Monday, December 13th, 2010 at 9:00 am  |  71 responses

Donald Sterling is Now Heckling Baron Davis

by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

Donald Sterling’s latest shameful act as a less-than-awesome human being involves publicly taunting his highly-paid point guard, Baron Davis. Seriously.

Davis — suffering through the least-productive season of his career since he was a rookie — has faced criticism from fans, media, and even his own head coach about his lack of conditioning coming into this season, and now, he’s hearing it loud and clear from a certain courtside seat.

Yahoo! reports:

Sterling has expressed his displeasure about Davis’ play by taunting him from his courtside seat at Clippers’ home games, several sources told Yahoo! Sports. Among Sterling’s verbal barbs: – “Why are you in the game?” – “Why did you take that shot?” – “You’re out of shape!”

While Sterling has also taunted other Clippers players since the middle of last season, none have received it worse than Davis, the sources said. Davis has missed 14 of the team’s 25 games this season and is averaging 7.4 points while making a team-high $13 million. Including this season, Davis has three years and nearly $42 million left on his contract.

“There’s nothing I can say,” Davis said of Sterling’s taunts. “I have no comment on that. You just get to this point where it’s a fight every day. It’s a fight. You’re fighting unnecessary battles. I’m fighting unnecessary battles. “It’s frustrating because I know and my teammates know I’m capable of getting it done, even dudes on the other team. It’s frustrating.”

When asked about the heckling, all Donald Sterling could say, more or less, was that he’s happy when the Clippers score, and sad when they don’t. He’s the best.

Playing for LA’s “other team” is a generally miserable experience. But, somehow, and seemingly without any repercussions, their owner finds a way to make it significantly worse year in and year out.

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  • SickNtired

    This isn’t about whether Baron Davis is right or wrong for being out of shape. We all know how wrong he is for that. This is about what type of behavior is and isn’t acceptable for an owner. Apparently there are no standards at all for the behavior of owners. For those of you who keep bringing up Davis’ salary I hav a couple of questions: if verbal abuse is acceptable at $13 million, at what amount of money is physical abuse acceptable? $20 mill? What about sexual abuse? $40 mill? I’d really like an answer since a few of you clearly put a price tag on respect.

  • http://www.need4sheed.com Tarzan Cooper

    Stern and sterling hang out at the bohemian grove, and laugh at all the shtt sterling gets away with.

  • The Philosopher

    ^^

  • SickNtired

    Where are the comments I posted?

  • http://sdfklfds.com Jukai

    If I was Baron Davis, I’d take this up with the Players’ Union. This is horrific.

  • http://www.stonesthrow.com Michael NZ

    AllenP, I guess I meant while Sterlings sentiments towards Baron might be correct, I should have said that how he went about it was throughly unprofessional (and not totally unsurprising). I don’t know how owners normally do with regards to direct concerns they have with players on their teams, but I’m thinking a face to face would have been more appropriate.
    —
    For the record, I think our thoughts on Davis as a player are roughly the same. Not that thats the point here, but just saying.

  • http://www.stonesthrow.com Michael NZ

    TC on point @ 6.18pm. Haha. But seriously, isn’t Sterling a blot on the NBA’s landscape? Stern with his law background surely could figure out a way to remove the guy? Guessing if he could have he already would have.

  • The Philosopher

    Sterling’s a lawyer, too.
    he probably will pull the skeletons out of Stern’s closet in a court of law.
    I’m rambling again.
    Damn.

  • T-Money

    Why are we even discussing Baron’s abilities right now? It’s TOTALLY irrelevant to the discussion – this would be unacceptable behavior toward Baron Davis, Kobe Bryant or the worst scrub in the league.

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    Sterling kinda looks like a d0uche in that picture. Just saying..

  • dma

    whoever is defending Sterling’s actions must be under 18 years old or works at WalMart.

  • http://www.oprah.com Doyouwantmore

    For 33 million dollars Baron should be in shape. What does he care though? He makes films! The NBA is just a stepping-stone!

  • MikeC.

    The correct course of action for Baron showing up out of shape and failing to get into shape, would be suspension. Riley did it to Antoine Walker in Miami, so a precedent has been set. Suspend Baron for failing to perform up to team standards until he’s in acceptable condition. It is true that the Clips perform better when Baron is on the court. The problem is that he’s out of shape and can’t stay on the court long enough to make an impact on the game.

  • michelle

    FREE BLAKE GRIFFIN AND ERIC GORDON!!!!!

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    I’m sorry, but we’ll have a problem when and only when Donald Sterling calls B. Davis “honey” from the sideline…, he’s paying him for it after all….

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    Co-sign michelle. Add Chris Kaman to that list as well.

  • http://www.oprah.com Doyouwantmore

    Sterling should act like an employer though for real.

  • Danno

    Why is Davis in the game ??? Because the lame coach Stering hired put him in…The whole organization is a joke….unfortunate that Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon are currently part of the joke…the rest of the team does suck…Sterling has got that right….give it up Sterling….you suck too

  • Anon E Mouse

    @ Somedude – no further comment required just refer to any of Allenp’s previous comments for the correct.

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  • LAlocal

    Baron Davis is a thief. I’ve seen him play every year since he came to LA. He comes in every year fat and out of shape, takes 35 games to get back in shape, then misses 20 games for whatever reason. If I was paying someone that kind of money I would call him fat and lazy too. Obviously the talks they have had about conditioning in previous years didn’t work. Also, this isn’t the corporate world. If you have ever played a sport, you know you can get mad and curse at your coach and not be fired, and vice versa. And to all you that say he should play elsewhere if people as saying bad things about him. He won’t, no one would pay him even half of what he is making now. He is a career under achiever like Rashard Lewis and Vince Carter.

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