Sterling was forcefully removed as owner of the Clippers on April 29 and was suspended for the rest of his life from attending any NBA games or being associated with the NBA in anyway.

After an appeal hearing decided that Sterling would be forced out, many people thought this dark cloud was over. However, the Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson decided to sell his stock in the team on September 7 because of a 2012 racially insensitive email that surfaced.

In the email, Levenson wrote to other members of his team management that his theory on why the Hawks continuously struggled to sell tickets was because “the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base.” Along with this email, an audio recording of Hawks General Manager Danny Ferry, surfaced where Ferry said that small-forward Loul Deng, “has got some African in him, and I don’t mean that in a bad way.”

Regardless of how Ferry meant it, it is seen as racially insensitive. After their owner stepped down, many people are calling for Ferry’s job as well. The issue of racism is a strong emotional debate that has different opinions left and right. While the Hawks franchise are in a frenzy at the moment the real question remains: should someone be harshly reprimanded for a insensitive private conversation that has found it’s way to the public?

While these incidents may have happened months ago, it can still be debated about whether or not someone should be punished for leaked private information.

21-year-old fourth year student at Moorpark College, Zachary Fishman, gave his opinion on what was happening in the NBA and his response to the question of it being fair or foul.

“Honestly I’m surprised that this didn’t happen sooner and since Sterling had a history of racism behind him so the technology we have now is the only reason it came about to the public,” he said. “And although it was a horrible situation that I don’t support whatsoever, I don’t believe Sterling or the Hawks personal should get in trouble since we have freedom of speech in this country.”

On the other side, many people agreed that how the Sterling situation was handled was correct and it should also bring punishment upon the Hawks to show that none of this will be tolerated at all.

“What happened with Donald Sterling was actually what was needed,” 21-year-old and third-year Moorpark student Ryan Friedman said. “Racism shouldn’t be tolerated in any form and no matter how we find out about it, who ever was responsible should be punished appropriately and that’s exactly what happened.”

In regards to Donald Sterling, Bruce Levenson and Danny Ferry, while they all deserve to be scorned or looked down upon, neither of them deserve any punishment other than the loss of respect and dignity that anyone had for them. They were caught saying harsh and hurtful words during private conversations and that’s just it, they are just words. Sometimes we as society let our emotions get the best of us in a given situation but we also have to remember that no matter what happens, we all have rights, even the person that is under scrutiny.

Nowadays nothing is really “private” because of technology but that doesn’t mean we can take away peoples rights and freedoms because we don’t agree with what they said. We live in a society where every single person has freedom of speech no matter what that free speech is as it says in the First Amendment. How can we possibly punish someone for their right to say whatever they want no matter how insensitive or hurtful their words are? We as a country were founded on that principle and by punishing anyone for saying something that we don’t agree with, it goes against that principle that made this country so great.

Donald Sterling, Bruce Levenson, and Danny Ferry have all caused much sadness and hurt people because of their actions and because of this, it has caused many people to reevaluate the way we see and interpret both people and their ideas. If we as a society stay strong, then people can’t hurt us and as along as we educate and learn from mistakes, then we can never be broken.