In my last post, I dedicated my publication to one of the stars that the NBA boasts presently: Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook.

The injury bug targeted Thunder superstar forward Kevin Durant, who suffered a Jones fracture in his right foot.

Due to the injury, Durant will be out of commission until late November, possibly December-missing a month's worth of NBA action.

My last post was about what I expect Westbrook to display because of the opportunity that revealed itself with Durant's current predicament.

I talked about how Westbrook would have the responsibility of sustaining success with the Thunder until Durant was cleared to return to the floor.

Now, Westbrook will not have that opportunity.

Westbrook suffered a small split in the second metacarpal of his right hand when he collided with his teammate, Kendrick Perkins, going for a rebound in Thursday's game against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Now he's hurt.

Westbrook will be sidelined for the next four weeks and has had successful surgery to repair the broken bone in his right hand which took place on Saturday.

You just couldn't take it easy could you?

You were so excited to do it all by yourself.

That's why we were excited to tune in because we knew we would be provided with watching the entirety of Westbrook's game.

What led to his injury is what makes him great.

It would've been exciting to see the 1-on-1 point guard match-ups that would test Westbrook's decision making without having the best security blanket of Durant's presence to lean on to when he makes mistakes.

What's left of the Thunder is a young group of players who have no-one else but themselves to look to with each win and expected losses in the Western Conference.

This will give Thunder GM Sam Presti the chance to re-evaluate everybody, including head coach Scott Brooks.

With both Durant and Westbrook injured, if Brooks can pull off a Tom Thibodeau (Chicago Bulls Head Coach), and keep the Thunder stable until the cavalry arrives then his job should be safe.

With Durant and Westbrook out, it gives us viewers the opportunity to observe forward Perry Jones. He was the 28th pick of the 2012 draft, projected as a lottery pick that I was high on coming out of Baylor because of his ability to put the ball on the floor at 6'11.

Serge Ibaka's touches will increase which should allow him to continue the upward trend of his offensive game.

And, then there is Brooklyn's own Sebastian Telfair. He should receive the minutes required to prove that he is here to stay. Telfair is back after a year in China and no longer the phenom, now 29 years-old and hopefully wiser.

What's intriguing is that the remaining players on the Thunder's roster seem to be eager to show the world that Westbrook and Durant aren't the only players on the Thunder that can play.

Hopefully, they will get that chance, meanwhile, stars sell and Westbrook's injury diminishes the Thunder's stock.

The Oklahoma City fans are wonderful and will stick by this group.

Westbrook's injury highlights the biggest threat to the NBA and something they have no autonomy over: the health of its stars.

WATCH VIDEO: What's The 411Sports Discuss Chris Paul Boycott Strategy

The What's The 411Sports team discuss Chris Paul's position that he is prepared to boycott if Donald Sterling is still the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers when the 2014-15 NBA season starts.

What's The 411Sports host, Bianca Peart, thinks Chris Paul is full of hot air. Paul had his chance to boycott when it made better sense, but he didn't. Now, the Donald Sterling reign over the Los Angeles Clippers will be over using the Chris Paul time-frame. Consequently, there will be no need to boycott.

COMMENTARY

Now that some of the dust has settled following the NBA press conference and the Clippers victory, I'd like to offer a few thoughts on the recent revelations regarding the racist declarations and unfortunate history of discrimination by LA Clippers owner, Donald Sterling and the varied responses to them.

First, what is most important and unfortunately, always under-reported when these racially charged events arise, is the connection this particular revelation has to the broader cultural context of institutional racism and plutocrat entrenchment evidenced in the real time decision by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) last week that upheld the ban on affirmative action at the University of Michigan. The SCOTUS made this ruling while "legacy" for the rich and elite never gets touched and it also equated money to speech with the Citizens United decision.

Other issues with broader racial cultural context include: the vote on unionizing the student athletes at Northwestern University initiated by their black QB; the settlement paid by EA Sports to college football players after years of using their likeness for huge video game profits; recent election voter suppression efforts and the assault on the Voting Rights Act on its 50th anniversary; the difficulty in securing equal pay for women and by extension, blacks & Latinos; the obstacles to raising the minimum wage and fight against unions; the impediments to the President of the United States (POTUS) and Attorney General's efforts to roll back mandatory prison sentences against non-violent drug offenders; the NFL's effort to legislate the N-word out of pro football after the Incognito vs Martin texting/bullying scandal; Riley Cooper's N-word outburst; Clive Bundy's rants about blacks and slavery; Paula Deen's racist comments; the beliefs that Mitt Romney holds that corporations are people and that 47% of Americans are freeloading, non-taxpayers that don't assume responsibility for their lives and are dependent on the government; and the continuing persecution of our first black POTUS by the right and Republicans.

Unfortunately, the list goes on and on. Occupy Wall Street, try Occupy NBA...NFL...MLB, you get the idea.
The thread that stitches all of these events together is the growing disparity between the 1% super affluent and the 99% middle and working class and poor and how race has historically been exploited to maintain the divide, increase power (economic & political) and a perpetual cheap labor underclass. Sterling represents all of these dynamics as Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor painstakingly recounted in his wrongful termination suit, "he wanted the Clippers team to be composed of poor black boys from the South, with a white head coach."

This is echoed in the comments Sterling made to his mistress, "I support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. Who gives it to them? As the New Yorker's Ben Greenman wrote on Twitter "It's not just Donald Sterling's ignorance that's the problem. It's the decades that ignorance has been tolerated because of wealth."

As far as what the NBA presented yesterday, while I don't share the euphoria that many expressed, including all past and present players, and Clipper fans, I'll credit the Commissioner with doing the minimum he had to do, given the global implications and urgency of enforcing some tangible punishment that would help stabilize the crisis and minimize advertiser and fan defections in the middle of their premier showcase, the PLAYOFFS. Timing is everything and I can only imagine if this recording showed up in July instead of April, during what most have observed as some of the best first round playoff basketball they can remember.

Crickets!

The massive assembled press, of at least 200 waited anxiously, leaning forward every time the podium door cracked open and after a prolonged delay, Silver emerged with all the stress of this first nightmare for his administration, etched on his bespectacled face. He expressed that he was outraged and distraught and said Donald Sterling is banned for life from the Clippers and the NBA. But he also curiously admitted during the Q&A, that Sterling's history of well documented bigotry had no influence in determining the lifetime ban but the owners will include his public record of lawsuits and shameful prejudicial behavior and comments as part of their review in casting their vote to force the sale of the Clippers. Silver must have gone to the Chris Christie School of Incredulous Press Conferences, please.

Silver said he was "shocked" when he first heard the audio file and wished the audio recording was not Sterling or had been doctored and I could only conclude, that again, he appears to want to protect Donald Sterling and would assume David Stern felt the same when earlier allegations and lawsuits were filed. For Silver to say he was shocked either makes him exceedingly naïve, incompetent, or a fantastic liar only interested in maintaining the status quo and all of these are unacceptable. As written in an article for CBS Sports, Gregg Doyle makes it plain, 'Sterling's awful statements made it clear he considers African Americans beneath him and it didn't surprise anybody." Maybe if there was a black Commissioner or at least some C-Suite level blacks at the NBA, maybe there would be more sensitivity to actual discrimination that could be checked at the source early on.

"There's plenty of blame to go around. It's not only the NBA that allowed Donald Sterling to be Donald Sterling though. We did it, we accepted him. Hell, we enabled him. Every ticket you bought put money in his pocket. Every jersey you paid for. Every game that came and went without a protest outside Staple Center, by fans of the NBA, of basketball, of simple human decency. You allowed this.
Every column we never wrote, begging the NBA to rid itself of the canker sore that owns the other franchise in LA. I accepted this. Every contract an NBA player and coach signed with Sterling, they enabled this."

Just as the Dow Jones winning corporations, media and by extension government lobbyist and the elected officials they control, didn't want to acknowledge or respond, except by police force, to Occupy Wall Street, so did the NBA wait until the last minute.

Going forward, fans, players, coaches, advertisers, sponsors, and guardians of the game at the Commissioner's level must not ignore the signals. We all must be well-informed, courageous, and vigilant about addressing all inequities when confronted or known. If necessary, we must protest, direct our dollars, support firms or organizations that value our community in order to make substantive progress. We draw the line in the sand here, no one-- owners, commissioners, or the so-called entitled is above scrutiny or sanctions.

Lastly (for now), I think Adam Silver owes Elgin Baylor a long overdue apology, just saying.

This commentary is the opinion of Glenn Gilliam and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of What's The 411 Networks

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Ahead of the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's decision about Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, What's The 411SportsTV hosts Bianca Peart and Glenn Gilliam discuss the despicable and reprehensible comments made by Donald Sterling.

View Video: What's The 411SportsTV Discussion about Donald Sterling