Other than Dino Costa, that is. NY Post sports media critic Phil Mushnick has already demonstrated he’s willing to take an unpopular stance when it comes to embattled Clippers owner Donald Sterling (above, right). Actually, he’s demonstrated as much multiple times.
On Sunday, Phil took exception to claims of Sterling suffering from dementia (a suggestion first floated by, uh, Phil Mushnick) having been “dismissed quickly and harshly as both a lousy excuse and an inadmissible defense.”
His bigoted conversation was spoken into the ear of his 30-year-old “girlfriend” — a glamorous, dubious character who changed her name from Maria Vanessa Perez to V. Stiviano. She enjoyed taking walks with Sterling, particularly into expensive shops where he would buy her “things.”
Although, while merrily appearing on national TV shows, she expressed her great fondness for Sterling, she was eager to destroy him by covertly recording that private chat, then passing along the ruinous recording until it reached the scandal-thirsty TV show “TMZ.”
That Sterling confused his relationship with this young woman with — good grief! — romance, tells a tale of a delusional old man, if not one afflicted, at 80, by dementia. But given the issue was immediately branded “racial,” there was nothing else to consider.
Doc Rivers, the Clippers’ coach, last week said he won’t coach the team if Sterling, via legal action, retains ownership of the team. How noble.
But would Rivers, any of his players, or any public figure spotlessly survive having his or her private conversations with intimates released to the public?
And why, if Sterling’s a full-blooded racist, would he own an NBA team, let alone hire a black coach? Why a Hispanic girlfriend — real or imagined?
Interesting question. I mean, if someone was a full-blooded racist, why would they own a plantation? Or more to the point, why would a non-racist have to pay nearly $3 million dollars to settle a housing discrimination suit? Why would a non-racist so gleefully show off his naked employees, inviting onlookers to gaze at “those beautiful black bodies”?
Still, Mushnick has a point with the girlfriend question. Sterling’s got a strong track record as the last of the true romantics.