The Warriors Had Planned Dramatic Donald Sterling Protest At Tip-Off

The NBA stood as one after the Donald Sterling recordings (no longer alleged) surfaced last weekend. The Warriors, like all NBA teams last night, discussed before their Game 5 at Staples Center the best way to call light to Sterling’s transgressions. If Adam Silver hadn’t issued a lifetime ban for the embattled Clippers owner, Golden State’s pre-game protest plan would have certainly served as a notice that racism, of any sort, won’t be tolerated in the NBA family.

By way of Marcus Thompson of the San Jose Mercury News:

The plan was set, the product of a 30-minute players meeting.

The Warriors were going to go through pre-game warm-ups and take part in the national anthem and starting line-up introductions. They were going to take the floor for the jump ball, dapping up the Clippers players as is customary before games.

Then once the ball was in the air, they were just going to walk off. All 15 of them.

“It would have been our only chance to make a statement in front of the biggest audience that we weren’t going to accept anything but the maximum punishment,” Stephen Curry said. “We would deal with the consequences later but we were not going to play.”

The Warriors were also hoping to include the Clippers in their actions with all the players on the court walking off as the ball was tossed in the air at mid-court. The statement would have accurately symbolized the disgust everyone in the NBA has felt after the Sterling revelations surfaced. It’s a reminder that Silver’s actions might have saved the NBA from falling into a boycotting mess of disgruntled players, panicked sponsors and repulsed fans.

(San Jose Mercury News)

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