Mark Cuban has already decided whether he will vote to oust NBA owner Donald Sterling from the league–and he fears he may have to be a “hypocrite” to cast it.
According to the Sporting News, Cuban did not reveal how he would vote except for saying that he agreed with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s lifetime ban of Donald Sterling because “there is a lot at stake as a whole for the NBA as a business.”
“The thing that scares me about this whole thing is I don’t want to be a hypocrite,” Cuban said on Wednesday, according to the Sporting News. “And I think I might have to be.”
Cuban had previously warned of a “slippery slope” if Sterling is forced to sell his team.
“There’s no place for it in our league, but it’s a very, very, very slippery slope,” Cuban said two days after a recording in which Sterling said racist remarks about “black people” that Cuban said was “abhorrent” was released. “If it’s about racism and we’re ready to kick people out of the league… OK, then what about homophobia? What about somebody who doesn’t like a particular religion. What about somebody who’s anti-semitic. What about a xenophobe? What about… there’s any list… Someone who is prejudiced against Latinos?”
Silver, the Commissioner, is trying to get 3/4 of the league’s owners to vote to oust Sterling from the league, and the NBA started charges against Sterling this week and set a June 3 meeting to resolve the matter. NBA players have indicated they may boycott games next year if Sterling — or anyone in his family — is still associated with the team.
Cuban was also criticized for admitting that he would cross the street at night if he encountered “a black kid in a hoodie” or “a white guy with a shaved head and lots of tattoos.” Others, like ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, said Cuban was “correct” and critics needed to “grow up” because nobody should take any offense at his remarks.
Regarding Sterling, Cuban said “there are no laws against stupid” and he “learned a long time ago that you can’t talk stupid out of people. You can’t expect stupid to disappear.”
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