Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes: Welcome to the Finger-Wagging Olympics | TIME.com

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar writes: Welcome to the Finger-Wagging Olympics | TIME.com

Kareem points out everything that both sides have missed in this Sterling debacle. I'll add one more thing. His penalty could have been much worse. The NBA is a franchisor. Sterling owns a franchise and a team. By allowing him to sell his franchise, they are essentially offering him a $700 million payday for being a douchebag. Given his age, he probably couldn't spend that much money if he tried. That is more than the GDP of some countries. If they really wanted to punish him, they would do what the fast feeders do when a renegade franchisee owns the building - don't force him to sell his franchise ... take away his franchise. "Sure, you still own the building and you can still sell hamburgers out of that building, but you can't call it a Burger King or associate it with Burger King in any way." In Sterling's case: "Sure, you still own the L.A. Clippers. Only one problem - they are no longer in the NBA. We won't schedule any games against them. Have a nice life." That would have given him a REAL kick in the balls - a total loss of all his equity in the team instead of a $700 million payday. It would require the league to contract, and that would require approval from the players' union, but I doubt if they'd object, given the circumstances.