LA Clippers Owner Donald Sterling under fire for taped racist comments to GF

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

He shouldn't be forced to do anything.  He owns the team.  If he gets hit financially, it may be advantageous for him to sell the team, but I doubt there'll be any mass boycotts.  I don't see sports fans going on any sort of massive boycott, and most people will have forgotten about this in a week.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

He shouldn't be forced to do anything.  He owns the team.  If he gets hit financially, it may be advantageous for him to sell the team, but I doubt there'll be any mass boycotts.  I don't see sports fans going on any sort of massive boycott, and most people will have forgotten about this in a week.

Membership of the league for the team isn't a right, through. So, in that way, NBA can force him out if they decide to do so.

Well that depends on what the franchise contract says.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

He shouldn't be forced to do anything.  He owns the team.  If he gets hit financially, it may be advantageous for him to sell the team, but I doubt there'll be any mass boycotts.  I don't see sports fans going on any sort of massive boycott, and most people will have forgotten about this in a week.

Membership of the league for the team isn't a right, through. So, in that way, NBA can force him out if they decide to do so.

Well that depends on what the franchise contract says.

Experts seemed to say than the easiest way to do so would be to just suspend him for an indefinite period, like it can suspend any coach or player.

Before even investigating it?

And does the NBA really want to go down the road of suspending people whenever they make racist remarks?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

He shouldn't be forced to do anything.  He owns the team.  If he gets hit financially, it may be advantageous for him to sell the team, but I doubt there'll be any mass boycotts.  I don't see sports fans going on any sort of massive boycott, and most people will have forgotten about this in a week.

Membership of the league for the team isn't a right, through. So, in that way, NBA can force him out if they decide to do so.

Well that depends on what the franchise contract says.

Experts seemed to say than the easiest way to do so would be to just suspend him for an indefinite period, like it can suspend any coach or player.

Before even investigating it?

And does the NBA really want to go down the road of suspending people whenever they make racist remarks?

No, after the investigation, obviously. But I'm sure there is already studying the options of the NBA should they decide to sanction him.

Most professionnal leagues are suspending players uttering racist remarks, as far as I know. Or fine them. Another issue is than many players are black and the players association isn't happy at all. The new commissionner doesn't want a rocky start with them.

So what would an "indefinite suspension" look like?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Like any suspension, but without an end. It would be like a ban from NBA events.

EDIT: And, more significant, team players seem very angry. They threw the team sweatshirts on the ground during warm-up (doing the warm-up in plain clothes without any words written on) and they wore black socks and armbands during the match.

So he can still own the team, he just can't attend games?  That doesn't seem very harsh.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Like any suspension, but without an end. It would be like a ban from NBA events.

EDIT: And, more significant, team players seem very angry. They threw the team sweatshirts on the ground during warm-up (doing the warm-up in plain clothes without any words written on) and they wore black socks and armbands during the match.

So he can still own the team, he just can't attend games?  That doesn't seem very harsh.

Presumably such a ban would mean he wouldn't be able to vote on anything decided by the owners and would probably limit how much control he has over the day to day management of the club.

And at that point, we're crossing over from a "suspension" to something more serious.  They can call it an indefinite suspension, but it'd be interesting to see what the franchise contract actually says.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

He's banned for life, $2.5 million fine and will be forced to relinquish his shares.

He's banned for life and fined, but where did you hear that he will be forced to sell his shares of the team?

I see this as a bad move by the NBA.  With sponsors dropping and Sterling admitting that the words on the tape were his, it looked as if he was on his way out by his own choice.  By the NBA stepping in, they're setting a precedent here.  Are they going to ban players or anyone for life when they make inflammatory racist statements?  They've opened themselves up to a lot of problems down the road, and I think Mark Cuban made a good point that you need to be careful when dealing with the rights of owners.