This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
From the moment Donald Sterling's racist comments hit the Internet, the walls began closing in on the NBA.
Players considered skipping a playoff game. Fans inundated the Los Angeles Clippers' offices with vitriol. Sponsors ran from a franchise on the rise. The scandal pushed the league — not just the Clippers — to a perilous spot.
In just three days, on the strength of Commissioner Adam Silver's decision to ban the Clippers' owner for life, a hands-on engagement of corporate sponsors and a savvy marketing response that started with coach Doc Rivers helped the league turn a dark moment into a defining moment.
"Adam Silver did the best job that he could in severing Donald Silver from the Clippers' brand," said Bob Dorfman, a sports marketing specialist for Baker Street Advertising in San Francisco.
Silver's decision to ban Sterling, fine him $2.5 million and urge the league's 29 other owners to vote to force a sale of the Clippers was immediate. The outrage in his voice resonated with players, coaches, calmed corporate partners and likely saved the league millions of dollars.
As Silver was delivering his verdict, the front page of the Clippers' website was splashed with the words "We Are One" in white on a plain black background. Other teams quickly joined in with their own "We Are One" front pages, including the Portland Trail Blazers, the Utah Jazz and even the NHL's Los Angeles Kings.
It was a phrase that Rivers had written to inspire the team in the locker room following their loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series, shortly after Sterling's words made news.
Rivers had no idea he was starting a movement.
"You just do something. I knew they were being pulled in a thousand directions and I just thought, 'I don't care what we do. Let's do it together as a group.' That was my only focus on that. It wasn't a rallying campaign for anything, anybody outside the team," Rivers said.
"The fact that it's made it outside, that's fine. But I just need us to stay together."
It resonated with fans. Quickly (hash)weareone was trending on Twitter. Fans at Game 5 chanted the words as the Clippers rallied against Golden State.
The NBA was planning to roll out a new playoffs commercial that night. League marketing officials recognized the power of the slogan and quickly added one last frame to the television spot to include it with the logo.
"Oftentimes the most successful marketing and P.R. campaigns are organic, and they go viral because they're authentic. I think that's what happened in this case," said David Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California's Sports Business Institute.
According to Nielsen, the Clippers-Warriors game Tuesday night after Silver's announcement drew 4.7 million viewers, making it the highest-ranked cable program that night and the most-watched cable game of the NBA playoffs to that point. Sunday night's game, after the players doffed their Clippers-emblazoned warmups at center court, drew 6.47 million but was broadcast on ABC.
Team sponsors and advertisers that had decided to step back started to return. If they stayed away, the decision would have been potentially devastating for a team that until just a few years ago was still struggling to find an identity as Los Angeles' other NBA team.
Kia Motors suspended its relationship with the Clippers on Monday, but the automaker was back on board following Silver's announcement. Adidas, which moved to disassociate itself from the team on Tuesday morning before Silver spoke, came back by the afternoon.
Silver's words also helped quell concerns with other sponsors. Among them was Kumho Tire, which announced a leaguewide partnership just before All-Star weekend in February. Marketing officials reached out to corporate sponsors after the story hit, trying to assure them it would be addressed quickly and firmly.
"Our confidence is even stronger going into a three-year sponsorship seeing how they handled such a serious and negative situation as racism," said SB Kim, marketing team leader at the Korean tire company. "It shows us that we have a sound partner in the NBA that makes strong decisions even in the face of adversity."
So what if Silver, the league and the Clippers dropped the ball? What if the response didn't satisfy players and prompted the Warriors to walk off the court before Game 5 started as they had discussed?
John Vrooman, professor of sports economics at Vanderbilt, estimated the Clippers' sponsorship deals bring in $10 million to 13 million annually, much of which likely would have likely been lost as advertisers continued to flee the tarnished Clippers brand.
A canceled playoff game would cost the Clippers about $1 million in tickets, concessions and advertising, Vrooman estimated, and also could have hurt the league's television contract negotiations that are about to begin. The new deal is expected to net each team about $50 million a season, Vrooman said, which is almost $20 million more than they make under the current contract.
Although the drama with Sterling could go on as the sale of the team is debated, the Clippers and the NBA in effect distanced themselves from Sterling with Silver's decisive action, USC's Carter said. It's possible the Clippers franchise will emerge stronger than before.
"I think that it's inevitable that they will experience an uptick once the smoke clears because so many are going to want to be involved with the resurgence of the brand," he said.
Raptors coach rides subway to game 7
Raptors coach Dwane Casey ditched his car and rode the subway to Sunday's Game 7 against the Brooklyn Nets.
With traffic snarled due to road closures related to Sunday's Toronto marathon, Casey got stuck in traffic soon after leaving his midtown home. More than half an hour into his journey, having failed to make significant progress, he turned his car around and drove home, then took the subway to the downtown arena.
Fellow riders recognized Casey, snapping photos of the coach and posting them to social media. Many also wished him luck in Sunday's decisive game against the Nets.
"I didn't think anybody would recognize me but I guess the shirt gave me away," Casey said, tugging on his black Raptors logo warm-up shirt.
Casey said it's the first time he's used Toronto's subway since last summer.
"It's great, I recommend it to everybody, just not on Game 7," he said.
High scoring Thunder, Clippers meet in round 2
The Los Angeles Clippers overcame the emotional drain from the Donald Sterling scandal to beat the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
Next up for the Clippers are the high-scoring Oklahoma City Thunder. Another for Los Angeles that figures to feature plenty of points starts Monday night in Oklahoma City.
Los Angeles led the NBA in scoring during the regular season with 107.9 points per game. All-Star forward Blake Griffin has improved his all-around game, and point guard Chris Paul is perhaps the league's best point guard.
Oklahoma City features scoring champion Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, a point guard who is one of the league's best athletes. The Thunder ranked fifth in scoring this season with 106.2 points per contest.