One of the amazing aspects of the Donald Sterling incident is how quickly it got resolved.
TMZ’s email blast about Sterling’s racist rant went out late Friday, April 24; it landed in my email queue at 10:24 p.m. The NBA commissioner announced Sterling’s lifetime ban from basketball late the following Tuesday morning. That means the whole matter – from the time Sterling’s tape recording hit the public consciousness until officials announced a decision – got settled in a little more than 3½ days.
That’s fast. Lightning fast. That’s the business world’s equivalent of being faster than Russell Westbrook blowing by Matt Barnes for a tomahawk dunk.
All those innuendoes about Sterling, the lawsuits quietly settled without public airing, the whispers about him that went on for years, all suddenly and shockingly got confirmed because of a surreptitious tape recording. The emergency gave everyone incandescent clarity, which in turn allowed for a quick decision. (OK, OK. So Sterling may fight and his wife may angle for the team and the final, legal dispensation may drag out for a span. But the point is: Officialdom made a decision in 85 hours and the rest of us made a final judgment in a few minutes, if that. The important decisions are made and done with.)
This is all a reminder: Sometimes a crisis, an emergency, isn’t so bad. It can bring long-festering or ignored problems to a head, where issues can be aired and a decision finally made.
We all have situations in our workplaces and in our homes that may not be good. But it’s human nature to ignore small problems until they become big ones. Most managers are too busy to expend time and precious gray matter on something that seems like minor or petty grumbling from a faction of employees until, suddenly, a true emergency erupts. At that moment, the crisis demands the manager’s focus and time. Issues can be brought to a head and tough decisions (good ones, hopefully) can be rendered. The cloud is blown away and tomorrow suddenly seems a brighter day.
Yes, an occasional crisis can be a good and clarifying event.
One the other hand, a postponed crisis can leave a workplace (or a household) drifting. If serious underlying problems go unaddressed, they can slowly fester. If you’ve ever worked at such a business, you may feel the whole place is stumbling slowly down a tragic path. If there’s no emergency to bring problems front and center, the ugly stuff gets pushed to the back again and again. Slowly problems compound, tensions mount, good people leave. Marginal employees end up making decisions.
Gee, now that I think about it, that sounds like the Lakers’ front office.
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Speaking of the Sterling matter, here’s a question: Was the punishment meted out to him too severe? (Sterling was fined $2.5 million, the maximum, and banned for life from the National Basketball Association. What’s more, he may be forced to sell the Clippers.)
The question revolves around the issue of whether an owner should be forced to sell his business just because he said something that the rest of us don’t like. Fine him? Of course. Ban him? Most would probably agree. But force him to sell his business? That’s going too far, some might argue. If nothing else, it violates the spirit of America’s free-speech tradition.
On the other hand, there’s the issue of the NBA fraternity. Since all basketball team owners are part of the NBA franchise, each owner mustn’t do or say anything that reflects badly on the NBA brand. Therefore, the owners have a right to expel another owner, even if he’s just expressing his beliefs.
Please go to our website and give your opinion (it’s anonymous). Was the punishment too harsh, too lenient or about right?
Charles Crumpley is editor of the Business Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].
