BILLIONAIRES AND THEIR SPORTS TOYS

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BILLIONAIRES AND THEIR SPORTS TOYS

This was a tough year for professional sports. Basketball kicked things off with the Donald Sterling debacle. Remember that one? The now-former billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Clippers got in big trouble last spring for making racist statements to his girlfriend. New National Basketball Association (NBA) commissioner Adam Silver banned Mr. Sterling for life and forced him to sell the team.

Then in September Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson revealed that he’d sent e-mails implying white fans were more valuable than black ones. He says he’s selling his majority stake in the team.

At least in the NBA things happened quickly. The National Football League kind of muddled around. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell faced tough criticism in 2014 for the league’s handling of domestic abuse allegations. Consider the Ray Rice case: The now former Baltimore Ravens running back initially received only a two-game suspension after admitting he’d knocked out his fiancée in a casino elevator.

After shocking video surfaced of Mr. Rice actually throwing the punch, Mr. Goodell hastily banned Rice indefinitely. An arbitrator later overturned the decision, saying it was “an abuse of discretion,” since Rice had never misrepresented what happened in the incident.

Trying to recover from this self-inflicted sacking, the league in December unveiled a new domestic abuse policy that includes many reforms embraced by forward-thinking employers, the Monitor’s Harry Bruinius wrote.

“League owners endorsed a policy that includes clearer guidelines, funds for counseling, expanded services for victims and violators, and – perhaps most significantly, experts say – a new special counsel for investigations and conduct,” wrote Mr. Bruinius.