I’ve always been the type of person to look on the brighter side of life even in the darkest and most depressing situations, and so far that’s worked out pretty well.

It seems to me that right now the NBA could use a little bit of my positivity in light of the current negativity it is dealing with.

On the surface of the Donald Sterling scandal is a racist old man who cheats on his wife and views his players and coaches solely as employees that are there to make him money. Sterling stands at the forefront as a self-involved bigot who just wants to make money, and still will, when he is forced to sell his Los Angeles Clippers.

While the clear loser in all of this craziness is Sterling, several people gained from his loss.

Just behind Sterling in this scandal stands NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

Silver has only been in charge of the NBA since Feb. 1 when he took over for David Stern. It didn’t even take three months for Silver to have to deal with his first big scandal, and he handled it as well as any commissioner could.

Silver held a press conference Saturday on the matter and said the NBA would get to the bottom of this quickly, and the NBA did just that. It only took three days for the NBA to settle on Sterling’s lifetime ban, which is amazing considering MLB commissioner Bud Selig still isn’t sure what to do with all those PED users from the 90s.

When Silver handed down the punishment to Sterling, I doubt the ruling surprised anyone, but people should be impressed with the way he dismissed the issue.

Another group that looked great during this situation are the Clippers themselves.

The players could have boycotted game four of their playoff series games Saturday in protest of Sterling’s harsh words, but they didn’t. They showed up and played because it wasn’t fair to the fans for them to sit out the game. After all, it is the playoffs, and the games are equally as important to the fans as they are the players.

Instead, the Clippers protested in silence by wearing their warm-ups inside out. Maybe it wasn’t the strongest of statements they could have made, but still a statement nonetheless.

Clippers Head Coach Doc Rivers also declined to meet with Sterling before game five. A nice move on Rivers’ part to stand up for what he believes is right and not make a scene while doing it.

The Clippers as a team are focused on basketball, like they should be, which is impressive considering the issues surrounding that organization.

Then, there’s Mark Jackson, the coach of the Golden State Warriors.

On Monday, ahead of game five against the Clippers in L.A., Jackson said Clippers and Warriors fans should boycott the game in protest of Donald Sterling.

Unfortunately for Jackson, the fans still showed up and got to see their Clippers beat the Warriors 113-103 and take the series lead three games to two, but what Jackson did do well was show he is an opportunist.

Jackson saw a chance to make the Staples Center a less raucous environment for his team to play in and jumped at it. It was a clever move on Jackson’s part, but it could have been a genius move if people really didn’t show up.

There are rumors that Jackson may be fired if his Warriors don’t do well in this year’s playoffs. If I were in charge of making that decision, Jackson would earn himself brownie points based solely on this bold statement to the opposing team’s fans.

The biggest winner of all this though has been V. Stiviano, the woman who released the Sterling recording.

I would assume that last week, most Americans had never heard of this woman. Now, she is becoming a household name, or at least, ‘that woman who slept with that racist old man.’

Unfortunately for Stiviano, her stay in the limelight will probably be like these three paragraphs about her: short.

Tony McDaniel can be reached at [email protected], @tonymcdanielDE or at 536-3311 ext. 282