Our Executive Director Dean Preston was a guest this week on Dave Zirin's nationally broadcast "Edge of Sports" radio show, a program that covers issues at the intersection of sports and politics.
Listen to Zirin's interview with Preston.
Preston explained why Tenants Together has launched the "NBA: Show You Care" Campaign which calls on the NBA and Commissioner David Stern to condemn racist housing discrimination and to discipline Donald Sterling, the Los Angeles mega-landlord and Clippers basketball team owner. According to an announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice this month, Donald Sterling is obligated to pay the largest settlement for rental housing discrimination in the department's history. So far the NBA has refused to investigate or even comment on the issue.
Zirin wrote an excellent piece in The Nation lamenting the NBA's silence on this issue. He points out the NBA's hypocrisy in how it deals with players vs. owners and calls for strict action against Sterling:
NBA Commissioner David Stern, always so PR-conscious when it comes to where players mingle, how players dress and whom players consort with after hours, has turned a blind eye to this disturbing pattern. Now these chickens have returned to Stern's back porch to roost. The NFL's union and players spoke out against Limbaugh. The NBA's should absolutely do the same. But even that is not enough. Owners are very fond of declaring "eminent domain" when they need to expel residents, bulldoze apartments and build stadiums. NBA fans need to declare eminent domain on Sterling. It was our game before it was ever his. Every fan of conscience needs to get in touch with the commissioner's office and say that Sterling has got to go.Please watch the campaign video and sign the petition to the NBA at NBAshowyoucare.org.
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