factor, and ending the week of the owner of an nba team saying some of the most racist things on tape. we need to stop being cowards and deal with the underlying problems, rather than just reacting when we have flames on top. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. >> b ball free fall. let's play "hardball." a. >> good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york and back from china. let me start with the explosive words being attributed to the owner of the l.a. clip percent .he didn't want his girl friend to be publicly associating with african-americans, even while he made his living with a team filled with african-americans. and his girlfriend with was herself a minority.

it was all about usefulness, apparently. the players made him money and the girl friend was useful in other ways. if it was him on the tape tape what he had no use for was black people who couldn't play basketball or offering him lovely accommodating companionship. we look at how and why this man donald sterling, billionaire owner of the l.a. clippers got himself tape recorded in the worst such case of verbal self-destruction since mitt romney's 47% debacle. or going back further, to richard nixon. let's try to see this case for what it is. but also where it fits into history of race relations in this country and more particularly, the world of comments people make that get recorded and ripped ascab from what is increasingly i think a healthy attitude in this country. especially among the young. if possible tonight, we can chart where this particular episode will take us. is donald sterling dead as an nba owner? is he really? let's get to that one right now. kareem abdul-jabbar is the

all-time scoring leader in nba history. he was inducted into the basketball hall of fame in 1995. same amick covers "usa today." tmz posted a tape that they say is donald steriling. it hasn't been authenticated but sterling has not denied it's him. a statement from the clipper's president says steriling is emphatic that what's on the tape is not consistent with his views. but let's listen to the stay. >> people call you and say that i have black people on my instagram and it bothers you. >> yeah, it bothers me a lot. if you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people, your whole life, every day, you can do whatever you want, sleep with them, bring them in, do whatever you want. the little i ask you is not to promote it and not to bring them to my games.

>> and we'll have more from that later. but here's more of it now. >> do you know that you have a whole team that's black, that plays for you? >> you just -- do i know? i support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. who gives it to them? does someone else give it to them. do i know that i have -- who makes the game? do i make the game or do they make the game? >> wow. kareem-jabbar it's great to have you on tonight. what do we make of this? was this guy's reputation somewhat less than steriling to begin with? >> it was a lotless than sterling, chris. you should look at the suit that was filed against him by the federal government that alleged his discrimination against black and hispanic tenants, would-be

tenants that wanted to rent some of his properties. he didn't want to rent to people with little children. he said things in deposition about the fact that black people smell bad and create vermin in places that they live. he's said some very despicable ugly things about minorities. it has no place in our country where we are supposed to be a place of equality and equal opportunity. >> sam what's been the reporting on this fellow before last friday night before this story broke this tape got out? >> well, as kareem knows, this is not a new thing when it comes to this owner and his reputation. i think that's the frustration within the nba community is the idea that something should have been done sooner. we have a court record in the past, we have countless anecdotes between players, coaches and the like that donald sterling saw the world a certain way. the nba never had the ability, they say, to do something about the it.

his name was mud before, but never like this. and more importantly, the player community was not as aware of it certainly as they are now. and now we're going to see the ripple effects. >> donald sterling does not come to this current controversy as a blank slate by any means. he's been party to lawsuits involving race before. in 2009, sterling paid nearly $3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the u.s. justice department accusing him of systematically driving african-americans and latinos out of apartment buildings he owned. at that time it was the largest housing discrimination lawsuit ever. in a separate 2009 lawsuit case sterling buzz sued. he said sterling employees refused repairs to black tenants and frequently threatened to evict them. sterling paid an undisclosed sum to settle that one. and sterling was sued by former clippers general manager the great elgin baylor whose original suit based on age and race accused sterling of envisioning a southern

plantation-type structure for the clipper themselves. the race was dropped for a jury, but baylor will be our next guest tonight in the following segment. kareem, you know, everybody is going to want to hear what you have to say ant race and the history of the nba as the greatest player ever certainly by the numbers. personally as a holy cross grad remember way back when you gave that first interview to schwa z schwartz, how it used the n-word at you at halftime to try to rouse you up. you've been through all of this. put it in perspective. i think that the nba has done a great job to try to affect change. i played for the milwaukee bucks as a rookie. they were the first team to hire a black gm. someone in the office that had power and responsibilities. and throughout my whole career at the nba, they kept opening up doors. that's been the history of the

nba. and sports in general has been a great opportunity for people to step forward and make change. i think jesse owens after the 1936 olympics. i think of jackie robinson integrating baseball. and now we have this ugly, horrible thing that mr. sterling has said about any number of minority people. there's no place for this in the nba. we do believe in equality and equal opportunity and we approved it. and i think that if the nba deals with this in very quick and forthright manner, they will continue to have some credibility. >> how do you see him as a guy he obviously associates himself with employees or heroes as his team. he's got a girlfriend, i guess you would call her, who is a minority. and yeah, he doesn't want -- in this weird recording he doesn't want her publicly seen with

these fellows like magic. how do you see this very -- it's sort of a strange variant on race. what would you call it? is it patronizing? plantation -- >> it's the plantation model, chris. you have -- in the plantation, you had men from africa making money for cotton growers. you had women from africa being sexually exploited by cotton growers and the whole time the cotton growers looked down on these people with contempt as their inferiors. mr. sterling has really adopted that as his methodology. that's how he treats the people around him. and it's so unfortunate. we have to take several steps away from this guy. >> let me ask sam about this from a sports writer perspective, you know, we see the nba, the best stars for years now have been african-americans with a few exceptions from eastern europe. it's really been a domination in terms of talent. it's one of the true

ameritocacies on the planet where the best players get to play. how do we put it on that, admiral effort over time to advance opportunities to met of color. >> they are aggressive. they've gone in the right direction. this is the only thing, this owner holding them back at this point in time. i can tell you from my own perspective covering that team, a pretty healthy amount, you see donald sterling talking to players like jamal crawford. i remember one time jamal scored 30 points, donald came up to him and i never liked the way he looked at him. he said i want to give you a lifetime contract. you're incredible, you're amazing. he would admire their talents, but clearly looked at them in a different way. you served a purpose for him and once you got off the court, things were different. >> when you fist started to

mention the jack donahue thing and the way coaches play players and the way they yell during the game and what they say during halftime. has there been any development there? has it basically been good from the beginning? how would you describe it in the nba for example? >> in the nba, i don't see where people come out and just do blatantly racist offensive stipg things to to each other. coach donahue got angry at me for being lazy. he did i haefinitely wasn't a r. it was a momentary slip. but this thing with mr. sterling has gone on for decades. it's horrible. there was a coach here, kim hughes, he got cancer. he needed surgery. mr. sterling would not cover him on the team policy. he had to borrow money.

i think three of the players covered the coach's cost for his cancer surgery. and if it were not for that, he would have been hung out to dry. >>' he's not giving capitalism a good name. it sounds like he's not a good human being the way he's treatth treated his tenant, thrown them out of the build, the way he's treated the gentleman you just mentioned, kareem. >> i think it's the only black eye on david stern's tenure. david retires a few months ago. we just celebrated everything that david accomplished in the

nba and the list of accomplishments is tremendous. this is the only [ eye because we have known this for a long time. >> who wins this? sterling or sober? >> i think adam needs help from the owners. >> kareem? >> iejs it's going to be tough to discipline him because he owns the team. they have to figure out some way to discipline him and let the world know we're not going to tolerate this and do everything we can to represent the way america should be represented. >> apparently you don't have much confidence in not having another citizens united decision here. from the supreme court. anyway, thank you, kareem abdul-jabb abdul-jabbar. the highest scorer in the history of the nba. thank you for joining us. coming up, a former nba all-star and politician who's seen the nba grow from an also-ran league

back in the '60s to what it is today. and knows firsthand what african-american players have faced in the league and grew increasingly dominated by black athletes. also, if there is a silver lining it's the negative reaction to sterling's comments that made it clear this kind of behavior, and you've got to think of it this way, is no longer tolerable in america. and a new report says only 19% of what tea party groups have spent cycle on candidates actually goes to candidates. we'll see that. the rest goes to tea party me mebs on their families. they're making out pretty well with consulting fees. one of the activists? this fop list movement issic maing $450,000 a year. that's $50,000 a year more than the president. the if the they don't like, that's president obama. finally, before we knew about sterling there was clive bundy and the welfare cattle rancher. he's red meat for bill mahrer. ♪

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>> welcome back to "hardball." more now on the comments

attributed to nba owner dobld sterling. some of the african-american players are stepping out with their shock. michael jordan put out this statement. as an owner, i'm obviously disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views. as a former player, i'm completely outraged. magic johnson, a legendary los angeles laker is pressing steriling to give up ownership of the team. and yahoo sports is reporting now that johnson is interested in buying the franchise himself. here's johnson on espn yesterday. >> he shouldn't own a team anymore. and he should stand up and say i don't want to own a team anymore. especially when you have african-americans renting his apartments, coming to the games, and playing for him and coaching for him. this is bad for everybody. it's bad for mirk. america. i'm really upset about it. >> sterling has a long legal

history of dealing with allegations relating to bigotry and racism. they include a wrongful termination lawsuit brought by former clippers general manager elgin baylor, great player himself who in 2009 alleged that sterling had a vision of a southern plantation-type structure of the team. a jury ruled in sterling's favor in 2011, but as we've now seen the legal battles facing sterling could be far from over. joining us right now to look at how we got here and where this is likely to go. i'm joined by a hall of faker who has been honored as one of the 50 greatest players in nba history. also mayor of tries twice elected. and karl douglas who represented baylor. i don't know if you heard the earlier conversation with kareem abdul-jabb abdul-jabbar, but i wanted to get your sense of your personal experience with race in the nba. >> well, as far as players are

concerned. we didn't have many issues. i think the players got along, we respected each other. i mean, it was a family. we never got to know the owners very well. and now that the league has expandeds to the extent that it has. and the game has become such a big business, players and owners get to know each other and interact. but, you know, the racism that i saw in the league was provided by fans. not so much general managers or people within the administration. and surely not the owners. but i think this is a blessing in disguise. because this guy has been lied hiding for a long time with the kind of feelings that he has about african-americans and maybe minorities. and now that it's out, other people will have to stand up and make sure that this is not going to happen again. the owners and the league has to take a strong stand against him. >> two points. you know, one of the weird things about the nba is when you watch the championship game,

usually the seventh game of the final series, the players stand back and some little owner comes out and receives the award. i always thought that was unlike any other sport where the owner gets to get the academy award when he's not been in the field. is that weird? when the owner gets to be the star? >> i guess, because he's signing the paychecks, h ecan kind of do what he wants to do. and the owners, and the lead leadership are, you know, they work very close together. it is a player's league. and i'm so proud of the players that are standing up and coming out against this. i think that there's unanimity across the board across all of us. we are really disgusted with this. and now we rooe got to make some changes that need to be made. >> you made a point b about the fans. i grew new this country. the cat calls, we all know the crap that goes on, people have a few drinks in a game. but wasn't it kind of a great

thing that when the league became heavily african-american in the last 20 or 30 year, the fan base grew. is there any evidence that people were turned off by the success of the efforts by so many african-american players to dominate the positions? >> no, i don't think fans were turned off at all. people who pay money want tor entertained. because of that a lot of guys have become stars over the years in the nba but i don't think it was detrimental to the fan base at all. the fan base grew, people appreciated the skills and the talents that the african-americans brought to the league and the league benefited from that. so now that we have one of our owners saying and doing and acting the way he is, it's really -- i think it's up to the other owners and the leadership within the league itself to take a stand and make a position. >> let me bring in carl douglas,

a lawyer and an attorney. he got involved actually as a management guy in his tussle with this guy, sterling. what did you learn about sterling the person when you were in this legal fight? >> i learned that he was defiant and angry in his denials of racism. i had a chance over the course of five or six different sessions, a total of more than 20 different hours to ask this man questions. to sit across a table from him while he was under oath, peppers him with questions about allegations of racism that date back into the early '80s. so i was not surprised one bit when i heard those disgusting tapes.

have you ever heard word like that. i have a minority girlfriend, i have african-americans working for me, but i'm the big boss, the big house and that's the attitude of the slaves or whatever he was thinking they were. did you hear words like that on this taped conversation or not? >> i heard allegations from my client elgin baylor that he spoke of always wanting a process where a southern white coach would be coaching these young black players. i remember allegations early in the '80s wh enhe spoke to a first-round draft pick and said, that's an awful lot of money far poor black kid. you better take that money. i remember hearing allegations, he would bring women into the locker rooms and admire the black bodies of his athletes as they came from the shower. so these allegations against him were all too reminiscent of the things that i had heard that go

back 20, even 30 years or more. >> sounds like he's got a whole plethora of problems, the way you describe it, carl. what do you make of the legal situation he's in now. do you think he can get cashiered out of this league by any legal means at this point? or is it all going to be market forces at this point? harold ford said it's going to have to be market forces, these brand names that are going to pull their sponsorship from the team. it's going to have to be that kind of thing that jars this thing loose. >> well, chris, i've come to learn that the only color that donald sterling cares about is the color green. so all fair minded clipper fans who are outraged like i am have to speak with their pocketbooks. i love the coach doc rivers. chris paul is one of my most favorite basketball players of

all time. but i will joan and stand with magic johnson and never again step foot into the staples center so long as donald sterling is an owner. and what has to happen really? there are only 29 people on this earth that will be able to influence donald sterling. he's a billionaire. a fine of $1 million or even $10 million would be pittance to hem. but rather, the 29 owners getting together collectively would be able to influence him into giving up his franchise and then walking away a very rich man. >> let me get back to david biggs. thank you for being on, especially you. >> what do you think will happen here? do you think there's any chances that the forces of humanity will prevail here? or will it be dollars and the sponsors? maybe they'll be working together. >> i think they need to work

together, no doubt in my mind about that. but i think once again, the other owners in the league are really going to have to step up. because it's a very small community of owners, of professional sports. and i don't think any of them want to be associated with somebody who thinks like this, who feels like that. it's going to be market driven. a fine for whatever the amount is going to be is going to be a pittance. because here's a guy who's a billionaire or a multibillionaire. i would not want to play for him. and i'm sure a lot of players on that team now don't want to play for him. but it's unfortunate. there's just a small window of opportunity from players on this team. they are a team that could compete for this championship had they not heard of this. it's too bad for players on the team. >> thank you. it's great to have you on.

more on donald sterling ahead, including a false claim about the owner's politics from rush limbaugh. do you believe he made a mistake again? you probably know xerox as the company that's all about printing. but did you know we also support hospitals using electronic health records for more than 30 million patients? or that our software helps over 20 million smartphone users remotely configure e-mail every month? or how about processing nearly $5 billion in electronic toll payments a year? in fact, today's xerox is working in surprising ways

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>> sterling was upset after she posted an instagram photo with her and magic johnson. >> wow, that is genuinely shocking. an 80-year-old man knows about instagram. but i'm sure heel win his way back into everyone's good graces. who can stay mad at that racist face? >> that was john oliver talking about donald sterling on the debut of his hbo show last week tonight. but rush limbaugh has found a

way to politicize this uproar. >> the guy is a big democrat. the only reason he's in trouble right now is he did not give enough money to obama. >> great research. since rush limbo chose to do so, he ought to get it right. sterling is, in fact, a registered republican. of course, sterling's racist rant is the second of his kind and received national attention in less than a week. it comes off similar remarks to cliven bundy. but if conservatives would rather forget their crusade for bundy, it's unlikely bill maher is going to late them. >> he said they were better off perhaps as slaves picking cotton. so all the conservatives who for the last few weeks who have been lie onizing this guy had to

backtrack. they say they no longer consider him a patriot hero. they consider him the front run fer the republican nomination in 2016. up next, the one good thing that's come out of the donald sterling mess. you're watching "hardball" a place for politics. tall the building is, or how ornate the halls are. it doesn't matter if there are granite statues, or big mahogany desks. when working with an investment firm, what's really important is whether the people behind the desks actually stand behind what they say. introducing the schwab accountability guarantee.

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>> the condemnation of donald sterling came quickly inpseudoing the sports business and political worlds. even the president weighed in when asked. >> when ignorant folks want to advertise their ig grans, you don't have to do anything. you just let them talk and that's what happened here. i think we just have to be clear and steady in edenouncing it, eaching our kirn children differently, but also remaining hopeful that part of why some statements like this stand out so much is because there has been a shift in how we view ourselves. is the president right in his hopefulness? many senators expressed outrage.

>> innocent until proven guilty, but if it's true, i don't think he has a place or a role in the nba. and folks, the owners are going to have to step up. >> in our country, we have a first amendment that allows ignorant racists to say whatever they want to say. however, i hope the nba takes swift action against this man. i can't imagine how it must feel to be one of african-americans play on his team, how they must feel today. knowing that the owner of the team is obviously such an ignorant racist. >> it's just outrageous in 2014 that comments like these are being made. i thought the president's response was appropriate, and i don't know what else to add to it. it's beyond belief. >> tapes of the nevada rampbler, cliven bundy making racist comments about african-americans can came out. many of his former backers on the right, quickly and publicly rebuked bundy.

as you heard the president refer to a shift in our views that made these comments stand out. and others said it's no longer acceptable for mainstream flicks and leaders to write off racist talk as a vestige of a different generation or culture as they may once have. david james peterson is the director of africana studies at lehigh. both are msnbc contributors. and thereby entitled to a difference of opinion. i've been learning about them. professor peterson, is this the strange eye of the current, or is this the norm, the commentaries coming in these tape recordings attributed to donald steriling? >> this for me, chris, this is more than norm. it's still infuriating to kind of hear this. but when we put this into the context of the scotus decision last week cigling they don't believe racism really exists in

terms of hiring and admission practices. you put it in the context of cliven bundy. then the history of donald sterling, the guy responsible for the largest settlement in any housing discrimination case against blacks and latin knows. he's essentially a slum lord. and all the bad behavior antics we've been hearing about in the media with this man, it seems clear to me we've got to focus on the institutional racism and focus less on the sensational things. but i don't think we've passed some point in our history where it's not important to address these things head on and thing about the systematic of this. >> let's look at this thing relatively. how are we doing in the last 30, 40 years that you' been watching and observing. has this countkoucountry improv hasn't it? >> there's been some

improvement, but unfortunately we emphasize too much of the symbolic nature of some of these improvements and instead of the institutional exchange here. at the end of the day, we look across all the institutions in america, criminal justice, hiring and firing, lending practices, housing discrimination, education. all of these things have racial gaps. so we have to look at the systems. we can pat ourselves on the backs for the progress, but we have to keep it moving because there's still a lot more work to be done. >> do you agree with what you just heard? >> i do, chris. >> i thought you would disagree. >> i disagree with most of what james just said. institutional racism is a huge problem in the country. i think we should work on that, too. at the same time, i do think that universal condemnation of sterling and bundy has received is important itself. i don't think it's something we need to passover. not just al sharpton, but the president, bill simmons, ernie johnson who runs the basketball programs on tnt. the condemnation is significant

for sterling and for bundy. we're writing comments like that out of public life. and that is really important in and of itself. a few years ago, you could imagine, there was an owner named marty schott. me made a lot of comments. now there's a possibility donald sterile willing not own an nba team next year. the condemnation has been universal, strong, unequivocal and that's significant. >> same question, do you think the conversation whites have among themselves when there aren't any blacks present has changed dramatically in the last 20 or 30 years? or it's the same. i want to know what you think. >> we don't know -- >> what's your sense? >> my sense is it's changed a lot. it's not where i want it to be. i agree with james. i think there are probably more people saying these kinds of things. like donald sterling said than i would like them to. there's all kinds of studies

suggesting that there's more racism in private than in public in america. it's hard to be hired if your name is is a certain thing. >> let me compare that with what james thinks. do you think private conversations among whites has changed in the last 30 years dramatically? >> i don't care what whites think. >> i'm asking you a question. i want to know abanswer. i just want the comment. >> my commentary is i don't care what white people say privately. i just care about systematic institutional racism. i still want the players for the clippers to step up. i think it's an opportunity for them to boycott this home game coming up tomorrow. i think there's more to do to draw attention to this. but i'm only cob certained about systemic racism. >> we're talking about the sterling case, which is about words spoken on a tape recorder. do you think they're typical. >> for me it's more important that he discriminated against hundreds of people in the

housing community than what he said about magic johnson. that's my own personal belief about this situation. >> i would say private comments are important. we know that private views and gay rights has changed. the private conversations people are having have changed. and it affects the public life as well. interracial marriage, for instance, that's a private decision that will affect public policy later on. >> okay. well, we have different views here. thank you so much. maybe different perspectives. i think that's fair. thank you for joining us. for all kinds of reasons. i go to angie's list to gauge whether or not the projects will be done in a timely fashion and within budget. angie's list members can tell you which provider is the best in town. you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare. now that we're expecting, i like the fact i can go onto angie's list and look for pediatricians. the service providers that i've found on angie's list actually have blown me away. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust.

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consultants and lavish incomes for the tea party leaders themselves. one tea party leader, her twin salaries put her on track to make more than $450,000 this year, a dramatic change in lifestyle for the tea party activist who filed for bankruptcy in 2008. and then clean the homes to bring in extra money. talk about this because it doesn't sound like they've replicated the very charges against washington. too much gets wasted, too little gets done. >> that's why i think these numbers are so staggering. we found of the six major tea party pacs that said they're going to engage in this year's midterm election, they've only spent a fraction of the $37 million that they've put out so far actually on helping the

candidates, either through ads or the campaigns. instead, half the money has gone to fundraising, direct male firms. and there's hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees with to the leaders of these groups for consulting fees. so jenny beth martin, as you noted, is paying herself $15,000 a month for strategic consulting for the pac. >> and she's making more than obama. which is quite ironic, i would say, given their target is obama. howard, this reminds me of what we used to do with big fund-raising operations, even some name brands when you find out later the money never got to the ultimate recipient, the person who's in need. but to the administration itself of the organization. >> well, chris, this is almost a parody in that as you pointed out the tea party grassroots people, the real ones from a few years ago that were lit on fire by obamacare and so forth back in 2010, those people railed

against the consultants and the party power structure in washington and the k street republicans and all that. here they are, as soon as they have a chance, imitating the very people they were attacking. and the practical effects of it are real. kentucky, the state i'm following closely because i used to be a reporter there, there's a tea party candidate in the primary, republican primary on may 20th. matt bevin. he's got a lot of problems politically. but one of his problems is he doesn't have enough money. he's spending some of his own money but he's not getting the tea party support that he was promised, including by the organizations that matea wrote about and he's probably going to get hammered in that primary. >> what percentage is going to the candidates of the money they collect, roughly? >> three of the best-known groups of the tea party patriots, tea party express and the madison project which very prominently endorsed candidates has spent 5% or less of their funds actually directly helping those candidates. i spoke to a lot of donors who

were bewildered by this. they're giving money, writing out small donations, thinking they're helping these candidates. >> will they be shocked? if they read the paper, it will go viral, your piece, they'll realize it went to administrative expenses, consult aenss and sometimes the top leaders themselves. is this going to appall them or will they say i thought this is what's happening. what do you think the reaction will be? have you gotten any so far to your piece, to your reporting? >> sure. we've gotten a lot. a lot of folks feel very betrayed. a lot of folks suspected something was wrong and some people actually were pretty entrepreneurial and had been looking at reports themselves and some are saying they'll just give their money directly to the candidates themselves. others don't want to believe the worst. leaders like jenny beth martin are incredibly prominent in the movement. there was a lot of a sense of,

well, i have faith in her and i'm sure she knows what she's doing. there's a vigorous debate going on right now among folks who identify with the tea party movement about the best use of their resources. >> howard, will this be a stink? >> oh, i think so. because i think after the primary season here, you've got several republican tea party challengers in these senatorial primaries and elsewhere. they're going to look around after they get blown out and say what the heck happened? kentucky is a good example. what i put this down to, chris, you can have a genuine grassroots movement or you can have big party machinery. you can't imitate and create a fake grassroots movement. and that's the way it feels right now. >> thank you, matea, for that great piece. howard fineman, thank you as always. when we return, let me finish with what i learned on my ten-day trip to china. and that's epic, bro, we've forgotten just how good good is.

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let me finish tonight with my trip to china. here in new york what we proudly call the big apple there are 8 million people. in china there are eight cities as big as new york. a city i never heard of has 13 million, beijing, the capital, 18 million, shanghai, 23 million. the country has 20 cities as big as los angeles, 20. nearly 50 as large as my hometown of philadelphia. kathleen and i spent time in the resort town, china's version of

lake george up in new york. even it had 6.5 million people. these cities are not what you think, however. yes, there's a lot of drab buildings and entangled congested highways but even beijing has its lakeside neighborhoods like a grander chicago, an architect's delight. i say that as one who loves chicago. it's got a skyline that's gone up in just 4 years. five miles are still there of the old french part of town, block after block where you'd think you were somewhere in france itself. guess what, the chinese love it all. in all the big cities you see designer billboards for products from europe. it's as continental as the show piece ads here in midtown new york. i get the idea the chinese consumer likes their hamburgers from mcdonald's, their chicken and french fries from kfc, their java from starbucks but their notions of style are purp european and continental, just like us. there's a lot of booming confidence in their country over there. i can see why. the construction doesn't even

stop on weekends. if you figure we reach full size on age 18, i'd say china is about 5 years old and growing. it's nowhere near where it's going to end up and that's not many years off from now. a couple of things surprised me. it's called a communist country but there's nothing like the universal safety net like we have for senior sittens. no social security, no medication, just whatever a village provides. there was a sunny serenity in the parts i visited. nothing like what i saw behind the old iron curtain in europe in the months before the berlin wall came down. there are no civil rights. the government does what it wishes, people put up with it. one thing we have to know, the government and the people agree on one issue, china itself. they want china to have all of china. all of what they see is historically china's. this is something we'll have to deal with and deal smartly with when we do. it's not just the government of the people's republic who are sensitive on this issue of national territory, it's the people of china themselves.

the one reaction i experienced in my ten days in today's china, respect. i had profound respect for what this country has done with itself in such an incredibly short time. it's only just begun. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. the national basketball association is promising an announcement tomorrow afternoon in its investigation into donald sterling, the owner of the nba's los angeles clippers. this after an audio recording was made public in which a man, alleged to be sterling, is heard saying some, well, really jaw-droppingly racist stuff. since the audio was released friday night, corporate sponsors have been rushing to sever or suspend their ties in the team. donald sterling's own public record has come under new skrut knee as a scandal becomes a