[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6547-6548]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       STATEMENT ON ANNOUNCEMENT BY NBA COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Rush) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to address the 
statement made just yesterday by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.
  As we all know, Mr. Speaker, Commissioner Silver dealt swiftly, 
decisively, and broadly with the reprehensible racist tirade that has 
been attributed to Los Angeles Clippers owner, Mr. Donald Sterling.
  Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to applaud Commissioner Silver 
for his swift, forward-thinking, decisive action and for taking a 
meaningful step forward in improving racial relations here in America, 
and having a very progressive impact on the culture of our Nation by 
forbidding the racial and racist attitude of any individual that may 
seek to hide behind the popularity and celebrity status that we give to 
our athletes and other entertainers.
  Commissioner Silver's response to Mr. Sterling's appalling statements 
sent a message to all those who may hold racial or discriminatory 
attitudes that there is no place to hide here in the United States of 
America.

[[Page 6548]]

  Whether it comes from the floor of the House, whether it comes from 
the other body, whether it comes from any quarter, we should all be 
outraged at the racial attitudes of intolerance and indifference and 
the hatred that is being spewed across the airways of our Nation. Three 
times over this last month we have heard reprehensible commentaries by 
others. We should all have felt a sense of enormous outrage at the 
comments of these individuals.
  Much is left to be done, Mr. Speaker.
  The one thing that is before the Nation and the NBA is that the 
owners have to do what they are required to do. I urge the owners to do 
what is best for the Clippers, what is best for the players in the NBA 
and the NBA itself, what is best for the fans of the NBA, and what is 
best for the Nation. I ask the owners this morning to remove Mr. 
Sterling from the privileges of owning an NBA team and remove him from 
the equation that he currently operates in. And do that finally, 
firmly, and quickly.
  We need a decision by the NBA owners now to remove Mr. Sterling.

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