where Blacks represent little more than 5% of the market, yet most teams are at least 75% Black and the New York Knicks are 100% Black. Teams with that kind of makeup can’t possibly draw from a suitable cross-section of fans.”
Stepien made a series of bad player trades that hurt the team’s competitiveness for years. How bad were his deals? A rival general manager said: “They overestimated the talent of the people they brought in. … They’ll be impressive walking through airports, but they won’t play well. … The vultures were circling. Every club in the league was saying — I was saying — ‘What can we cook up with them?’”
The team played even worse than before. The team also drew even fewer fans. White fans, Stepien learned, did not enjoy watching white players lose any more than they enjoyed watching Black players lose. Turns out, it was the “lose” part that fans, irrespective of their own race or the race of the players, objected to. Embarrassed, the league pressured him to sell and eventually instituted the “Stepien rule,” forbidding any team from trading its first-round pick in consecutive years.
This brings us to the second bigoted owner, Donald Sterling, who owned the NBA Los Angeles Clippers. more
Hmmmm. Stepien should have bought a hockey team instead.
It’s just like hiring that one gay nfl player, who was crappy, just because he is gay. What was his name?
Exactly.
He was in Canada, last I heard and he threw fits there, too, till they got rid of him.
You wanna hire people based on looks, start a modeling agency and leave grown folks business to the grown folks.
Cleveburg here… Ted Stepian was a first class Jerk! I’ll guarantee you that he was ridiculed by Clevelanders as much, if not more, than the outsiders did! Richfield Coliseum was located out in the middle of nowhere with no good way to get to it! It was eventually replaced by Gund Arena which is a nice facility located in the city, but then we had to live with a name that sounded like an STD for years!
Gundarena???
Sometimes people are just downright tone-deaf!
Side note: We had a radio station around the same time period playing “Soft Hits”.
Go ahead and say it out loud a few times and see how many people tilt their head at you!
Again, don’t people think these things thru???
TRF. Just yesterday I drove from Cleveland to Wadsworth for work. I passed by the area where the Richfield Coliseum was. I remember think how crazy it was that anyone would drive out there to see a laughingstock team. no wonder the Cleveland Barons failed also.
last team to integrate their ranks … the Washington Redskins … ironic, ain’t it?
the owner, George Preston Marshall was one bigoted sumbitch
oh, & redskins had a tight end (can’t make this stuff up) back in the ’60’s – ’70’s that was as queer as a 3 dollar bill. everyone knew it, including me as a kid … retired holding the career td record for tight ends at the time (60) … I think he died of AIDs
MJA.
I don’t remember the NFL player’s name either. I think he entered the league as a tight end and exited as a wide receiver. I think his first name was Lance. Or was it Fabian? I just can’t recall.
How many old jokes can I stuff into a single response?
Block that kick!
Michael Sam. I had to look it up. lolol
@molon.
Jerry Smith.
How could you not remember a name that sounds like a witness relocation name?
Name please. Jerry Smith.
Oh c’mon now.
Name please and what is the name of the fellow with whom you are traveling? John Doe.
LOL. Michael Sam. I forgot about that guy. He was the original kneeler, but not for the Anthem
TRF, I swear to God you’re going to make me choke on something one of these times.
All the team owners/managers are sprinting to be the first to arrive at Whocaresville. They also won’t attract fans to their games, winning season or not. If they are going to insist on starting every game by calling the fans racist. And doing other insulting BS that are actually divisive.
I’ve beat them to Whocaresville. I have a mailbox address, internet connection, and have already received my first property tax notice.
I remember a black player that did kneel in a Super Bowl game a few years ago. He kneeled after scoring a TD and was in the end zone. He kneeled and looked up and I had the distinct impression he was thanking God.
@TRF
Is it Ted Stepien that sounds like an STD or Gund Arena? I vote for Ted Stepien.
The constant capitalization of “Black” over everything else is offputting.
don’t support blm/dindu/ebonics/kneeler ball, pointed or round
@TRF
Hah, now I get it—Gundarena.