It’s important to be very careful when tackling the issue of race in all walks of life. Whether you’re talking about it at work, a social setting or with family—you better be careful. When you start painting with broad strokes claiming unfair treatment due to your race or your age, you better be sure you have a case. There are very few things in this life that will create stronger emotions or opinions than when someone plays the race card. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is a lesson that Elgin Baylor ever learned or cared to remember.
Elgin Baylor, the former Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Clippers, decided that it would be in his best interest to sue just about everyone for everything regarding his former position. Officially, Baylor’s suit has been filed against the NBA, the Clippers, and Donald Sterling (Clippers owner) for employment discrimination. Specifically, he alleges that he was the victim of both age discrimination as well as racism in regards to his salary during his period of employment with the Clippers. No, this isn’t a joke—apparently this ridiculous lawsuit was really filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Elgin is suing Donald Sterling because he does not believe that he was fairly compensated as a Vice President of Basketball Operations. My problem with that argument is that we live in an at-will labor world. Just like businesses can terminate at-will, an employee can choose to take his/her services away at-will. If he was so unhappy, why didn’t he leave and search for another executive position with another team? He may say he would be unable to find new employment because of his race, but I think it has much more to do with the fact that there’s not much demand for a guy that is right around 800 games BELOW .500 for his career. Hell, his skin color could be green for all I care—that’s a crappy record no matter what the man’s race happens to be.
Hopefully we won't forget that he was one of the best players of all-time.
During his playing career, Baylor was an 11-time All-Star and considered one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Sometimes, it’s hard for younger generations to keep that in mind. For those of us who never saw him play and only knew him as the Clippers executive, forgive us if we don’t readily see his greatness. With this next chapter serving as the bookend to his 2 decade tenure in Los Angeles, Baylor is simply piling more garbage onto a legacy that’s already hard to see.
Make no mistake about it—if a black man is genuinely discriminated against, it’s a horrible indictment that our society still hasn’t moved on from the racist times in our past. But what about when a man claims racism; yet there is no basis for his claims? Just like in “real” life, there are issues of race lying just beneath the surface in the world of sports. So when there are accusations of racism in situations where discrimination played NO PART WHATSOEVER, something should be said. It’s no different than when someone is cheating on their taxes or breaking the law—they are trying to cheat the system and gain at other’s expense. Donald Sterling’s greatest crime was keeping an underperforming Baylor for far too long. Elgin Baylor is repaying his exceeding loyalty by filing this frivolous lawsuit. Forget black and white—I’m thinking about right and wrong. How is that right?
At some point, maybe Sterling should have admitted that Baylor was not the right person for the job. Employers should be able to hire and fire people that don’t produce as they see fit. Age shouldn’t matter—and it rarely does. Race shouldn’t matter either, but performance can become secondary because it’s such a hot button topic. There are many instances where there are wrongful termination suits that are rightly filed because a company has a history of racism. But in cases like this, Baylor is doing more to harm race relations that he is doing to help them.
The problem is that “crying wolf” with regards to race—rightly or wrongly—has an adverse effect on the cause. Oftentimes, the false claims make outsiders believe the accusations of wrong doing less and less every time. Just like any other walk of life, perception is as important as reality. When a guy has been unsuccessful in his career for year after year, who is giving Baylor this legal advice? It’s a slap in the face to people that truly deal with real discrimination in their everyday lives.
The most laughable claim of Baylor’s accusations is age discrimination. Just for a second, think of the people that work in your office. Is there anyone in your entire office that is 74 years old? Probably not—but even if there is, are they the kind of person that you’d want to lead your company? Are they the type of energetic spirit that is capable of being the face of your company? Are they capable of recruiting and negotiating with the best people in your industry? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, do you work at AARP?
Not one of the best GMs of all-time...
What kind of discriminator allows someone to have a job for 22 years? I’d kill for that kind of job security! In a weird way, the most difficult part of his job was that he had to be around that team for 22 years. Can you imagine having to deal with that kind of futility for such a long period of time? When they were losing by 20, night after night (year after year), I always had the option to turn off the TV and do better things with my time. Unfortunately, Baylor didn’t have that same luxury. But then again, maybe his job would have been a little more pleasant if he did a better job in scouting talent on the floor.
Elgin Baylor had more than enough time to produce a winning product for the Clippers. He took over the role of Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Clippers in 1986. Despite being the laughing stock and punch line to jokes of the NBA for his entire tenure, he was able to keep his job for a staggering 22 years. The Clippers record during his time with the organization was 1064-1856 (.364). He was a staggering 792 games under .500. In fact, in 22 years at the helm, the Clippers were above .500 for only 2 of those seasons. The average season for the Clippers was a pathetic 30-52. If you want some perspective on how bad that is—the Charlotte Bobcats were 2 games better than that last season. And that isn’t the WORST record the Clippers had under Baylor; that was the AVERAGE season under Baylor. You’d think he’d get lucky at least ONCE in such a long tenure!
Last season, the Clippers were 23-59. Even though the bar is set incredibly low for the Clippers, the crew Baylor assembled still managed to disappoint. For a franchise that has perennially sucked as much as the Clippers have, that’s very hard to do! Decisions like drafting Michael Olowakandi #1 overall or drafting Danny Ferry could be grounds for immediate termination on its own. Each failure during the regular season led to high draft pick after high draft pick; yet Baylor could never find the right mix of players to actually win games. At the end of the day, THAT is the sole purpose of his job.
If anything, it was irresponsible for the Clippers ownership that let him stay as long as he did. He should have been fired YEARS before he was finally let go. Instead of pointing the finger at everyone else, maybe Elgin Baylor should take a long look in the mirror. When he looks in the mirror, hopefully he doesn’t see a man whose skin is too dark or too light. Hopefully Baylor doesn’t see a man that’s too old or too young. If he’s being honest, he’ll just see a man that should have won more games.
Matt Reitz
Matt Reitz is an NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports and the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com. When he's not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he's usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It's a never-ending job.
