The laws in California will provide these particular squatters what will be five rent free months before being compelled to leave; obviously the laws in this state are squatter friendly.
I was not aware that squatters were such an important segment of our society that they are awarded such favorable protections under the law.
The complete defiance of my squatters reminds me of the dwelling situation of the Los Angeles Clippers who faced the Lakers last night at Staples center.
While it is the AEG group that owns the Staples Center, for all intents and purposes, Staples Center, and for that matter Los Angeles, is the sole property of the Lakers. The Clippers, like my squatters, are merely at will tenants in the Purple and Gold’s house.
Certainly, multi-millionaire and Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling is able to keep up with the payments of his lease seeing as he runs the Clippers more like a for-profit business than anything that resembles an NBA franchise in pursuit of winning championships. However, there are things the Clippers and their management have done or allowed to go on during their tenure in Staples that most certainly are a breach of their agreement; or at least they should be.
Next: Owner/Heckler
The Lakers have a humble owner that rarely seeks the limelight and instead allows his players, coaches and family to get much of the attention and praise for the teams’ success. When attending games he usually watches from a distance in one of the luxury boxes at Staples.
Conversely, Clipper owner Donald T. has had no success with the Clippers since he’s owned them and likes to watch games in plain view of the cameras courtside. An owner choosing to sit so close to the action is not a rarity in the NBA as owners like Michael Jordan, Mark Cuban and recently passed away Jazz owner Larry Miller have done the same.
What Donald T. Sterling does with his access in those seats is the egregious act. In a March article earlier this year, Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports reported that Sterling routinely heckles players from his courtside seat. Marc notes some of Sterling heckling calls as “Why are you in the game?” and “you’re out of shape.” I think any fan would appreciate that type of passion from any owner, expect when you learn those calls were being directed at a player from his own team!
It is no wonder free agents avoid the Clippers with the lack of support from the owner.
Next: Guaranteed contract is not well understood here
Another great Yahoo! Sports writer, Adrian Wojnarowski, exposes Sterling in a March 15th article of how he has habitually stopped paying his employees despite owing them money under the terms of the contract and daring them to sue to obtain the money that they were entitled to from the outset.
You can read the article for yourself with the link above but in short; he has screwed over coaches and scouts of money owed to them, forcing them to take him to court to obtain the remaining amount owed on their contracts. Many of these employees were making salaries closer to the middle class than the millions that players are paid. It didn’t matter to Sterling as he was an equal opportunity employer who was willing to short change anyone.
There is a mention of a story where former Clipper assistant coach Kim Hughes needed prostate cancer surgery and instead of Sterling, his employer, paying the bill, the players had to pitch in and help out to cover the $70k cost.
In business contracts there are usually stipulations that provide the employers the opportunity to claim a breach of contract which can enable the employer to deny the rest of the money owed. We can see some cases where this does occur and the employer merely exercises their right under that contract. Sterling has seemed to conveniently find a way to do so on most occasions.
Next: Come see the other guys
If you pick up a newspaper in any city that has an NBA team you are likely to see advertisements showing promotional ticket packages for the NBA team in that city. The Clippers are no different as they have done the same over the years. Prior to them getting a legitimate star like Blake Griffin, the Clippers used a similar marketing strategy that many teams employed by using NBA stars to attract people to their games. Except the Clippers wouldn’t use their stars as they were in short supply or nonexistent.
In these advertisements you would see the Sacramento Kings showcase Chris Webber, the Golden State Warriors highlight Run TMC and Orlando Magic center it all on Shaquille O’ Neal.
The Clippers at that same time, would use those same players like the Kings’ Webber, Warriors Run-TMC and the Magic’s O’Neal in their marketing campaign.
The message being sent out to the Clippers fan base and all to see is that our team stinks; we weren’t able to acquire any marketable stars, but come watch all the other teams’ stars stomp on our players for 48 minutes of one-sided basketball.
Next: Extra room in the rafters for the Lakers
The Lakers have hung five NBA championships and will quite possibly hang their sixth at Staples Center since it opened up in 1999. In that same time, the Lakers have an impressive combined regular season record of 638-335 and have qualified for the playoffs in all but one of those seasons. The Lakers’ organization is a perfect model of success in the NBA and one that no other team in American sports can compete with since 1999.
The exact antithesis of the Lakers has been the L.A. Clippers organization that has been the laughing stock of the NBA in that same time frame.
The closest the Clippers have gotten to an NBA championship is the proximity of the Lakers’ Larry O’ Brian trophies to the Clippers locker room at Staples. The Clips have a horrid 363-611 record since Staples opened in the 1999-2000 season and qualified for the playoffs just once. They sported the second worse record in their L.A. franchise history while at Staples in 1999-2000 when they went 15-67; that works out to an embarrassing .183 winning percentage.
The Clippers have routinely been comedic material for late night talk show host’s monologues like Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman. With the Clippers attending the lottery in all but one of the last 11 years, they have a permanent seat with the Clippers’ logo nicely embroidered in the seat back.
The saying of “these guys don’t belong in the same building, let alone the same court” when one team is dominating another is so fitting in this case.
Next: Serving notice
How about under the Not becoming of an NBA franchise stipulation. While teams can’t win every year, or be as successful as the Lakers, they are expected to compete and make a run at some point of their existence.
While NBA owners are under no obligation to spend their profits solely on the betterment of the team, they are expected to operate in a way that represents the team and NBA in a favorable light. The Clippers’ owner has failed at this and done so miserably.
The Clippers futility is a product of the owner’s team mismanagement and flagrant business practices.
Forget not becoming of an NBA franchise, but what about not worthy of bearing the city name of Los Angeles?
As I soon work to serve my squatters with the required 60 day notice to vacate, I call for the Lakers to do the same to their squatters, the Clippers.
These deplorable acts should be penalized to the maximum extent allowed by the laws of the State and the Lakers as the de facto landlords of L.A and Staples should serve the notice of eviction.
Once the 60 days have expired, the Sheriffs should storm the Staples Centers and remove any remnants of the Clippers futile existence in the building. The building should be tented, fumigated then thoroughly cleaned to remove the stench of losing that has filled the air during their use.
Where the Clippers go after that is really of no concern to the Lakers but we would hope it lies somewhere outside of the L.A. borders, like Dubai.