Several NBA teams are scrapping the term “owner” to describe those who hold ownership stake in each team to avoid the perception of racial insensitivity by some of the players they employ.
The idea first gained some traction in 2018, when the Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green said during an episode of HBO’s “The Shop,” “You shouldn’t say owner” when talking about the top executive of each team.
“When your product is purely the labor of people, then owner sounds like something that is of a futile nature,” comedian Jon Stewart said, also appearing on the episode.
The league has given no official guidance or mandates to teams on what to call the men and women who own them, but some have shown a reluctance to use the term in an official capacity.
The Philadelphia 76ers have changed the name of the franchise’s co-owners to “managing partners.”
The Los Angeles Clippers website lists Steve Ballmer as the club’s “chairman.”
Ex-Clippers owner Donald Sterling was famously forced by the league to give up control of the team after recordings surfaced of him asking his girlfriend not to bring black people to his games.
LeBron James, one of the NBA’s biggest stars, grabbed off-the-court headlines last year when he said owners of the lucrative NFL have a “slave mentality” that helps “old white men” get rich at the expense of the labor of minorities.
“And it’s like, ‘This is my team. You do what the f–k I tell y’all to do. Or we get rid of y’all,’” James said.
The NBA told TMZ it has no plans to pressure its member clubs to change how their top executives are referred to.
“We refer to the owners of our teams as Governors,” the league said. “Each team is represented on our Board of Governors.”
