NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s decision to ban Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling from the league for life set a precedent for zero tolerance in professional basketball.
But Silver’s move might cause other sports teams — namely the Washington Redskins — to make similar changes.
Redskins owner Dan Snyder has been adamant in the defense of his team’s name, despite the fact that many perceive it as racist. In response to Silver’s stand against racism in his league, the Oneida Indian Nation issued a statement supporting the move by Silver and asking that the NFL show the same racial sensitivity.
“In banning Clippers owner Donald Sterling, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and other NBA team owners have taken a courageous stand against racism in professional sports, acknowledging that professional leagues cannot be a platform to promote bigotry,” Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray Halbritter said. “In taking such appropriate disciplinary action, the NBA has shown leagues like the NFL that they have a moral responsibility to take disciplinary action against people like Dan Snyder, who also continues to proudly promote bigotry with the use of a dictionary-defined racial slur as his team’s name.”
Though Snyder and the Redskins have not made any recent statements regarding Sterling or their own name, other news outlets have been making the connection between the incidents, so it wouldn’t be surprising to hear from them soon.
