THAT'S THE CLIPPERS WE KNOW: OWNER COMES OFF NOT SO STERLING

Too bad the L.A. Clippers had to make the second round of the playoffs this past NBA season. Now you can no longer say that the team's owner Donald Sterling has bad luck whenever a court's involved.

Sterling's headed for a court of a different kind -- the one with judges and high-priced lawyers -- after being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for refusing to rent to African-Americans and families with children.

Again, similar to Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk's entanglement with the Ontario Securities Commission, this isn't really a sports story, but it draws attention since the gazillionaire with his tit in the wringer has the high profile that comes with owning a big-league sports franchise.

It figures something like this would happen in Clipperland, and not just because we all know that racism is alive and well in this world of ours. (See Chuck D's thoughts farthers on an unrelated matter farther down in this post.)

The Clippers may or may not be the most inept or incompetent organization in the three major North American sports plus the NHL, but they seem to come up an awful lot when someone is comparing inept, incompetent franchises. When the Houston Texans outsmarted themselves out of drafting Reggie Bush, there were Clippers comparisions. When the New York Islanders promoted their backup goalie to general manager, there were Clippers comparisions. And so on.

So it kind of figures that when the team just had its best season since moving from Buffalo to southern California three decades ago, something potentially embarrassing like the owner being sued for alleged racial discrimination would have to go and happen.

That's c'est la vie for L.A.'s Other Basketball Team.

OTHER BUSINESS

• The aforementioned Chuck D has some thoughts on the Mideast and our messed-up world in general you should check out: "What these so called nations should do is collectively put their science heads together and prevent earth-ending disasters, figure on how to preserve what we have already as well as the world re-distribution of population, natural resource, and in policies that balance out the worlds wealth. Canada can use 50 million more people."
• The Blue Jays got a combined two-hitter from Brian Tallet, Jeremy Accardo and Brandon League in an 8-1 win over the Orioles. Can't complain, but if League could have come in earlier, there would have been a chance for the ultimately rarity: A five-inning save. Canada's own Eric Bedard is starting for the Orioles on Wednesday, by the way.
• Bill Simmons, responding to a reader's question, listed Edmonton Oilers fans singing O Canada during this year's playoffs as the second-greatest performance of the national anthem at a sporting event. This comes as no surprise: Simmons has credited us Canucks with being among the coolest people on the planet. (And not just because we have the coldest capital city in Ottawa.)
• Here's a pretty good synopsis of the Duke lacrosse case.
• Wire-service line of the day: "The Bengals generally do not comment on player arrests." Of course they don't. If they did, there wouldn't be any time for practice. (Guard Eric Steinbach just got picked up for alleged drunken boating, making him a candidate to be traded to the Vikings.)
• Personal note: Something's going on with former Ernestown Eagles goaltenders. Trina Sager, Official Sister and Goaltending Expert of Out of Left Field, has become engaged to her boyfriend, Amer Murad -- just one week after my friend Jake, who's also a goalie, got engaged.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca. Let's have a big hand for Ken Tobias.