Coach Norman joins outcry vs Sterling

“It’s black slavery all over  again!”

These words stuck in my  mind after a 10-minute interview with  Talk ‘N Text coach  Norman Black recently.

Norman was having difficulty  comprehending how a  racist like Donald Sterling,  who detests African-Americans and looks down on  them, could own a team  in  the NBA.

Black said he was appalled when he learned about the very offensive statements  the Los Angeles Clippers  owner made, a recording of which was aired in the US entertainment network TMZ.

Sterling prohibited his girlfriend V. Stiviano, a black American-Mexican, from “associating publicly with minorities” after she had posted a photo of herself with NBA great Magic Johnson on Instagram.

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“How could he own an  NBA team when majority  of  the people working for him  are colored. How could he even be involved in sports,  when sports is supposed to be colorless,” said Black, who believes that Sterling’s involvement with the Clippers, a team he has owned since 1981, is strictly business.

“It hurts,” said Black. “I’m sure his players are hurt because they now  know they are only a commodity owned by Sterling  from which he could earn—just like slaves of a long-forgotten era.

“I thought discrimination  no longer exists in this day and age. Apparently it still  does.”

Black recounted his own experience many decades  ago when he was still playing  high school basketball in Baltimore, Maryland.

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“We were on a basketball  tour of the countryside and we stopped in one restaurant  to eat,” he recounted.

“The waitress refused  to  serve me because I was  black.”

The entire team walked  out of the place and looked  for another place to eat.

“There is no longer room in  our present society for Sterling’s kind of attitude,” Black stressed even as he praised NBA commissioner Adam  Silver “for doing a great job” in handling the controversy.

Silver banned Sterling  from the league for life and fined him a maximum of $2.6 million.

“Whatever sanctions [Sterling] gets, he deserves!” Black said.

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Former and present league  owners, and no less than US President Barack Obama, have condemned Sterling’s racist statements.

In due time, Sterling may even be forced to sell the Clippers franchise

Oprah Winfrey, one of the world’s  richest women, and  world boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. have  expressed interest in buying  the franchise.

Sterling said, however, that  he has absolutely no plans to  sell.