Jury rejects Elgin Baylor's wrongful-termination lawsuit

Post #1 » by **mkwest** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:37 pm

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury Wednesday unanimously rejected NBA great Elgin Baylor's wrongful-termination lawsuit against the Clippers.

The seven-man, five-woman jury voted "no" to all of Baylor's claims that the Clippers, owner Donald T. Sterling and team president Andy Roeser oversaw a hostile workplace. Baylor, now 76, alleged he was harassed and subjected to age discrimination leading to his 2008 departure after 22 years as a Clippers executive.

The jury deliberated for less than four hours.

"We just didn't feel the action taken by the Clippers was based on Mr. Baylor's age as much as they felt it was just time to make a change in that position," jury foreman John Casani said. "That team hadn't been performing, and we felt had they been succeeding like the Boston Celtics, he'd still be on the job."

Foreman Casani said there was sentiment among a few jurors to give Baylor some financial award based on sympathy, but the jury concluded he was an at-will employee who reasonably deserved to be let go after the Clippers made the playoffs just four times in his 22 years as an executive.

Lance Pugmire, LA Times

DangerCurtis · Post #2 » by **DangerCurtis** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:13 am

I'm not too surprised by this. I feel for the guy since it's Donald Sterling we're talking about, but for the utmost, I don't see how someone can work for the same organization for 22 years and claim age discrimination, especially in basketball where coaches, players, gms, etc are turned over quite often.

Post #3 » by **thanumba2clippersfan** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:19 am

DangerCurtis wrote:I'm not too surprised by this. I feel for the guy since it's Donald Sterling we're talking about, but for the utmost, I don't see how someone can work for the same organization for 22 years and claim age discrimination, especially in basketball where coaches, players, gms, etc are turned over quite often.

Very true. I think Baylor was lucky to have the same job for 22 years.

Post #4 » by **mkwest** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 2:33 am

After they threw the racial discrimination suit out, it was pretty clear that the age discrimination suit wasn't going to fly. As bad as Sterling was for being a cheapskate, Baylor did not help by drafting so poorly. He lasted through 22 years of ineptitude and every fan was glad when he was finally relieved of his GM duties. I thought that offering him a celebratory position was very for fair for him at the time and would have allowed him the opportunity to bow out on a more graceful note. Of course it was a knock against his ego, but it would have been better than what actually went down.