In the post-Sterling NBA, most franchise owners wouldn’t dare try to offer anything nuanced or controversial about racism. Better to dish out a strong rebuke and carry on.
Mark Cuban isn’t most owners. In an extended interview at Inc. magazine’s GrowCo Conference in Nashville, Cuban talked about Clippers owner Donald Sterling, race and the NBA. The Dallas Mavericks owner said he knew how he would vote after the league’s June 3 hearing to decide whether or not to oust Sterling, hinting that he might have to be “a hypocrite” with his decision.
What attracted more attention was his comment about everyone’s inherent biases.
“We’re all prejudiced in one way or another,” Cuban said. “If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it’s late at night, I’m walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face — white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere — I’m walking back to the other side of the street. The list goes on of stereotypes that we all live up to, and are fearful of.”
The comparison isn’t perfect — hinting obviously back at the Trayvon Martin shooting in 2012 — but the point about widespread stereotypes nonetheless stands.
He continued by saying that in his own businesses, he would try to handle prejudice or bigotry by sending someone to sensitivity training — equating an outright ban to “kick(ing) the problem down the road.”
“I try not to be hypocritical,” Cuban said. “I know I’m not perfect. I know that I live in a glass house, and it’s not appropriate for me to throw stones.”
Last month, Cuban called Sterling’s racist comments “abhorrent” but also expressed concern about banning the Clippers becoming a “slippery slope” — a logical fallacy that someone of his intellect should have known to avoid.
Because Sterling’s comments shouldn’t be weighed in a vacuum, even if the recent audio leaks and CNN interview form the basis of the NBA’s charges against him. He has been sued twice several times for housing discrimination, and settled with the U.S. Department of Justice for a record $2.725 million. Through it all, former commissioner David Stern and the rest of the NBA’s higher-ups never took action.
The problem had already been kicked down the road. It’s just that we’ve all traveled far enough to see it again.
